Wa-Wa-Yonda Farm

I was assured by an old timer that it's pronounced "way-way" rather than "wah-wah" and the current street "wawa" is said the same, er, way.

Maybe it was wa wa yanda as in "way way yonder" from the town or something.

In real estate listings, houses on Wa Wa & Huron are often listed as being in the neighborhood "Wa Wa Yada." I always thought that was a strange name for a neighborhood, but now I know whence it comes. Interesting!

hello ya'll. A former Durham dweller here now living in chillier climes, I was delighted with this blog.

Regarding wa-wa-yada, I remember being told it was from an "Indian" language. This may or may not have anything to do with the wawa shop franchise from Penna: http://www.wawa.com/WawaWeb/About.aspx

At last I know where that street name came from, I've wondered for years!

Wawayanda is pronounced Way Way Anda around Warwick NY, where it is a much used name. We have Wawayanda Lake, Creek, Mountain, Township, etc. Portion of our area was known as the Wawayanda Petent from England.
Have never seen a definite definition of what it means, rumor it was an local indian trying to say Way over yonder, but no one knows.
There are a lot of families named Carr here so maybe this person moved south from this area.

My great-great grandfather, Cornelius Dowd Hudson, was farm manager for Jule Carr at the WaWa Yonder Farm. My grandfather, Walter Curtis Hudson, used to tell me stories of going to visit his grandfather at WaWa Yonder. Dowd Hudson lived in a two story red house surrounded by large farm buildings (also painted red). Jule Carr and Dowd Hudson had been childhood friends and had grown up across the street from one another at the corner of Franklin and Columbia streets in Chapel Hill. Their fathers, John W. Carr and Isaac Hudson, were business partners in the Chapel Hill and Morrisville Plank Road Company.

Mr.G, some considerations: The tax administration office in Durham, has the original plat for Wa Wa Yanda on some flimsy, yellow tracing paper. What's funny is that the word was originally written as "Yonder" and it was scratched out and written: Yanda. Another point is that the street names in Tuscaloosa Lakewood, relate to native Americans: Nation, Huron, Hiawatha (a street that was never put in)-- and yes, Wa Wa, since it refers to the N.A. term for Canada geese. Have you ever listened to them? When I did, it made perfect sense.

My Aunt and Uncle owned a house on Huron in the 50s and my first boyfriend lived on Wawa,,this was in the 60s and the pronuciation had changed to Wah Wah. I loved the homes in that part of town.