Pompano Beach is about 31 miles north of downtown Miami and was once part of Dade County. But then Palm Beach County was split off, then Broward County split from that...

The name comes from a fish that is found off the coast regularly. One story says the surveyor finished his work and wrote the name of the plat after the fish he'd just had for lunch.

For a while there was a Pompano that was separate from the beach. That was back in the days when most of the development was happening to the west, near the railroad line and well away from the shoreline. Population in Pompano picked up in the 1920's, then grew again during World War II. It was right after the war that Pompano merged with the newly-formed beach municipality and the two became one Pompano Beach.