Confused yet? When it comes to North Carolina, what's in a name?

Locally, we know that Gastonia is in Gaston County. Named for William Gaston, a U.S. representative from North Carolina and member of the state Supreme Court, but where is the town of Gaston, North Carolina? You will find it in Northampton County in the north eastern part of the state.

The Town of Jackson is also located in Northampton County not in Jackson County. Jackson County, named for President Andrew Jackson is part of the Micropolitan Area.of Cullowhee the site of Western Carolina University (WCU).

What about Hendersonville. It's located in Henderson County, (The name Henderson came from Judge Leonard Henderson of Granville County who had passed away in 1833) but the city of Henderson, also named in honor of former North Carolina Supreme Court Chief Justice Leonard Henderson, is located about 40 minutes north of Raleigh in Vance County.

Vance County is adjacent to Warren county where the county seat is Warrenton. Also in Warren county is the town of Macon, named for Nathaniel Macon, long-time Speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives, but Macon County is in the western part of North Carolina.

Asheville, named for Samuel Ashe, is not in Ashe County which is in the northwest part of the state bordered by Virginia and Tennessee, but in Buncombe County.

Back to the central part of the state where we find Greensboro, the city name honors Gen. Nathanael Greene, who led American forces in the Revolutionary War’s Battle of Guilford Courthouse in 1781, which is in Guilford County not Greene County.

Nor is Greenville. also named for Continental Army general, Nathanael Greene, in Green County but it is in Pitt County, 87 miles from the Atlantic Ocean.

We won't find the City of Graham, which is a part of the city of Burlington metropolitian area, in Graham County, named for William A. Graham, United States Senator from North Carolina (1840–1843) and Governor of North Carolina (1845–1849), and is in the far west part of the state, but in Alamance County.

Likewise Wayne County, named for General George Washington's most trusted soldier, General Anthony Wayne, does not contain the town of Waynesville, the largest town in North Carolina west of Asheville, further west in Haywood County, named for John Haywood, who served as the North Carolina State Treasurer from 1787 to 1827.

The City of Lenoir, named for Revolutionary War general and early North Carolina statesman William Lenoir. is in Caldwell County not Lenoir County.

Cleveland, named after Grover Cleveland, who is supposed to have visited the town during his presidential campaign, is a town in the Cleveland Township of Rowan County not in Cleveland.County, named for Benjamin Cleveland, a colonel in the American Revolutionary War, who took part in the Battle of King's Mountain.

There are probably many more puzzling location names throughout the state. For your edification Transiylvania county was not and is not the home of Vlad The Impaler AKA Count Dracula.

I'm confident that visitors to our great state find all this confusing as do many of out North Carolina residents. But their home state probably has the same confusing naming.

This article originally appeared on The Gaston Gazette: The quirks in the names of North Carolina towns and counties.