The Origins Of Your State Names
Ever wonder why your state has the name it has? Probably not, but here’s why anyway.
(via Uneasysilence)
ALABAMA - Possibly from the Creek Indian word alibamo, meaning "we stay here."
ALASKA - From the Aleutian word alakshak, which means "great lands," or "land that is not an island."
ARIZONA - Taken either from the pima Indian words ali shonak, meaning "little spring," or from the Aztec word arizuma, meaning "silver-bearing."
ARKANSAS - The French somehow coined it from the name of the Siouan Quapaw tribe.
CALIFORNIA - According to one theory, Spanish settlers names it after a utopian society described in a popular 16th-century novel called Serged de Esplandian.
COLORADO - Means "red" in Spanish. The name was originally applied to the Colorado River, whose waters are reddish with canyon clay.
CONNECTICUT - Taken from the Mohican word kuenihtekot, which means "long river place."
DELAWARE - Named after Lord De La Warr, a governor of Virginia. Originally used only to name the Delaware River.
FLORIDA - Explorer Ponce de Leon named the state Pascua Florida - "flowery Easter"—on Easter Sunday in 1513.
GEORGIA - Named after King George II of England, who charted the colony in 1732.
HAWAII - An English adaptation of the native word owhyhee, which means "homeland."
IDAHO - Possibly taken from the Kiowa Apache word for the Comanche Indians.
ILLINOIS - The French bastardization of the Algonquin word illini, which means "men."
INDIANA - Named by English-speaking settlers because the territory was full of Indians.
IOWA - The Sioux word for "beautiful land," or "one who puts to sleep."
KANSAS - Taken from the Sioux word for "south wind people," their name for anyone who lived south of Sioux territory.
KENTUCKY - Possibly derived from the Indian word kan-tuk-kee, meaning "dark and bloody ground." Or kan-tuc-kec, "land of green reeds", or ken-take, meaning "meadowland."
LOUISIANA - Named after French King Louis XIV.
MAINE - The Old French word for "province."
MARYLAND - Named after Queen Henrietta Maria, wife of English King George I.
MASSACHUSETTS - Named after the Massachusetts Indian tribe. Means "large hill place."
MICHIGAN - Most likely from the Chippewa word for "great water." micigama.
MINNESOTA - From the Sioux word for "sky tinted" or "muddy water."
MISSISSIPPI - Most likely taken from the Chippewa words mici ("great") and zibi ("river").
MISSOURI - From the Algonquin word for "muddy water."
MONTANA - Taken from the Latin word for "mountainous."
NEBRASKA - From the Otos Indian word for "broad water."
NEVADA - Means "snow-clad" in Spanish.
NEW HAMPSHIRE - Capt. John Mason, one of the original colonists, named it after his English home county of Hampshire.
NEW JERSEY - Named after the English Isle of Jersey.
NEW MEXICO - The Spanish name for the territory north of the Rio Grande.
NEW YORK - Named after the Duke of York and Albany.
NORTH AND SOUTH CAROLINA - From the Latin name Carolus; named in honor of King Charles I of England.
NORTH AND SOUTH DAKOTA - Taken from the Sioux word for "friend," or "ally."
OHIO - Means "great," "fine," or "good river" in Iriquois.
OKLAHOMA - The Choctaw word for "red man."
OREGON - Possibly derived from Ouaricon-sint, the French name for the Wisconsin River.
PENNSYLVANIA - Named after William Penn, Sr., the father of the colony’s founder, William Penn. Means "Penn’s woods."
RHODE ISLAND - Named "Roode Eylandt" (Red Island) because of its red clay.
TENNESSEE - Named after the Cherokee tanasi villages along the banks of the Little Tennessee River.
TEXAS - Derived from the Caddo Indian word for "friend," or "ally."
UTAH - Means "upper," or "higher," and was originally the name that Navajos called the Shoshone tribe.
VERMONT - A combination of the French words vert ("green") and mont ("mountain").
VIRGINIA AND WEST VIRGINIA - Named after Queen Elizabeth I of England, the "virgin" queen, by Sir Walter Raleigh in 1584.
WASHINGTON - Named after George Washington.
WISCONSIN - Taken from the Chippewa word for "grassy place."
WYOMING - Derived from the Algonquin word for "large prairie place."