Romancoke is an unincorporated

Unincorporated area

In law, an unincorporated area is a region of land that is not a part of any municipality.To "incorporate" in this context means to form a municipal corporation, a city, town, or village with its own government. An unincorporated community is usually not subject to or taxed by a municipal government...

 community on Kent Island

Kent Island, Maryland

Kent Island is the largest island in the Chesapeake Bay, and a historic place in Maryland. To the east, a narrow channel known as the Kent Narrows barely separates the island from the Delmarva Peninsula, and on the other side, the island is separated from Sandy Point, an area near Annapolis, by...

 in Maryland

Maryland

Maryland is a U.S. state located in the Mid Atlantic region of the United States, bordering Virginia, West Virginia, and the District of Columbia to its south and west; Pennsylvania to its north; and Delaware to its east...

, located at the southern end of Maryland Route 8

Maryland Route 8

Maryland Route 8 is a state highway in the U.S. state of Maryland. Known for most of its length as Romancoke Road, the state highway runs from Romancoke Pier in Romancoke north to MD 18 in Stevensville. MD 8 is the main north–south highway of Kent Island in western Queen Anne's County. ...

. The United States Census Bureau

United States Census Bureau

The United States Census Bureau is the government agency that is responsible for the United States Census. It also gathers other national demographic and economic data...

 defines an urban cluster for Romancoke, but not a census-designated place

Census-designated place

A census-designated place is a concentration of population identified by the United States Census Bureau for statistical purposes. CDPs are delineated for each decennial census as the statistical counterparts of incorporated places such as cities, towns and villages...

. The name "Romancoke" comes from the Algonquian

Algonquian languages

The Algonquian languages also Algonkian) are a subfamily of Native American languages which includes most of the languages in the Algic language family. The name of the Algonquian language family is distinguished from the orthographically similar Algonquin dialect of the Ojibwe language, which is a...

 word for "circling of the water."http://www.leearchive.info/shelf/romancoke/index.html William Claiborne

William Claiborne

William Claiborne was an English pioneer, surveyor, and an early settler in Virginia and Maryland. Claiborne became a wealthy planter, a trader, and a major figure in the politics of the colony...

, who founded Kent Island, also had a plantation

Plantation

A plantation is a long artificially established forest, farm or estate, where crops are grown for sale, often in distant markets rather than for local on-site consumption...

 in Virginia named Romancoke.http://www.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~vapittsy/Clairbornegen.html

Romancoke was once linked with Claiborne

Claiborne, Maryland

Claiborne is an unincorporated community in Talbot County, Maryland. The village is located on the eastern shore of the Chesapeake Bay near the mouth of the Eastern Bay at , and uses ZIP code 21624. The 2000 U.S. Census lists the population as 147 and the number of homes as 84, slightly down from...

 via the Romancoke-Claiborne ferry; however, the ferry

Ferry

A ferry is a form of transportation, usually a boat, but sometimes a ship, used to carry primarily passengers, and sometimes vehicles and cargo as well, across a body of water. Most ferries operate on regular, frequent, return services...

 service was canceled the year after the Chesapeake Bay Bridge

Chesapeake Bay Bridge

The Chesapeake Bay Bridge is a major dual-span bridge in the U.S. state of Maryland. Spanning the Chesapeake Bay, it connects the state's rural Eastern Shore region with the more urban Western Shore. The original span opened in 1952 and, at the time, with a length of , it was the world's longest...

 was opened. Today, Romancoke is almost purely residential and is part of Stevensville's

Stevensville, Maryland

Stevensville is a census-designated place in Queen Anne's County, Maryland, and is the county's most populous place among both CDPs and municipalities. The Stevensville Historic District is one of only two registered historic districts in the county, the other being the Centreville Historic...

postal area.