Omro

Omro 708

Omro, Wisconsin, is a city in Winnebago County located where state highways 21 and 116 meet about 10 miles west of Oshkosh. It has about 3600 residents.

The area was first known as Smalley's Landing (source unknown) and then Beckwith Town for Nelson Beckwith. It seems to have also been called Winnebago, Butte des Morts, and Bloomingdale or Bloomfield for a time. (Some of these names may refer to the township rather than the village.)

There are three possible sources for the name Omro. One is similar to the selection of Ixonia where letters were drawn blindly until a name could be formed. Another says it was named for Charles Amereau, a French trader. And the last claims that the trading post was called Kero (probably at the time the village was called Bloomfield) and that the last 2 letters of "Bloom" and the last 2 letters of "Kero" were used to create Omro.

Personally, I think the Charles Amereau story is the most likely.