Origin of North American state names

This article should be merged with Etymological list of U.S. States.

This article should be merged with List of subnational name etymologies.

The origin of North American state names come from various places. Note that in Canada the name provinces is used for the entities equivalent to states in the United States or Mexico.

Here are some origins:

Table of contents

1 Canada 2 Mexico 3 United States 4 See also

Canada

• Alberta named after Princess Louise Caroline Alberta (d. 1939), the fourth daughter of Queen Victoria.

• British Columbia takes its name partly from Britain and partially from the Columbia whose crew first explored the area.

• Manitoba is most commonly believed to have come for the Cree word maniotwapow, meaning "the strait of the spirit or manitobau".

• New Brunswick named in honour of the Duke of Brunswick-Lüneburg, son of King George III of the United Kingdom.

• Newfoundland Was called "new founde isle" by early explorers.

• Nova Scotia is Latin for "New Scotland". In the 1620s a group of Scots was sent by Charles I to set up a colony, and the Latin name is used in Sir William Alexander's 1621 land grant. Although this settlement was abandoned because of a treaty between Britain and France, the name remains.

• Nunavut means our land in Inuktitut, the language of the Inuit.

• Ontario got its name from American Indian words, most likely from Onitariio, meaning "beautiful lake", or Kanadario, translated as "sparkling" or "beautiful".

• Prince Edward Island named after Prince Edward, Duke of Kent, the brother of King George III of the United Kingdom and a commander of troops in Anglo-French fighting in Canada that was occurring at the time the name was given.

• Quebec comes from the Micmac word "Gepèèg" meaning "strait," originally referring to the narrowing of the St. Lawrence River off what is currently Quebec City.

• Saskatchewan The province's name comes from the Saskatchewan River, whose name is Cree for "swift flowing river" (kisiskatchewan).

• Yukon takes its name from the Yukon River, whose name in turn means great river in Gwich'in

Mexico

• Aguascalientes means "hot waters" in Spanish

• Baja California means "Lower California" (upper California being the US state of California

• Baja California Sur means "Southern Baja California"

• Campeche takes its name from the city of Campeche, which was founded in 1540 by Spanish Conquistadores as San Francisco de Campeche atop the preexisting Maya city of Canpech or Kimpech.

• Chihuahua takes its name from its capital city, Chihuahua. This name is thought to derive from the Nahuatl Xicuahua, or "dry, sandy place".

• Oaxaca takes its name from the Nahuatl term for the Central Valley around the capital, Oaxaca, "Huaxyácac", which means "place of the guaje trees" (Leuceana leucocephala).

• Tlaxcala means "Place of Maize Corn Bread".

• Yucatán The (probably apocryphal) story goes that when the Spaniards first waded ashore on the Yucatán Peninsula, they asked the members of the local population, who were watching, "What is this place?" The local indígenas, not understanding Spanish, asked "What did you say?" The Spanish, in their arrogance, assumed that anyone would understand their meaning, and took it to be the name.

United States

• Alabama May come from Choctaw meaning "thicket-clearers" or "vegetation-gatherers"

• Alaska Corruption of Aleut word meaning "great land" or "that which the sea breaks against"

• Arizona From the Indian "Arizonac," meaning "little spring" or "young spring"

• Arkansas From the Quapaw Indians

• California From a book, Las Sergas de Esplandián, by Garcia Ordóñez de Montalvo, c. 1500

• Colorado From the Spanish, "ruddy" or "red"

• Connecticut From an Indian word (Quinnehtukqut) meaning "beside the long tidal river"

• Delaware From Delaware River and Bay; named in turn for Sir Thomas West, Baron De La Warr

• Florida From the Spanish, meaning "feast of flowers" (Easter)

• Georgia In honor of George II of England

• Hawaii Uncertain. 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.

• Idaho Though popularly believed to be an Indian word, it is an invented name whose meaning is unknown.

• Illinois Algonquin for "tribe of superior men"

• Indiana Meaning "land of Indians"

• Iowa Probably from an Indian word meaning "this is the place" or "the Beautiful Land"

• Kansas From a Sioux word meaning "people of the south wind"

• Kentucky From an Iroquoian word "Ken-tah-ten" meaning "land of tomorrow"

• Louisiana In honor of Louis XIV of France

• Maine First 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

• Maryland In honor of Henrietta Maria (queen of Charles I of England)

• Massachusetts From Massachusett tribe of Native Americans, meaning "at or about the great hill"

• Michigan From Indian word "Michigana" meaning "great or large lake"

• Minnesota From a Dakota Indian word meaning "sky-tinted water"

• Mississippi From an Indian word meaning "Father of Waters"

• Missouri Named after the Missouri Indian tribe. "Missouri" means "town of the large canoes"

• Montana Chosen from Latin dictionary by J. M. Ashley. It is a Latinized Spanish word meaning "mountainous"

• Nebraska From an Oto Indian word meaning "flat water"

• Nevada Spanish: "snowcapped"

• New Hampshire From the English county of Hampshire

• New Jersey From the Channel Isle of Jersey

• New Mexico From the country of Mexico

• New York In honor of the Duke of York

• North Carolina In honor of Charles I of England

• North Dakota From the Sioux tribe, meaning "allies"

• Ohio From an Iroquoian word meaning "great river"

• Oklahoma From two Choctaw Indian words meaning "red people"

• Oregon Unknown. Many theories exist, the most recent and popular being that it was named after a smelt-like fish called the ooligan. Some Native American tribes in the area that were in the trade with this fish pronounced the letter "l" with an "r" sound instead

• Pennsylvania In honor of Adm. Sir William Penn, father of William Penn. It means "Penn's Woodland"

• Rhode Island From the Greek Island of Rhodes

• South Carolina In honor of Charles I of England

• South Dakota From the Sioux tribe, meaning "allies"

• Tennessee Of Cherokee origin; the exact meaning is unknown

• Texas From an Indian word meaning "friends"

• Utah From the Ute tribe, meaning "people of the mountains"

• Vermont From the French "vert mont," meaning "green mountain"

• Virginia In honor of Elizabeth "Virgin Queen" of England

• Washington In honor of George Washington

• West Virginia In honor of Elizabeth, "Virgin Queen" of England

• Wisconsin French corruption of an Indian word whose meaning is disputed

• Wyoming From the Delaware Indian word, meaning "mountains and valleys alternating"; the same as the Wyoming Valley in Pennsylvania

See also

List of subnational name etymologies