Editing Paducah, Kentucky (section)

===Early history===
[[File:Kentucky - Paducah through St. Matthews - NARA - 23940335 (cropped).jpg|thumb|Paducah in 1933|left]]
{{anchor|Pekin}}
Paducah was first settled as "Pekin" around 1821 by European Americans James and William Pore.<ref name=ren>Rennick, Robert. ''Kentucky Place Names'', [https://books.google.com/books?id=3Lac2FUSj_oC&pg=PA224 p. 224]. University Press of Kentucky (Lexington), 1987. Accessed August 1, 2013.</ref> The town was laid out by explorer and surveyor [[William Clark (explorer)|William Clark]] in 1827 and renamed Paducah.

Although local lore long connected this name to an eponymous [[Chickasaw]] chief "Paduke" and his band of "Paducahs", authorities on the Chickasaw have since said that there was never any chief or tribe of that name, or anything like it. The Chickasaw language does not have related words. Instead, historians believe that Clark named the town for the [[Comanche]] people of the western plains.<ref name=ren/> They were known by regional settlers as the ''Padoucas'', from a Spanish transliteration of the [[Kansa language|Kaw]] word ''Pádoka''<ref>Rankin, Robert. ''[http://www.kawnation.com/WebKanza/LangResources/nglshknzdctnry.pdf English to Kanza Dictionary] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20161011115616/http://www.kawnation.com/WebKanza/LangResources/nglshknzdctnry.pdf |date=October 11, 2016 }}''. "Comanche" & "Paducah". Accessed September 24, 2013.</ref> or the [[Omaha language|Omaha]] ''Pádoⁿka''.<ref>''Omaha & Ponca Digital Dictionary''. "[http://omahaponca.unl.edu/omaha/view/9907 Pádoⁿka]". September 24, 2013.</ref>