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The Origins Of Your State Names

Ever wonder why your state has the name it has? Probably not, but here’s why anyway.
(via Uneasysilence)

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."