North Carolina || Cape Hatteras

In 1737, a mysterious cargo ship wrecked on the treacherous sandbars of Ocracoke Island.

The only survivors were several Arabian ponies and two teenage boys. Island locals christened them Pharaoh and A-rab.

A-rab adapted his name over time, first to Ahab, then later to Wahab with the innocuous first name James. His fifteen children so populated the island that the biggest village was eventually named after them.

Pharaoh ended up in the mainland town of Buxton with his name anglicized to "Farrow." But his rapid rise in prosperity kept the original title fresh. It also earned him a cronyistic stint as keeper of the Cape Hatteras light. He was fired from the job, though, when word got out that he was delegating all the work of the lighthouse to his slaves.

Both boys' families have all but died out on the Outer Banks. The ponies' descendants, however, flourish to this day.