You know the names of all 50 states…but do you know where any of them come from? Here’s the best information we could find on the origin of each.
- 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."
