Contributed by: Ahmed Imam (idealimam @ yahoo.com)
You know the names of all 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 Owyhee , 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 Iroquois.
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".
No comments:
Post a Comment