An early resident, Nicholas A. Inman, was a blacksmith from Tennessee who set up a shop in 1852. When a post office was opened, a town meeting was held to decide on a name for the community. Because of his years of service to the community it was suggested the town be named for him. Another suggestion was to call it "nix" because the community was "nothing but a crossroads". It was finally decided to take the name Nix and add the first letter of Inman's middle name, "a", to get the unique name Nixa. The village of Nixa incorporated on June 10, 1902.