Social Circle, Georgia — How a Town Got Its Name

The story of how Social Circle got its name is the kind of local legend that may or may not be true, but is too good to lose. According to tradition, a group of men had gathered here around a well, doing what men around wells have always done: talking, resting, and sharing something to drink. A stranger passed by and was invited to join them.

So pleased was he by their hospitality that he exclaimed, this surely is a social circle. The remark stuck, and the name traveled with the town as it grew. Whatever the true origin, Social Circle has carried the name with some pride.

It sits in Walton County in the Georgia Piedmont, and its old-fashioned downtown still draws visitors who come looking for exactly what that stranger supposedly found: a friendly stop along the road.