Beaches, Palms, Ports and Forts

Lake Worth Beach gets a bad rap. A few weeks ago, I went to Lake Worth Beach to see the street painting festival. Artists come in with chalk and create street art. The restaurants, vibe, and creations are fantastic.

So, why the bad rap? It was ridiculed a few years back for changing their name from Lake Worth to Lake Worth Beach. Some called it Lake Worthless. Others said it wasn’t a lake but a lagoon. Now they want to throw the beach in there!  But how can you blame them?  There are big bucks in the word “BEACH”. And as I’ll explain later, they are hardly alone in annexing the word “beach” to their name.

I remember watching an episode of Anthony Bourdain when he visited Miami. He asked one restauranteur when she last went to the beach. She looked at him and said “It was probably a year and a half ago.  But I like that the beach is there.”

Inland cities don’t have fun names. Cooper City. Green Acres, Watergate (named after Richard Nixon?!?) Nice places I’m sure, but it’s the water landmarks on the coast (sorry, Dick) that you really need to know if you want to consider yourself a true Floridian.

The most popular and bookmarked page on our website is the Community Search Page.   We have over 16,000 communities in South Florida mapped out with statistics, days on market, how many sold over the past three years, and their own write up story. It’s a must for research.  Go there and type in “Coventry” and it will spit out 10 different Coventry’s. Who knew there were so many Coventry’s’?!  Type in your own subdivision at any time to look at the current inventory, listings, and statistics.  It updates every 15 minutes.

But type in “beach” and you have over 200 different subdivisions. Boynton Beach (named after Civil War major, Nathan Boynton) was originally just plain old, Boynton.  They too then added the word Beach, just like Lake Worth. Dania Beach (named after Danish settlers) was also just Dania until 1998 when they jumped on the beach crusade.

So many other beaches. Delray Beach (first named for Mr. Linton, who is now just regulated to an Avenue), Highland Beach, Jensen Beach (named after the Jensen Pineapple Plantation), Juno Beach (Juno and Jupiter named after constellations), Lauderdale Beach, Miami Beach, North Palm Beach, Palm Beach Island (a combo of Beach and Island), Pompano Beach (named after a fish), Riviera Beach (isn’t everything named after the French Riviera), South Palm Beach, Sunny Isles Beach, and Vero Beach.

Planets and mythology are in the North end of Palm Beach County.  Juno Beach and Jupiter . Jupiter used to be a sleepy town and it didn’t want the tourists. However, the Jupiter Beach Hotel, sure added beach to its name to attract those northerners.

Then you have Ports, Sounds, Keys, Streams, Rivers, Harbours, Bays, Shores, and Surfs. Bal Harbour, with the BAL being a combo of words from Bay and Atlantic. (Should have just named it Harbour Beach if you ask me). Boca Raton means mouth of the inlet. Biscayne Bay is Spanish in origin as is Hobe Sound  (Spanish for supreme God although others say it’s for the Jobe natives). Gulf Stream, Miami Beach, North Bay Village, Port Salerno (named for the Italian city), Surfside, Virginia Key. Even Miami means big water to the natives.

Ocean Ridge, Ocean Breeze, and Lauderdale by the Sea continue on with the water theme.

Some think Haulover Park Beach is a city because of its nudist beach but it’s just a beach.  During prohibition, Bahamians delivered whiskey to be hauled over to the beach where speed boats would be waiting. Today they would probably just name it Skinny Dip Beach.

Islands are another option to the beach. Dodge Island, Fisher Island, Hutchinson Island  (James Hutchinson was a Spanish land grantee), Hypoluxo Island  (Seminole name for water all around), and Jupiter Island  (which is really in Hobe Sound) has a double water identity. Same with Singer Island which is really Riviera Beach. Rivo Alto, Star Island, and Venetian Island are all manmade Islands in Miami.

Manalapan means land covered swamp. (A swamp is sorta water.) Fort Lauderdale and Fort Pierce were named after war veterans. Lauderdale by the Sea went the route of Lake Worth Beach to make sure water got included. Some inland cities like Palm Springs don’t have water included at all (although – it was named after Palm Springs California, which does have springs!)

The other power word is Palm. The biblical meaning is a token of victory and peace. In slang it’s code for marijuana. In style the Palm Beach look means no socks with your shoes. Our community site has over 100 Palm Communities. Old Palm to Mosaic Palm to Grand Palms.

And why not as we are covered in a variety of Palms.  There is the African Oil Palm, Areca Palm, Bangalow Palm, Bismark Palm, Bottle Palm, Buccaneer Palm, Cabbage Palm, Chinese Fan Palm, Christmas Palm, Coconut Palm,  Dwarf (not politically correct) Palmetto Palm, European Fan Palm, Fishtail Palm, Fox Tail Palm, Key Thatch Palm. Then you have the whole UK bunch of Palms……King Palm, Lady Palm, Majesty Palm, Queen Palm, Royal Palm (all named after King Charles, Lady Di and the family), Latania Palm, Mexican Palm (complete with 25% tariff this week), Montgomery Palm, Needle Palm, Parlor Palm, Paurotis Palm, Proctors Silver Palm, Pygmy Date Palm.  Then you have the Sabal – Scrub – Saw Palmetto Palms. The Solitaire Palm who won’t go on a date with the Pygmy Date Palm or the Canary Island Date Palm. Finally, the Silver Palm, Sylvester (Stallone) Palm, Thatch and Yellow Ribbon Palm (who needs a Tony Orlando and Dawn, Ole Oak Tree, when you have a Palm Tree with the yellow ribbon built in?)

Then we have Florida birds.  There is the Blue Jay, Florida Scrub Jay……. Oh forget this category. I’ll leave that to the birds.

2025 Lake Worth Beach Art Festival Photography