Wilma Franzén: Questions 

How did the city of Atlanta get its name?

Gov. Lumpkin asked them to name it after his daughter, instead, and Terminus became Marthasville. In 1845, the Chief Engineer of the Georgia Railroad, (J. Edgar Thomson) suggested that Marthasville be renamed to "Atlantica-Pacifica", which was quickly shortened to "Atlanta."

Home to almost five-hundred-thousand people as of 2015, Atlanta is the capital of Georgia, located in the north central part of the state. First known as a Creek and Cherokee Native American territory, it was subsequently turned into Metro Atlanta in 1821, after a systematic removal of Native Americans from northern Georgia between 1802 and 1825. Four months later, five new counties around the area was created because of the Georgia Land Lottery Act, which would eventually turn into what we now know as Atlanta. As part of the land lottery, Archibald Holland, the man whom farmed the land and operated a blacksmith shop, received a grant of two-hundred-two point five acres where downtown Atlanta would later be built. However, the land was low-lying and wet causing his cows to become mired in the mud, which subsequently led him leave the area in 1833. 

Sources  

[About North Georgia] “Origin of the name Atlanta”

[Wikipedia] (English) “Atlanta - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia”   

[Wikipedia] (English) “History of Atlanta - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia”