Culture: Mormon spells out the naming trend for cities that we have already observed: They commemorate founders. He does not explicitly state that this city’s founder was named Ammonihah, but that is the verse’s clear import. The Book of Mormon also typically associates the “land’s” name with the founder, a practice that was also common in the Old World. This method of naming is logical, given Nephite political geography. Sorenson notes:
The concept that formal ownership of (or at least possession of certain legal rights over) lands and other property lay in elite hands is evident in language used in the Book of Mormon. The key words that alert us to how the Nephites thought about these matters are “possessions,” “possess,” and related terms. There may have been two senses of “possess.” Sometimes the word could be translated merely “occupy,” as in Helaman 1:20 (an invading army “took possession of the city.”) But a prime example gives us the more usual and pointed sense, which is that possession involves the right to exploit the resources of an area including its inhabitants. Consider Mosiah 23:29. Alma and his brethren “went forth and delivered themselves up into [the hands of the Lamanites]; and the Lamanites took possession of the land of Helam” where they and their Amulonite toadies then oppressively exploited the goods and labor of Alma’s people for the economic support of the masters. (See Mosiah 23:38–39, 24:9.)
In Mesoamerica and throughout the Book of Mormon, community leaders possessed the chief rights to the land. Thus, Ammonihah is the city’s founder and focus, since he had the right to control the land’s products. These property rights were also apparently lineal rights, given the model that begins with Nephi and lasts through the reign of the judges. Alma1 yielded the seat to his son. For Alma2, the transfer of power is less clear when he relinquishes the judgment seat because he is not near death. Nevertheless, the plates of Nephi trace a path in and out of ruling dynasties until Mormon’s time. We may suppose that the dynastic model assured the transfer of power in other cities, such as Ammonihah. In that case, the leadership model would have been either the kings of the order of the Nehors or the lineal replacement of judges as in Zarahemla.
An exception to the process of naming a land for its leader occurred when Zeniff’s people inhabited the city of Lehi-Nephi; but Zeniff, in this case, was not founding a new city, simply settling in an existing one.