According to one story, the people of the new village got together to try to agree upon a name for it. It was decided that the name would come from the person or family having the most land in the area. After the acreages were added up, the Norris family beat out the Johnson family by just a few acres. Thus, as the story goes, it was named Norris City. William Norris was the head of the Norris family at that time so it was said to have been named after him.