For the two years that Union City was incorporated, folks in the area continued to refer to it as Ashpole. The church was still named Ashpole Baptist Church and the area itself was referred to throughout the county as Ashpole. The only logical move was to change the town charter to rename the town.

By act of the North Carolina Legislature in February, 1901, Union City was renamed Ashpole and the charter was amended to reflect this. Very little changed locally since few people ever used Union City when speaking of the village.