You’ll see banks called “First National Bank of X”, or the “First Baptist Church of Y”. A bank or church, with the exact same name, will also exist somewhere else. I live and have traveled all over the US (specifically the Bible Belt) for years now and I’ve noticed this trend.
What gives? Maybe the answer is really obvious and I can’t put it together.
Edit: How come you almost never see the “Second National Bank/Church of X/Y”?
In: Other
I don’t have a comprehensive answer on churches, but I know exactly what happened with banks.
In the US, the concept of a “National Bank” originated in the 1860s. We had banks before that, but they weren’t particularly regulated by the government (or safe). The National Bank Act required the inclusion of the word “National” in the bank name to indicate it was part of the National Banking System.
Often, the first national bank to open in a particular area might call themselves “The First National Bank of Cleveland,” to distinguish themselves from all those other lesser non-National banks. I believe that “Second National Bank of…” was not unheard of (and third and fourth and so on) but in general, as noted earlier, do you want to bank with the SECOND bank? So over time, those tended to go out of business, get bought, or get renamed.
Then, after enough time, it was just kind of a tradition to include “First National” in banking names.
Latest Answers