What's the meaning of the word "Alabama"?

Question

haha, I'm almost afraid of the answers I will get.

Answer 1

Alabama (Alibamu) is the name of a nation of Native Americans/First Nations/(Insert favored term here), and this nation was part of the Creek Confederacy. According to the modern Alabama-English-Alabama dictionary, it's a proper noun, and the etymology of the word is something I haven't been able to figure out.

An alternate meaning is "that place ignorant Northerners think is virtually unchanged from the era depicted in the film Gone With the Wind, or if they're feeling less charitable, like it's still the worst of the 1960s."

Answer 2

The name Alabama is derived from an Indian word meaning "thicket clearers."

Answer 3

Alabama is a state located in the Southern United States. The twenty-second state admitted to the Union, Alabama seceded from the union in 1861 to become part of the Confederate States of America. Following the Civil War and Reconstruction, Alabama was readmitted to the union in 1868.

Until World War II, Alabama, like many Southern states, remained mired in poverty. In the following years, Alabama would emerge as a growing economic power as the economy of the state transitioned from agriculture to diversified interests in heavy manufacturing, mineral extraction, education, and high technology. Perhaps the proudest moment for the state came in 1969, when Man walked on the moon using rockets developed in Alabama. Today, the state is heavily invested in the aerospace, education, health care, banking, and various heavy industries including automobile manufacturing and mineral extraction.

Alabama is known as the Yellowhammer state.

The etymology of the word or name, Alabama, has evoked much discussion among philological researchers. It was the name of a noted southern Indian tribe whose habitat when first known to Europeans was in what is now central Alabama. One of the major waterways in the state was named for this group and from this river, in turn, the name of the state was derived. The tribal name of Alabama was spelled in various ways by the early Spanish, French, and British chroniclers: Alabama, Albama, Alebamon, Alibama, Alibamou, Alibamon, Alabamu, and Allibamou. The appellation first occurs in three of the accounts of the Hernando de Soto expedition of 1540: written Alibamo by Garcillasso de la Vega, Alibamu by the Knight of Elvas, and Limamu by Rodrigo Ranjel (in the last form, the initial vowel is dropped and the first m is used for b, the interchange of these two consonants being common in Indian languages). The name as recorded by these chroniclers was the name of a subdivision of the Chickasaws, not the historic Alabamas of later times.
The popular belief that Alabama signifies "Here We Rest" stems from an etymology given wide currency in the 1850s through the writings of Alexander Beauford Meek. However, the first known use of this derivation appeared earlier in an unsigned article in a July 27, 1842, issue of the Jacksonville Republican. Experts in the Muskogee dialect have been unable to find any word or phrase similar to Alabama with the meaning "Here We Rest."

According to some investigations, the tribal name Alabama must be sought in the Choctaw tongue, as it is not uncommon for tribes to accept a name given them by a neighboring tribe. Inquiry among the early Indians themselves appears to have yielded no information about the meaning of the word. The Rev. Allen Wright, a Choctaw scholar, translated the name as thicket clearers, compounded of Alba meaning "a thick or mass vegetation," and amo meaning "to clear, to collect, to gather up."

Answer 4

there seems to be some debate over the etymology of the name of the state of Alabama:

http://www.archives.state.al.us/statenam.html
http://www.americaslibrary.gov/cgi-bin/page.cgi/es/al

. . .i like the native american phrase meaning "thicket clearers."