Menifee Valley or Just Menifee?

I received an e-mail from a reader in Menifee who pointed out that the cityhood effort underway in our town will also change the name from Menifee to Menifee Valley. He couldn't understand the necessity to change names. Neither can I.

First of all, I'm not involved with the cityhood effort, but I do support it, and I don't want to criticize the hard work they are doing.

I came from a town in Orange County called "El Toro". I liked the name because it was unique and cool, "The Bull" in spanish. But when the town voted for incorporation, they also voted on a new name. They had several choices, but the name that won was "Lake Forest". I shook my head in disbelief. Another pastoral crap name like all the others in South Orange County.

I actually joined the effort to "restore" the name El Toro, but it never caught on.

Albeit, "Menifee Valley" is not much of change from "Menifee", but I tend to like short names anyways. And exactly what are we gaining by adding the word "Valley" to the end?

If anything, "valley" seems to be so much like everything else. Everything around here is "valley" this and "valley" that. Here's a short list:

Temecula Valley
Murrieta Valley
Perris Valley
Moreno Valley
Quail Valley
French Valley
Paloma Valley
Hemet Valley
San Jacinto Valley

By the way, technically there is no "Hemet Valley". Hemet is located in the San Jacinto Valley. But yet there is a "Hemet Valley Medical Center", a "Hemet Valley Pipe and Supply", a "Hemet Valley Mall", and the list goes on.

And where the heck is the valley in Quail Valley?

Have any of you noticed that there is now a sign posted along the I-15 northbound, around Corona Lakes, marking the boundary for a town called, "Temescal Valley"? HELLO!! There is no valley there! It's all canyon. It should be called "Temescal Canyon".

I wonder if we have a little bit of "valley envy"?

To add further argument to this issue, I'm now looking at a topographical map of the area known as Menifee, as defined by LAFCO, and it shows that Menifee encompasses the Menifee Valley, along with the Paloma Valley, the southern portion of the Perris Valley, as well as "Quail Valley" which is technically not a valley. So, it would not be an accurate representation of the geography to name the new city "Menifee Valley".

Naming the new town "Menifee Valley" would be to erase the name sakes of this tri-valley (or quad valley) area. Why do we need to rewrite the maps? Why not keep all the valleys as they are, and just name the city "Menifee"? I guess I'll never understand the need to change names.