(Editor’s note: When it comes to historical significance, Maryland’s Eastern Shore can stand with just about any other area of the United States. It’s carried through today in the names given to towns, rivers, streets and creeks, but more than 200 years later, their origins may not be so widely known. Drawing from “Discover Why It’s Called …,” a 1990 booklet by John Dexter Nilsson, here is one of those stories.)
Berlin, halfway between the Worcester County line and Ocean City, was built on land patented and named Burleigh Plantation by Col. William Stevens, who also founded Rehoboth and Pocomoke City, in 1677.
The present name comes from a slurring of Burleigh and Burley Inn that stood there, and is pronounced with accent on the first syllable and not on the last like the German capital.
Born in Berlin in 1779 was Stephen Decatur.
His mother had come to the area from Philadelphia to escape the British occupation and protect her pregnancy.
Within a year, she returned to Philadelphia. Stephen grew to become a major naval hero, with successes against the pirates of the Barbary Coast and against the British during the War of 1812.
