List of U.S. state name etymologies

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This is a list of the origins of the names of U.S. states.

The fifty U.S. states have taken their names from a wide variety of languages. The names of 25 states derive from indigenous languages of the Americas: eight come from Algonquian languages, seven from Siouan languages (one of those by way of Illinois, an Algonquian language), three from Iroquoian languages, one from a Uto-Aztecan language, five from other Native American languages, and one comes from Hawaiian. The other names derive from European languages: seven come from Latin (mostly from Latinate forms of English personal names), six come from English, five come from Spanish (and one more from an Indigenous language by way of Spanish), and three come from French (one of those by way of English).

Of the fifty states, eleven were named in honor of an individual. There are multiple possible etymologies for six states (Arizona, Hawaii, Idaho, Maine, Oregon, and Rhode Island); in the table below, those states have one row for each potential source language or meaning.

State name	Language of origin	Word of origin	Meaning and Notes
Alabama	Choctaw	albah amo	"Thicket-clearers"[1] or "plant-cutters", from albah, "(medicinal) plants", and amo, "to clear". The modern Choctaw name for the tribe is Albaamu.[2]
Alaska	Aleut	alaxsxaq	"Mainland" (literally "the object towards which the action of the sea is directed").[3]
Arizona	Basque	aritz onak	"Good oaks".[4][5]
	O'odham	ali ṣona-g	"Having a little spring".[6]
Arkansas	Kaw, via Illinois	akaansa	Borrowed from an Illinois rendering of the tribal name kką:ze (see Kansas, below), which the Miami and Illinois used to refer to the Quapaw.[7][8][9][10]
California	Spanish, Unknown		Probably named for the fictional Island of California in the 16th century novel Las sergas de Esplandián by García Ordóñez de Montalvo.[11] See also: Origin of the name California
Colorado	Spanish		"Red" or "reddish",[12] originally referring to the Colorado River.[13]
Connecticut	Eastern Algonquian	quinnitukqut	From some Eastern Algonquian language of southern New England (perhaps Mahican), meaning "at the long tidal river", after the Connecticut River.[14][15] The name reflects Proto-Eastern-Algonquian *kwən-, "long"; *-əhtəkw, "tidal river"; and *-ənk, the locative suffix[16] (c.f. Ojibwe ginootigweyaad, "be a long river").[17]
Delaware	French via English	de la Warr	After the Delaware River, which was named for Lord de la Warr (originally de la Guerre, "of the war"), who travelled it in 1610.[18]
Florida	Spanish	(pascua) florida	"Flowery (Easter)"[19] (to distinguish it from Christmastide which was also called Pascua), in honor of its discovery by the Spanish during the Easter season.[20]
Georgia	Latin		The feminine Latin form of "George", named after King George II of England.[21][22]
Hawai'i	Hawaiian	Hawaiʻi	From Hawaiki, legendary homeland of the Polynesians.[23]
			Named for Hawaiʻiloa, legendary discoverer of the Hawaiian islands.[24]
Idaho	English		Probably an invented word. Originally claimed to have been derived from a word in a Native American language that meant "Gem of the Mountains."[25] See also: Idaho#Origin of name
	Plains Apache	ídaahę́	Possibly from the Plains Apache word for "enemy" (ídaahę́), which was used to refer to the Comanches.[26]
Illinois	Algonquian	ilenweewa	The state is named for the French adaptation of an Algonquian language (perhaps Miami) word apparently meaning "s/he speaks normally" (c.f. Miami ilenweewa,[27] Old Ottawa <ilinoüek>,[28] Proto-Algonquian *elen-, "ordinary" and -we·, "to speak"),[29] referring to the Illiniwek (Illinois).[28]
Indiana	Latin		"Land of the Indians".[30]
Iowa	Dakota	ayúxba/ayuxwe	By way of French Aiouez, and named after the Iowa tribe. The name seems to have no further known etymology,[31][32] though some give it the meaning "sleepy ones".[33]
Kansas	Kaw	kką:ze	Named after the Kansas River,[34][35] which in turn was named after the Kaw or Kansas tribe.[8] The name seems to be connected to the idea of "wind".[36]
Kentucky	Iroquoian		Originally referring to the Kentucky River. While some sources say the etymology is uncertain,[37][38] most agree on a meaning of "(on) the meadow" or "(on) the prairie"[39][40] (c.f. Seneca gëdá’geh (phonemic /kẽtaʔkeh/), "at the field").[41]
Louisiana	French	Louisiane	After King Louis XIV of France.[42]
Maine	English		The more probable etymology is that the state's name refers to the mainland, as opposed to the coastal islands.[43]
	French		After the French province of Maine.[44]
Maryland	English		After Queen Henrietta Maria of England, wife of King Charles I.[45]
Massachusetts	Algonquian		Plural of "Massachusett" meaning "Near the great little-mountain", or "at the great hill", usually identified as Great Blue Hill on the border of Milton and Canton, Massachusetts[46] (c.f. the Narragansett name Massachusêuck[46]; Ojibwe misajiwens, "little big hill").[17]
Michigan	Ottawa	mishigami	"Large water" or "large lake".[17][47]
Minnesota	Dakota	mnisota	"Cloudy water", referring to the Minnesota River.[48][15]
Mississippi	Ojibwe	misi-ziibi	"Great river", after the Mississippi River.[17][49]
Missouri	Illinois	mihsoori	"Dugout canoe". The Missouri tribe was noteworthy among the Illinois for their dugout canoes, and so was referred to as the wimihsoorita, "one who has a wood boat [dugout canoe]".[50]
Montana	Spanish	montaña	"Mountain".[51]
Nebraska	Chiwere	ñįbraske	"Flattened water", after the Platte River, which used to be known as the Nebraska River.[52]
Nevada	Spanish		"Snow-covered",[53] after the Sierra Nevada ("snow-covered mountains").
New Hampshire	English		After the county of Hampshire in England.[54]
New Jersey	English		After the island of Jersey in the English Channel.[55]
New Mexico	Nahuatl via Spanish	Mēxihco via Nuevo México	A calque of Spanish Nuevo México.[56] The name Mexico comes from Nahuatl Mēxihco (pronounced [meːˈʃiʔko])[57][58], whose meaning is unknown, though many possibilities have been proposed (such as that the name comes from the name of the God Mextli,[59] or that it means "navel of the moon").[60]
New York	English		After York, England, to honor the then Duke of York (later King James II of England).[61]
North Carolina	Latin		After King Charles I of England.[62]
North Dakota	Sioux	dakhóta	"Ally" or "friend",[52] after the Dakota tribe.[63]
Ohio	Seneca	ohi:yo’	"Large creek",[39] originally the name of both the Ohio River and Allegheny River.[64] Often incorrectly given as "beautiful river",[65] due to a French mistranslation.[27]
Oklahoma	Choctaw	okla + homa	Devised as a rough translation of "Indian Territory"; in Choctaw, okla means "people", "tribe", or "nation", and homa- means "red", thus: "Red people".[15][66]
Oregon	Connecticut Pidgin Algonquian	wauregan	"Beautiful".[67][68] First named by Major Robert Rogers in a petition to King George III.[69]
	French	Ouaricon-sint	A mistranscription of Ouisconsin, the name for the Wisconsin River.[70]
	Chinook Jargon	ulâkân	From the Cree pronunciation of the Chinook Jargon word.[71] A species of smelt, Thaleichthys pacificus, with great significance to inhabitants of the Northwest Coast and an enormous oil content.[72][73] Chinook Jargon probably got the fish's name from Clatsop u-tlalxwə(n), "brook trout".[74]
Pennsylvania	Latin		"Penn's woods", after Admiral William Penn.[75]
Rhode Island	Dutch	roodt eylandt	"Red island", referring to Aquidneck Island.[76]
	Greek	Ρόδος	For a resemblance to the island of Rhodes in the Aegean Sea.[76]
South Carolina	Latin		After King Charles I of England.[77]
South Dakota	Sioux	dakhóta	"Ally" or "friend". See North Dakota, above.
Tennessee	Cherokee	tanasi	Tanasi was the name of a Cherokee village;[78] the meaning is unknown.[79]
Texas	Caddo	táyshaʔ	"Friend",[80] used by the Caddo to refer the larger Caddo nation (in opposition to enemy tribes). The name was borrowed into Spanish as texa, plural texas, and used to refer to the Caddo Nation.[81]
Utah	Western Apache	yúdah	"High"[82] (not, as is commonly stated,[83] "people of the mountains").[84] J. P. Harrington suggested the name was from the Ute self-designation [nuʧi̥] (plural [nuːʧiu]),[85][86] but this has been rejected.[87]
Vermont	French	vert + mont	"Green mountain"; vert in French means "green", and mont means "mountain".[88]
Virginia	Latin		"Country of the Virgin", after Elizabeth I of England, who was known as the "Virgin Queen" because she never married.[89]
Washington	English		After George Washington.[90]
West Virginia	Latin		The western, transmontane, counties of Virginia; separated from Virginia during Civil War; see Virginia, above.
Wisconsin	Miami		Originally spelled Mescousing by the French, and later corrupted to Ouisconsin.[91] Likely it derives from a Miami word for "it lies red"[92][91] (c.f. Ojibwe miskosin, "it lies red").[17] It may also come from the Ojibwe term miskwasiniing, "red-stone place".[17]
Wyoming	Munsee Delaware	xwé:wamənk	"At the big river flat"; the name was transplanted westward from the Wyoming Valley in Pennsylvania.[93]

[edit] See also

• Canadian provincial name etymologies
• Lists of U.S. county name etymologies
• Toponomy

[edit] References

[edit] Bibliography

• Bright, William (2004). Native American Placenames of the United States. Norman: University of Oklahoma Press.

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