We in the Pacific Northwest take pride in our mountains. Just the sight of Mount Hood or Rainier - let alone Olympus or St. Helens - is enough to stir our passion for this place, a region where majestic peaks are always on the horizon.

It's a little strange, then, that such sources of our American pride are named after redcoats - British Lords and Lieutenants who served England during the Revolutionary War.

Mounts Hood, Rainier, Baker and St. Helens are all named for Brits: Hood for Lord Samuel Hood, Rainier for Admiral Peter Rainier, Baker for Third Lieutenant Joseph Baker, and St. Helens for Alleyne Fitzherbert, the 1st Baron St. Helens.

Those names have been etched into our culture for more than two centuries, but as recent history tells us, there's always room for change.

In 2015, North America's highest peak, Mount McKinley, was re-named Denali - its traditional Alaskan Native name. It was no slight to former President William McKinley; Alaskans had been informally calling the mountain Denali for generations.

Similar talk has bubbled up in the Cascades over time, the subject of fierce debate, pithy commentary and downright derision. It's unlikely that our highest mountains will be renamed, but that hasn't stopped a vocal minority from fighting for it.

RAINIER VS. TACOMA

The name Rainier was given by Capt. George Vancouver, a British explorer, in 1792. Over the next century, the name was interchangeable with one of the mountain's native names, Tacoma (also, Takoma or Tahoma). By the late 1800s, a spat grew between the residents of Seattle and Tacoma, who argued passionately to call it Rainier and Tacoma, respectively.

In an 1883 letter to the New York Times, re-printed in the Oregonian, Portland resident Noah Brooks lamented that Rainier and the other prominent peaks were named after Brits, many of whom never set foot in the Pacific Northwest.

"It is a pity that Hood, Rainier, St. Helen's and Baker, [four] of the most magnificent peaks in the world, should only perpetuate the names of four 'old duffers,' who happened to be admiralty lords when the far wandering Vancouver bestowed their names here with so much prodigality," he wrote.

Two months later, an argument was printed in the Oregonian, by a writer who signed only as "D."

"I think these mountains were, after all, as the world goes, well named. And be this as it may, the distinguished discoverer of them was, according to universal custom, entitled to name them; and after almost a century has elapsed, it is too late to object or attempt to rename them," D. wrote.

In 1890, the U.S. Board of Geographic Names settled on Rainier, but the pro-Tacoma side wasn't satisfied. The city of Tacoma filed an official petition, and in 1917 the board agreed to hold a public meeting to settle the debate. After hearing evidence from both sides, the board kept Rainier.

"For a hundred years the name of Mt. Rainier has been used wherever the mountain has been mentioned," C.S. Sloane, secretary of the board, wrote. "It would appear, therefore, that the name Rainier is well established."

HOOD SUPPORT

Considerably less attention has been paid to Mount Hood - also known by one of its native names, Wy'east - though some locals have bristled at its British namesake, who got his name on a mountain thanks to Lt. William Broughton, who sailed with Vancouver in 1792.

The most prominent opposition was a small minority against not the name of the mountain, but using it as the new name for the East Multnomah County Community College. In 1965, when college directors decided to rename the school Mt. Hood Community College, some opposed on the grounds that it was unpatriotic to name it after a British admiral.

That opposition ended quickly, with too few legs to form a movement.

"Surely, any animosity stemming from the Revolutionary War, in which Lord Hood fought against Americans, should have disappeared by now," the Oregonian editorial board wrote at the time. "Would the objectors wish us to change the name of the mountain - to Mt. Kennedy, maybe?"

Objections to the name did resurface, albeit briefly, after Mount McKinley was renamed Denali. As local news organizations picked up the story, they naturally asked the question: Should Mount Hood be renamed Wy'east?

In the Oregonian/OregonLive version of that story, a reader poll showed only 35 percent in favor of changing the name, and in the comments, many of those people showed only tepid support, some with the same quippy response: "Wy'not?"

The story was much the same over at Oregon Public Broadcasting, where public sentiment was flatly against the notion of changing Mount Hood.

"When 90 percent of Oregonians say 'Hey, I'm going skiing on Wy'east this weekend,' we can consider this question," listener Paul Wagner commented. "Which, incidentally, will never happen."

THE PRESIDENTS' RANGE

Everything could have changed, however, if New England writer and Oregon fanatic Hall J. Kelley (of Kelley Point Park) got his way.

In 1839, Kelley proposed that the Cascade Mountains be named the "Presidents' Range," with several prominent peaks named for U.S. Presidents. It would include Mounts Washington (St. Helens), Adams (Hood), Jefferson, Madison (Three Sisters), Monroe (Thielsen), John Quincy Adams (McLoughlin) and Jackson (Shasta).

His vision never came to fruition in the Pacific Northwest (it did in New Hampshire), but the Mount Adams moniker did stick for another smaller peak by mistake.

The naming controversies and non-controversies alike highlight a funny complexity of Pacific Northwest pride: Our diehard dedication to local tradition runs deep - even to mountains named after the British.

--Jamie Hale | jhale@oregonian.com | @HaleJamesB