Ding Dong is an unincorporated community in Central Texas. It is situated on the Lampasas River

Lampasas River

The Lampasas River is a river in the U.S. state of Texas. The river originates near the city of Hamilton and travels southeast for seventy-five miles through central Texas to a man-made reservoir called Stillhouse Hollow Lake...

, eight miles south of Killeen

Killeen, Texas

Killeen is a city in Bell County, Texas, The United States. The population was 86,911 at the 2000 census. As of 2009, Killeen had 119,510 people. In 2010 Killeen's population shot to 127,921...

 in southwestern Bell County

Bell County, Texas

Bell County is a county located in the U.S. state of Texas. Bell County was founded in 1850. It is part of the Killeen–Temple–Fort Hood Metropolitan Statistical Area. In 2000, the county's population was 237,974; in 2010 the U.S. Census Bureau reported that its population had reached...

. Ding Dong was supposedly named because of two early settlers in the town, Zulis Bell and Bert Bell, who opened a store and hired an artist, Cohn Hoover, to make a sign for it. The Bells instructed the sign painter to make a sign with two bells on it; inside the bells would be their names and the words "Ding Dong" would be coming out of the bell. Over time a community grew around the store, and it took on the name of the words coming out of the bell: Ding Dong.

External sources

• Name of This Town Rings A Bell Ding Dong, Texas by Clay Coppedge, article from Texasescapes.com
• Ding Dong, Texas from the Handbook of Texas Online