What are the origins of the names of all the U.S. states?

Answer 1

The most common origin is terms from the Native Americans the states displaced, typically of dubious translation, and filtered through English, French, Spanish or even Russian.

Where a credible translation is known, it often refers either to a local tribe or a major waterway or region. (Many of the following states were definitely named based on the Native American-derived name for a river or lake.) Possible tribe-derived names include: Alabama, Arkansas, North/South Dakota, Illinois, Kansas, Massachusetts, Missouri, Texas and Utah.

Possible waterway/region-derived names include: Alaska, Arizona, Connecticut, Kentucky, Michigan, Minnesota, Mississippi, Nebraska, Ohio, Oregon and Wisconsin.

Tennessee is known to be of Native American origin, but its meaning is a mystery. Some sources propose it came from the name of a town.

Hawaii is a native Polynesian name of unknown origin, possibly referring to its original discoverer or a legendary Polynesian motherland.

Iowa comes with varying guesses, either as a possible place name, or an insulting term for a tribe known as the “sleepy ones.”

Wyoming is an oddball in the bunch. It’s named for the Wyoming Valley in Pennsylvania, which in turn was derived from an Algoquin/Delaware term meaning something like “large plains,” which in turn may be an English invention made by mashing Native American words together.

Naming states for people is also popular. Georgia was named for England’s King George II.

Maryland was dedicated to Queen Henrietta Maria, the wife of England’s King Charles I. Ol’ Chuck himself was memorialized with North/South Carolina, the feminized (as place names always are) adjectival version of his name in Latin.

Virginia (and by extension, West Virginia) was named for England’s Queen Elizabeth I, known as the “Virgin Queen.” Louisiana comes from the French La Louisianne, their name for the whole Mississippi Valley, which was a French colony under the eponymous King Louis XIV.

Among lesser royalty, Delaware was named for the bay and river, which in turn were named for Thomas West, Baron (Lord) De La Warr, who was a governor at Virginia’s Jamestown colony. New York was a tribute to James Stuart, the Duke of York and Albany. York, of course, is a district of England.

George Washington, who refused to become royalty at all, gave his name to Washington State. Pennsylvania, a Latinized form of “Penn’s woodland,” is named in theory for state founder William Penn’s father, conveniently also named William.

Foreign (though not foreign during the original colonial period) or modern Latin descriptive phrases are responsible for several names. Colorado (Spanish for “reddish”) originally referred to the Colorado River. Florida is Spanish for “filled with flowers”; it can also refer to “Feast of Flowers,” or Easter, and the state’s land was reputed spotted by Ponce de le Leon on Easter Sunday.

Montana is modern Latin for “mountainous area.” Nevada, which means “snow-covered” in Spanish, originally referred to the Sierra Nevada mountains, not the desert interior. Vermont is a flipped-around corruption of the French “Les Monts Verts,” or “Green Mountains”—also the name of the state’s major mountain chain.

New Mexico’s origin is pretty obvious, as are the English-dubbed New Hampshire and New Jersey.

Rhode Island’s name is a mystery that could be a foreign phrase or a borrowed place name. Some argue it means “red island,” from the Dutch “roodt,” while others propose it was named in honor of the Greek island and seaport of Rhodes.

A few state names were deliberately invented. Indiana is modern Latin for “land of the Indians.” Idaho is fake Native American and doesn’t mean anything as far as anyone can tell.

Oklahoma comes from the Choctaw words for “red” and “people.” But it’s not a Choctaw term. Instead, it was invented by European-Americans as a term for the area in which they planned to dump all the Native Americans they drove out of other places.

California is an invented term of fantastical, quasi-mythical origins. It’s the name of an island populated by gold-clad Amazons, ruled by a Queen Calafia, in a 1510 Spanish romance. Taken seriously by many explorers, it gave its name to the modern state, which indeed was depicted as an island on early maps of the Pacific coast.

The only name of utterly mysterious origin is the rather plain Maine. Some speculate it referred to the mainland of New England (a la the “Spanish Main”). Others suggest an inspiration in the French province of Maine, though no clear link has been established.

Answer 2

To add to your already awsome answer. Mississippi comes from a Native American word that means "great water" and "an almost endless river".

Alabama is a Native American tribe in that area.

Arkansas is a little more complex. Ar is Dakota word that means people. But the french word Kansas means "smoky water", making it people of the smoky water. But it is also said to be a Native American word that the French wrote correctly or incorrectly as Alkansas or Akamsca.

Illinois is also a combination of French and Native American words. ois in French means "tribe" and the Native American word Illini means men.

Dakota is a tribe of Eastern Sioux that could be found in both areas.

Massachusetts is a Natick (Native American) word meaning the place of great hills for the Blue Hills.

Missouri is a Native American word again. It is Dakota. Mis means "Great" and souri means "muddy"

Texas is was the Spanish pronounciation of the Caddo word meaning "friends". It was originally pronounced Tejas by the Spanish, but the "x" may be closer to the Native American pronounciation since the Spanish often had problems with the x sound.

Utah is an interesting one. It comes from the Apache word yuttahih which means one that is higher up. But it was the Europeans that assumed that it was in referrence to the tribes that lived in the mountains there. This is how the Utes got their name (most tribes originally called themselves something different than they are called today..but that is a different lesson). Then, it became the land of the Utes. The state itself was named after the Ute Indians.

Alaska comes from Aleutian (Native Americans of the Aleutian area) word that means "great lands" or "peninsula". Alaska is the Russian pronounciation of the native word.

Arizona is also a Native word. It either is more local and means "arid land" or it is Aztec for "silver bearing".

Minnesota comes for the Dakota too. minni means "water" and sotah means either muddy or turbid.

Connecticut is also a Native American word that describes the river, but there is some confusion as to its meaning.

Kentucky comes from the Native American word Kaintukee and means "at the head of the river".

Michigan is named for Lake Michigan, but Michigan comes from a Chippewa word that means "great lake".

Nebraska comes from an Native American word that means "shallow broad river".

Ohio is another Native American word that means "the beautiful river".

Here is an interesting article on the origin of the name Oregon:
http://obc.infopop.cc/eve/ubb.x/a/tpc/f/225605187/m/605100736/xsl/print_topic

Wisconsin is Native American but was supposedly coined by Marquette who named the river Masconsin "wild river" which eventually changed.

So, all in all, most states are Native American in origin...even when they are named after waterways and other geographical features.

Answer 3

Good question

CLICK HERE for a list of the origins of the 50 states; includes nicknames, state birds flowers, date of statehood, etc.

http://www.infoplease.com/states.html

The word Carolina (north and South Carolina) is from the word Carolus, the Latin form of Charles, for King Charles I.
Just one example of many.

Answer 4

AlabamaMay come from Choctaw meaning “thicket-clearers” or “vegetation-gatherers”
AlaskaCorruption of Aleut word meaning “great land” or “that which the sea breaks against”
ArizonaUncertain. Perhaps from the O'odham Indian word for “little spring”
ArkansasFrom the Quapaw Indians
CaliforniaFrom a book, Las Sergas de Esplandián, by Garcia Ordóñez de Montalvo, c. 1500
ColoradoFrom the Spanish, “ruddy” or “red”
ConnecticutFrom an Indian word (Quinnehtukqut) meaning “beside the long tidal river”
DelawareFrom Delaware River and Bay; named in turn for Sir Thomas West, Baron De La Warr
FloridaFrom the Spanish Pascua Florida, meaning “feast of flowers” (Easter)
GeorgiaIn honor of George II of England
HawaiiUncertain. The islands may have been named by Hawaii Loa, their traditional discoverer. Or they may have been named after Hawaii or Hawaiki, the traditional home of the Polynesians.
IdahoAn invented name whose meaning is unknown.
IllinoisAlgonquin for “tribe of superior men”
IndianaMeaning “land of Indians”
IowaProbably from an Indian word meaning “this is the place” or “the Beautiful Land”
KansasFrom a Sioux word meaning “people of the south wind”
KentuckyFrom an Iroquoian word “Ken-tah-ten” meaning “land of tomorrow”
LouisianaIn honor of Louis XIV of France
MaineFirst used to distinguish the mainland from the offshore islands. It has been considered a compliment to Henrietta Maria, queen of Charles I of England. She was said to have owned the province of Mayne in France.
MarylandIn honor of Henrietta Maria (queen of Charles I of England)
MassachusettsFrom Massachusett tribe of Native Americans, meaning “at or about the great hill”
MichiganFrom Indian word “Michigana” meaning “great or large lake”
MinnesotaFrom a Dakota Indian word meaning “sky-tinted water”
MississippiFrom an Indian word meaning “Father of Waters”
MissouriNamed after the Missouri Indian tribe. “Missouri” means “town of the large canoes.”
MontanaFrom the Spanish word meaning “mountain.”
NebraskaFrom an Oto Indian word meaning “flat water”
NevadaSpanish: “snowcapped”
New HampshireFrom the English county of Hampshire
New JerseyFrom the Channel Isle of Jersey
New MexicoFrom Mexico, “place of Mexitli,” an Aztec god or leader
New YorkIn honor of the Duke of York
North CarolinaIn honor of Charles I of England
North DakotaFrom the Sioux tribe, meaning “allies”
OhioFrom an Iroquoian word meaning “great river”
OklahomaFrom two Choctaw Indian words meaning “red people”
OregonUnknown. However, it is generally accepted that the name, first used by Jonathan Carver in 1778, was taken from the writings of Maj. Robert Rogers, an English army officer.
PennsylvaniaIn honor of Adm. Sir William Penn, father of
William Penn. It means “Penn's Woodland.”
Rhode IslandFrom the Greek Island of Rhodes
South CarolinaIn honor of Charles I of England
South DakotaFrom the Sioux tribe, meaning “allies”
TennesseeOf Cherokee origin; the exact meaning is unknown
TexasFrom an Indian word meaning “friends”
UtahFrom the Ute tribe, meaning “people of the mountains”
VermontFrom the French “vert mont,” meaning “green mountain”
VirginiaIn honor of Elizabeth “Virgin Queen” of England
WashingtonIn honor of George Washington
West VirginiaIn honor of Elizabeth, “Virgin Queen” of England
WisconsinFrench corruption of an Indian word whose meaning is disputed
WyomingFrom the Delaware Indian word, meaning “mountains and valleys alternating”; the same as the Wyoming Valley in Pennsylvania

Answer 5

Consult a good almanac, and you will get all of your answers and statistics about all of the fifty states. Good luck.

Chow!!