Should Pierce County change its name?

I think I have hit this point before, but I have spent some more time thinking about it. In case I missed something before, I have decided to revisit this one. Should Pierce County change its name?

Let me start with my general view on name changes. I don't like changing names as a kneejerk reaction to something, but I also don't believe that a place should be saddled with an unsuitable name through the end of time just because of whoever came up with the original name. To put this another way, I am open to name changes as long as we do it the right way.

In the case of Pierce County, we are named after a president who I don't believe ever set foot in this county. I honestly don't think that's a good fit. For that reason, I am certainly open to making a change.

Years ago, King County went through a change. Instead of changing their name, they changed who they claim to be named after. This was not coincidentally replacing an old name with a new name that matches. There was never any discussion about actually changing the name. Simply put, they codified a lie into law as a PR move.

Since William Rufus King, the Vice President under Franklin Pierce, is the reason King County is known as King County, I still say that's who they were named after. To me, this was not the right way to handle it. If we want to rename Pierce County, we need to think about a name that will fit. We do not need to look for another Pierce.

What could we call our county? I actually have an answer that I really like. I can pretty much guarantee there are at least some others who would support my suggestion. It all starts with something basic. A county does not need to be named after a person.

Our county is home to a prominent and beloved mountain peak. We are home to Mt. Rainier. What if we named our county after a landmark that is lovingly thought of as, "the mountain."

It might sound like I'm suggesting Rainier County, but that name actually has some serious problems. My understanding is that Peter Rainier was an admiral who fought against the United States during the Revolutionary War. Although we would be named after the mountain named after the admiral rather than the admiral himself, we should be able to do better. Keep in mind that Mt. Rainier has multiple names.

Before we renamed the mountain, the Native Americans had a name for it. Actually, there are several variants that we can choose from. We could become Tacoma County or Tacobet County. Personally, I like the most commonly used variant. My proposal would be to rename ourselves Tahoma County.

We are living in a change-resistant era. Changing names would likely receive a lot of backlash, especially among those who feel that a name change is too inconvenient. There would even be costs associated with the change. I'm just not convinced that these costs and inconveniences should force us to keep an unfitting name forever. I'm not sure it would be enough, but Tahoma County should be a name that I'm sure others could get behind.