How Did Each U.S. State Get Its Name?

The United States of America is a federal country, its territory is, therefore, divided into 50

state

s, 48 ​​continental plus Alaska and Hawaii. There's a joke that no one can

name

all 50

state

s in one go since some friends did an episode where Ross went crazy trying to calculate. In this video we are not only going to list the 50 states, but we are going to understand why

each

of them has the

name

it does. Let's start with some general characterizations. State names come from a variety of languages. 24 derived from indigenous languages ​​of the Americas (Native American idioms, although sometimes through European adaptations), another 22 state names are derived from actual European languages ​​and words, and the remaining six have unclear origins, but we'll get to them in a minute. of the 50 states, 11 are named after an individual person of those 11 7 are named in honor of European monarchs the two carolinas the two virginias maryland louisiana and georgia over the years several attempts have been made to name a state in honor of one of the founding fathers or other great statesmen in American history the state of franklin jefferson lincoln and washington and only the last one becomes a state name, the origin of the names varies greatly depending on

each

state, such as We will see now, but there is a somewhat common pattern in many of them when having the initial origin. in a tribal group native to the region that led to the naming of a local river, then to a colonial territory that shared the name with the river and then to the transition to statehood, so now let's go one by one and understand the known or expected origin of each.

By the way, I posted timestamps in the description, so if you want to jump to a specific state, you can use it starting with the two non-contiguous states. Alaska's name comes from a native language, Aleut, spoken on this island chain. Alaska word that I am pronouncing wrong to describe the meaning of continent or if we translate it literally the object towards which the action of the sea is directed then the place where the waves hit I suppose Alaska was first colonized by the Russian empire which it later sold to the United States in this native word alyaska, the name with which the empire baptized its colony in 1666.

The origin of the name Hawaii, on the other hand, is less certain. The first year in which the use of the name Hawaii is recorded was in 1879. with the original spelling it has an apostrophe between the eyes the origin is uncertain because there are two hypotheses: one comes from hawaiki which means place of the gods, the mythological homeland of the Polynesians and the other is that it is named after a wai loa, a legendary discoverer of the hawaiian islands moving to the continental united states let's start on the west coast with california california got its name from the spanish explorers who chose the name las californias for the peninsula of baja california and alda california the region that became in the current state of California name probably derived from the mythical island of California in the fictional story of Queen Calafia as recorded in a book from the year 1510 the adventures of a splendid by García Rodríguez de Montalvo in history this fictional queen fought alongside to Muslim allies and so some say The name may have been chosen by the author to be similar to the title of a Muslim leader.

The caliph in 1846. The United States conquered California from Mexico and the Spanish name remained. So, California's name probably came from a book, and speaking of books, I'll quickly tell you about the sponsor of today's Blinkist video. Are you like me, who constantly buys books but then has little time to read them? If so, you might like what Blinkist offers. Blinkist is an app that condenses books into 15-minute reads or listens. At sessions, they take the gist of over 3,000 non-fiction books and present them to you for quick consumption, and if you sometimes have time, they also offer full audiobooks for up to 65 off the regular price. 14 million people already use it. blindist I have tried it myself and I really like it I found some summaries of great books on history one about Alexander the great and another about Napoleon in each of them they summarize the conquest of each of these great generals in just over 20 minutes the first One hundred people who visit Blinkist.com, with general knowledge, will get unlimited free access for a week to try it out.

You can cancel at any time and if you choose to continue with a full membership you will also get 25 off, so if you are interested, click the link in the description to try Blinkist next to California is Nevada, it was also named by the Spanish. Most of the southwestern states were first part of the Spanish colonial empire, then Mexico, and finally conquered by the United States. de means snow covered and comes from the local mountain range sierra nevada then arizona the name of the state appears to originate from an earlier spanish name arizona which derives from the name odam ali sonak meaning small spring or odam was a native language although some point out that the The Basque language spoken in northern Spain also has the phrase ariz hona, meaning the good oak, as there were numerous Basque sheep herders in the area, but the origin is more likely to be the native word.

Apparently there is a misconception that the state name originated from the Spanish term adida zona which means arid zone, this is considered a case of folk etymology and is not accurate, but if there is no official record who knows what else To the north is Oregon, the origin of the name Oregon is disputed and therefore unknown, there are four options: It is native to Spanish. Portuguese or French origin, the Spanish could have named it by the word oregano referring to a plant that grows in the southern part of the region after a stream in Spain called ahoyo del oregon or by the term oregon meaning big ear with a j and then becomes g the possibility of native origin is evident in a 1765 petition to british king robert rogers, an american colonial frontiersman wrote and hence the river named by the oregon indians in 1904 the local magazine sunset argued that the name came from a Portuguese explorer who named it from agua meaning to hear water after the sound the waterfalls made with that name, then it was adapted to oragua and then to oregon, to be honest this seems a bit of a stretch or the French possibility that the name comes from the spelling of a local river as warikon, although this would probably be an adaptation of the native name we saw in the second option above.

Oregon is the state of Washington. This one is pretty simple. All we have to do is look at the flag. Named after George Washington, whose surname in turn derives from the city of Washington in historic Durham County, England, curiously the territory was going to be named Colombia in honor of the Columbia River, but they found that the name was too similar to the district. of Columbia, the national capital which in turn contains a city called Washington, making Washington the only state named after a US president. The east is Idaho. The name was initially proposed for the colonial territory of Colorado after a supposed native term, but when people realized that the term native did not exist they abandoned the idea, however, it was too late, years later it fell into common use and ended up being proposed for the name real of the territory an alternative etymology attributes to the name the Apache word idahe which means enemy and the term Apache was also used by the Spanish to name Utah Utah but with a yuda was the Apache term the designation in Spanish for the local population that meant hai after becoming part of the US the term was adapted into English and became utah in southern new mexico.

This is also quite simple from the Spanish new mexico, which means new mexico, in turn, the name mexico comes from the native nautilus language which referred to the Aztec people who founded the city of tenocht titlán colorado was also named by the Spanish in 1743 roughly means colored but in this case it meant russet or red originally referring to the Colorado River and its muddy color Wyoming gets its name from the Wyoming Valley in Pennsylvania, which in turn got its name from a Muncie word, another native language, this one which neither I'm not even going to try to pronounce y that literally meant big river, flat mountain, it's again super simple, it means mountain in Spanish.

Northern Montana was the name given by the first Spanish explorers to the entire mountainous region of western North America. It was proposed by the United States government for the territory that ended up becoming Idaho but later changed because they thought it had no meaning just by being proposed in 1864, again, for what is now montana there were some complaints again, especially that it was somewhat misleading since montana itself is not that mountainous in the name of shoshon a native tribe was proposed but the territories committee ignored it and was left with northern montana and south dakota has the same name minus the geographical indicator which is named after the native american tribes of the ceo of dakota and dakota is actually also a word in the language of these people that literally means allies or friends .

The name Nebraska comes from the native shiwer, specifically the word Nebrask which literally means flat on the water, it was first chosen as the name for the Nebraska River and then for the territory and state. I have to be honest, I didn't know that many states had a native origin in their names. Kansas is named after the Kansas River which in turn was named after the Kansas Native Americans who lived along its banks. The name of the tribe is often said to mean people of the south wind, although this was probably not the original meaning of the term.

In 1827 the Kansas Territory was established choosing this name for that reason Arkansas has a very similar name only adding a prefix of its word and the origin is also similar the name arkansas was initially applied to the arkansas river derived from a French term a plural by its transliteration of acanza an alconquin term for the kapow people akanza is probably also the rule term for kansa which later led to the name of kansas oklahoma is the union of two words choctaw oakla and houma in the tribe or nation of choctaw oklahoma and houma means red nation, so red, although a rough translation could also be Indian territory passing to the larger state. of the 48 continental texas the origin of the name texas is in the word taisha, which means friend in the native karo language, interestingly during the spanish colonial rule in the 18th century, the area was briefly known as new philippines given that the asian country at that time it was also a spanish colony how strange it would be if that had stayed and texas was similar to new york or new jersey now it is called new philippines louisiana it is again very simple as evident in the thumbnail of the video it is named after luis xiv king of France from 1643 to 1715, when René Robert Cavaliere claimed the territory for France, he called it La Luisian, so roughly Lewis Plus Jan carries the idea of ​​being related to Louis or the land of Lewis, which was once part of the French colonial empire.

The Louisiana Territory extended from the Atlantic coast in the South to the north of the current border with Canada, the territory was sold by the French to the United States in 1803 for 15 million dollars, that is, four cents per acre, which would be equivalent to about $300 million in today's money and is still a pretty cheap price. Something that is equivalent to almost a third of the territory of the United States, Mississippi continues the trend of being named after the local Mississippi River that defines its western border. European settlers named it after the word Oribue, Mizzy Zibi, which translates as great river, the Missouri River. also led to naming the state of missouri and the river itself got its name from the native indians of missouri following the method we saw was common at the beginning of the video native tribe river colonial territory and state, these specific natives are said to have been named we, sorita, that is, those who have dug canoes, the name was adapted and westernized according to how they pronounced it, passing to iowa iowa derived its name from the ioa people, one of the many native american nations whose territory was within the future state in At the time of European settlement, Minnesota comes from the Dakota Native designation for the Minnesota River, which got its name from one of two Dakota words manisota, meaning clear blue water, or nisota, meaning murky water, a species of choice.

Strange of a word considering they sound so similar. but it means exactly the opposite, it is said that the Koda people demonstrated the name to early settlers by pouring milk into water and calling it mini sota, which would mean that the murky meaning would be correct. Next Wisconsin The word Wisconsin originates from the name given to the Wisconsin River by one of the Algonquin-speaking tribes. French explorer JacquesMarquette was the first European to reach the Wisconsin River, arriving in 1673 and calling the river Mes, causing later French writers to change the spelling to Wisconsin and over time this became their name. the river and the surrounding lands and then adapted to English when it comes to Illinois the state is named after the French adaptation of a native word Elen Huiwa which means to speak normally this adaptation was made by the early French Catholic explorers and missionaries who They referred to the local natives as such eventually the state was named after that tribe Michigan has a similar history a native name adapted and reformulated into French however this did not refer to the local population, it was just a term they used to define big water or big lake meshigami in uebwa language let's jump northeast and go along the coast for the others starting with main the origin of the name main is not clear one theory is that it was named after the french province of maine another is that it derives from a practical nautical term for dry land and a more recent proposal is that it was named after the English village of broadmane, which was the family estate of sir ferdinando gorges, the colony of founder, a combination of the latter two seems most likely : New Hampshire was named for the English captain John Mason.

He would obtain a land patent to establish a colony in the area; After doing so, he named it New Hampshire after Hampshire County in England, Vermont. The name comes from the combination of two French words vert and mont green mountain verd in French means green and mount means mount or mountain probably due to the green mountains that characterize the states, in fact, the short-lived independent republic of Vermont used as its insignia the green. The Massachusetts Mountain Boys flag takes us back to native origins. The Massachusetts Bay Colony was named after the indigenous population whose name probably comes from a native word mussoik.

I'm so sorry I'm pronouncing all of this wrong, but I couldn't find the right word. pronunciation and this term directly translates as big mountain moving to Rhode Island despite its name, most of Rhode Island is located on the mainland of the United States before 2020, the official name of the state was state of Rhode Island and Providence Plantations, which was created after the merger of four colonial settlements in 2020 eventually got rid of the plantation part due to the negative historical connotation and at least because it is no longer a plantation, it is not certain where it came from the original name of Rhode Island, but two historical origins are presented as possibilities, one comes from the explorer Giovanni Daverazano who thought that a coastal island in the region resembled the island of Rhodes off the coast of Greece and the other has to do with a Dutch avidian block explorer who described it as a reddish-looking island that was hardly an island in 17th century Dutch, this would have been adapted to Rhode Island and English Connecticut, once again it is of native origin.

Kinitukut was an Eastern Algonquian word meaning land on the long Tidal River. New Jersey follows New Hampshire's lead and is named after Jersey, the largest of the British Channel Islands and the birthplace of one of the colony's two co-founders, Sir George Carter, however the state is Initially created under the name New Caizadia because the Roman name of the original shirt was thought to have been this during the times of the Roman Empire and New York continued this trend and was named after the Duke of York, later King James II. of England, so in honor of both the English city and its duke next door it is Pennsylvania, an English writer founded a province of Pennsylvania as an English colony in honor of his father and probably his family in general, he called it Pennsylvania combining his pen name into the Latin term sylvania, which translates as forests.

Delaware is named after the Delaware River. The river itself was named after Lord Delaware was the first Governor General of the Colony of Virginia in Maryland named for George Calvert, the 1st Baron of Baltimore in honor of Queen Enriata Mary, wife of King Charles the First of England, although Some Catholic scholars believe that the baron named the province after Mary, the mother of Jesus. Virginia was the first British colony on the continent of North America. Its name at the time meant Country of the Virgin in honor of Elizabeth the First of England. , who was known as the Virgin Queen because she never married West Virginia obviously has the same origin as the West referring to her possession over the western territories of the former largest state of Virginia after the separation Ohio receives its name from a native Seneca word oh hello me what does great creek mean originally the name of the ohio and allegany rivers the name indiana is very simple and means land of indians or simply indian land when in 1800 the united states the congress of the states passed legislation to divide the territory from the northwest in two areas; he named the western section Indiana Territory, perhaps to differentiate it from the east, where greater colonization by Europeans had occurred.

He moved to Kentucky in 1776. The colony of Virginia included most of England's claims in North America. and the counties beyond the appalachian mountains became known to europeans as kentucky county, named for the kentucky river. The origin of the name is uncertain, but it is probably based on an Iroquois name meaning on the prairie in the two native languages ​​of Mohawk or Seneca, said as kentucky or gedake respectively others have suggested the term kinta aki which could have come from a Algonquin language The name Tennessee comes from the local Cherokee 2 who had a town called Tanazi located on a river with the same name The meaning of this name is unknown although some accounts suggest that it meant something like a meeting place that moved to The Carolinas of North and South Carolina were a Carolina colony until 1729.

In 1663, King Charles II of England granted a charter to start a new colony on the North American continent and apparently ordered that it be named Carolina in honor of his father Charles the Alabama was first named after the Alabama River which in turn was named by Europeans after the native Alabama tribe in the native language the word for a person of this specific native lineage was also named albamo georgia after the british king george ii is The feminine Latin form of george was also a reference to Saint George whose name is derived from the Greek word georgos meaning farmer from guer which is land and ergon which is work and finally florida was named by the Spanish in 1514 from the Spanish term florida a often refers to the abundance of flowers in a place, the name of the state specifically is an abbreviation of florida la florida or pascua florida pascua florida although it was later simplified to florida it is the oldest surviving European place name in the US, United States , we also have some territories in a federal district, very quickly the origin of the name is in Washington DC or District of Columbia, the name comes from Christopher Columbus, the famous European navigator, American Samoa is made up of two parts SA, which means sacred and moa. means center, so the name may mean sacred center, alternatively, it may also mean place of the sacred bird moa of Polynesian mythology.

Guam comes from the local Chamorro language, specifically the word guajan, meaning what we have a designation for the island first used in the treaty of Paris. 1898. The Northern Mariana Islands were named by Spain in 1667 in honor of Queen Mariana of Austria. Puerto Rico comes from the name that the Spanish gave to the island in 1493, which means Puerto Rico. Interestingly, the island was originally named San Juan Batista in honor of San Juan and the capital city was named Puerto Rico but they eventually changed the two: the island became Puerto Rico and the capital San Juan the US Virgin Islands were also named in 1493 illas virginis the name given to them by christopher columbus after the European discovery and finally the many outlying islands of the USA have various origins baker island and wake island johnston adult and kingman reef were named after sea captains jarvis island It was named after three people, all named Jarvis, who discovered the island.

Midway Atoll was apparently named for its location approximately halfway between North America and Asia. Howland. The island is named after a whaling ship and the adult of Palmyra is also named after the local shipwreck USS Palmyra, while Navasa Island comes from the Spanish term nava meaning plane, as the island is very flat, so that is the origin or supposed origin of every US state territory. USA and the names of the federal districts, do you like the names of the states or should some of them be renamed too if there are going to be new states, what should they be called if they keep the current name of the territory or create a new one, Leave a comment to let me know and See you next time for more general knowledge.