Shoulderblade is an

unincorporated community An unincorporated area is a region that is not governed by a local municipal corporation. Widespread unincorporated communities and areas are a distinguishing feature of the United States and Canada. Most other countries of the world either have ...

located in

Breathitt County Breathitt County ( ) is a county in the eastern Appalachian portion of the U.S. state of Kentucky. As of the 2020 United States Census, the population was 13,718. Its county seat is Jackson. The county was formed in 1839 and was named for John B ...

Kentucky Kentucky ( , ), officially the Commonwealth of Kentucky, is a state in the Southeastern region of the United States and one of the states of the Upper South. It borders Illinois, Indiana, and Ohio to the north; West Virginia and Virginia to ...

, United States. It is reportedly named after a creek, a tributary of the Middle Fork of the

Kentucky River The Kentucky River is a tributary of the Ohio River, long,U.S. Geological Survey. National Hydrography Dataset high-resolution flowline dataThe National Map , accessed June 13, 2011 in the Commonwealth (U.S. state), U.S. Commonwealth of Kentuc ...

. The creek was in turn named for a bone of very large animal once discovered on its banks.Blevins, Don
Peculiar, Uncertain & Two Egg: the unusual origins of more than 3,000 American place names
p. 134 (2000) The community is also referred to as Juan, named after the Battle of San Juan Hill.Rennick, Robert M
Kentucky Place Names
p. 155 (1984)

References

Unincorporated communities in Breathitt County, Kentucky Unincorporated communities in Kentucky {{BreathittCountyKY-geo-stub