the united states of america are a federal country their territory is therefore divided into 50 states 48 continental plus alaska and hawaii there's a joke that nobody can successfully name the 50 states in one sitting ever since friends did an episode where ross went crazy trying to figure it out in this video we're not just going to list out the 50 states we're going to understand why each of them has the name that it does let's start with some general characterizations state names come from a variety of languages 24 derived from indigenous languages of the americas the native american idioms although sometimes through european adaptations 22 other state names derive from actual european languages and words and the six remaining ones have unclear origins but we'll get to those in a minute of the 50 states 11 are named after an individual person of those 11 7 are named in honor of european monarchs the two carolinas the two virginias maryland louisiana and georgia over the years several attempts have been made to name a state after one of the founding fathers or other great statesmen of us history the state of franklin jefferson lincoln and washington with only the last one becoming a state name the origin of the names vary a lot depending on each state as we'll see now but there is a somewhat common pattern in many of them having the initial origin in a native tribal group of the region that led to the naming of a local river then to a colonial territory that shared the name with the river and then transitioning into statehood so now let's go one by one and understand the known or predicted origin of each state i posted timestamps in the description by the way so if you want to skip ahead to a specific state you can use that starting with the two non-contiguous states alaska's name comes from a native language aleut spoken in this chain of islands they use the word alaska which i'm mispronouncing to describe the meaning of mainland or if we literally translate it the object towards which the action of the sea is directed so the place where the waves hit i guess alaska was first colonized by the russian empire who then sold it to the united states in this native word alyaska the name the empire baptized their colony with in the year 1666 hawaii's name origen on the other hand is less certain the first year in which the usage of the name hawaii is registered was in 1879 with the original spelling having an apostrophe between the eyes the origin is uncertain because there are two hypotheses one is it coming from hawaiki meaning place of the gods the mythological homeland of the polynesians and the other is it being named after a wai loa a legendary discoverer of the hawaiian islands moving to the continental united states let's start in the west coast with california california got its name from spanish explorers choosing the name las californias for the peninsula of baja california and to alda california the region that became the present-day state of california the name likely derived from the mythical island of california in the fictional story of queen calafia as recorded in a book from the year 1510 the adventures of a splendian by garcia rodriguez de montalvo in the story this fictional queen fought alongside muslim allies and so some say the name may have been chosen by the author to be similar to the title of a muslim leader the caliph in 1846 the u. s conquered california from mexico and the spanish name was kept california's name is therefore likely to have come from a book and speaking of books let me quickly tell you about the sponsor of today's video blinkist are you like me who constantly buys books but then has little time to actually read them if so you might like what blinkist offers blinkist is an app that condenses books into 15-minute reads or listening sessions they take the essential of over 3 000 non-fiction books and present it to you for quick consumption and if you sometimes do happen to have the time they also offer full-length audiobooks up to 65 off the regular price 14 million people already use blinkist i've tried it myself and i like it a lot i found some great book summaries about history one about alexander the great and another about napoleon in each of them they summarize each of these great generals conquest in just over 20 minutes the first hundred people to go to blinkist. com general knowledge are going to get unlimited free access for a week to try it out you can cancel anytime and if you choose to continue on to a full membership you'll get 25 off as well so if you're interested click the link in the description to try out blinkist next to california is nevada also having been named by the spanish most of the south west states were first part of the spanish colonial empire then mexico and then finally conquered by the us the name sort of means snow covered and comes from the local mountain range sierra nevada then arizona the state's name appears to originate from an earlier spanish name arizona which derives from the odam name ali sonak meaning small spring or odam was a native language although some point out that the basque language spoken in northern spain also has the phrase ariz hona which means the good oak as there were numerous basque sheep herders in the area but it's more likely that the origin is the native word apparently there is a misconception that the state's name originated from the spanish term adida zona meaning arid zone this is considered a case of folk etymology and is not accurate but if there is no official record who knows further north is oregon the name origin of oregon is disputed and therefore unknown there are four options it having spanish native portuguese or french origin the spanish could have named it after the word oregano referring to a plant which grows in the southern part of the region after a stream in spain called the ahoyo del oregon or after the term oregon meaning big ear with a j then turning into a g the native origin possibility is evident in a 1765 petition to the british king robert rogers an american colonial frontiersman wrote and from thence the river called by the indians oregon in 1904 the local sunset magazine argued the name came from a portuguese explorer who named it of agua meaning hearing water after the sound the waterfalls made with that name then being adapted to oragua and then oregon this one seems kind of a stretch to be honest or the french possibility where the name would come from the spelling of a local river as warikon although this would likely be an adaptation of the native name we saw in the second option above oregon is the state of washington this one is pretty straightforward all we need to do is look at flag it's named after george washington whose surname was in turn derived from the town of washington in the historic county of durham england oddly the territory was to be named colombia after the columbia river but they found the name too similar to the district of columbia the national capital which itself contains a city named washington and so washington became the only state named after a u.
s president the east is idaho the name was initially proposed for the colonial territory of colorado after a supposed native term but when people realized the native term didn't exist they abandoned the idea however it was too late years later it fell into common usage and ended up being proposed for the actual name of the territory an alternative etymology attributes the name the apache word idahe which means enemy and apache term was also used by the spanish to name utah utah but with a y from the apache term yuda was the spanish designation for the local people which meant hai after becoming part of the u. s the term was adapted into english becoming utah back south new mexico this one is pretty straightforward too from the spanish nuevo mexico meaning the new mexico in turn the name mexico comes from the nautil native language which referred to the aztec people who founded the city of tenocht titlan colorado was also named by the spanish in 1743 it roughly means colored but in this case it meant ruddy or red originally referring to the colorado river and its muddy color wyoming gets its name from the wyoming valley in pennsylvania which itself got its name from a muncie word another native language this one which i'm not even gonna try to pronounce and it literally meant big river flat montana is again super straightforward it means mountain in spanish montana del norte was the name given by the early spanish explorers to the entire mountainous region of western north america it was proposed by the us government for the territory that ended up becoming idaho but then changed as they thought it had no meaning only to be proposed in 1864 once again for what is now montana there were some complaints again especially because it was somewhat misleading since montana itself is not that mountainous in the name of shoshon a native tribe was proposed but the committee of territories ignored it and stuck with montana north and south dakota have the same name minus the geographic indicator named after the dakota ceo native american tribes and dakota is actually also a word in the language of these people literally meaning allies or friends nebraska's name comes from the native shiwer specifically the word nebrask which literally means flat in the water it was first chosen as the name for the nebraska river and then for the territory and state i have to be honest i was not aware so many states had a native origin in their names kansas is named after the kansas river which in turn was named after the kansas native americans who lived along its banks tribe's name is often said to mean people of the south wind although this was probably not the term's original meaning in 1827 the kansas territory was established choosing this name for that reason arkansas has a very similar name just adding a prefix their word and the origin is also similar the name arkansas initially applied to the arkansas river it derives from a french term a plural for their transliteration of acanza an alconquin term for the kapow people akanza is likely also the rule term for kansa which then led to the kansas name oklahoma is the putting together of two choctaw words oakla and houma in choctaw oklahoma's tribe or nation and houma means red so red nation although a rough translation could also be indian territory moving on to the biggest state of the continental 48 texas texas's name origen is in the word taisha which means friend in the native karo language oddly enough during spanish colonial rule in the 18th century the area was briefly known as new philippines given that the asian country was at the time also a spanish colony how weird would it be if that had stuck around and texas was similarly to new york or new jersey now called new philippines louisiana is again very straightforward as was evident on the thumbnail of the video it was named after louis xiv king of france from 1643 to 1715 when rene robert cavaliere claimed the territory for france he named it la luisian so roughly lewis plus jan carries the idea of related to louis or land of lewis once part of the french colonial empire the louisiana territory stretched from the atlantic coast in the south to just north of the present-day canada border the territory was sold by the french the united states in 1803 for 15 million dollars that's four cents an acre this would be equivalent to around 300 million dollars in today's money still a pretty cheap price for something that is equivalent to almost a third of the us's territory mississippi follows the trend of being named after the local river the mississippi which defines its western boundary european settlers named it after the oribue word mizzy zibi which translates to great river the missouri river also led to the naming of the state of missouri and the river itself got its name from the indigenous missouri natives following that method we saw was common at the start of the video native tribe river colonial territory and state it is said that these specific natives were called the we me sorita meaning those who have dug out canoes the name was adapted and westernized according to how they pronounced it moving on to iowa iowa derives its name from the ioa people one of the many native american nations whose territory was within the future state at the time of european colonization minnesota comes from the native dakota designation for the minnesota river which got its name from one of two words in dakota manisota which means clear blue water or nisota which means cloudy water kind of an odd choice of words considering they sound so similar but mean pretty much the exact opposite it is said that koda people demonstrated the name to early settlers by dropping milk into water and calling it mini sota which would mean the cloudy meaning would be the right one next wisconsin the word wisconsin originates from the name given to the wisconsin river by one of the algonquin-speaking tribes french explorer jacques marquette was the first european to reach the wisconsin river arriving in 1673 and calling the river mescausing subsequent french writers changed the spelling to wisconsin and over time this became the name for both the river and the surrounding lands and then it was adapted into english when it comes to illinois the state is named for the french adaptation of a native word elen huiwa which means speak normally this adaptation was made by early french catholic missionaries and explorers who referred to the local natives as such eventually the state was named after that tribe michigan has a similar story a native name adapted and rephrased into french however this one didn't refer to the local population it was just a term they used to define large water or large lake meshigami in the uebwa language let's jump to the northeast and go along the coast for the other ones starting with main the origin of the name main is unclear one theory is that it was named after the french province of maine another is that it derives from a practical nautical term the mainland and a more recent proposal is that it was named after the english village of broadmane which was the family estate of sir ferdinando gorges the colony's founder a combination of the last two seems to be the most likely new hampshire was named by english captain john mason would gotten a land patent to establish a colony in the area after doing so he named it new hampshire after the county of hampshire in england vermont's name comes from the combination of two french words vert and mont green mountain verd in french means green and mount means mount or mountain likely because of the green mountains that characterize the states in fact the short-lived independent vermont republic used as its ensign the green mountain boys flag massachusetts takes us back into native origins the massachusetts bay colony was named after the indigenous population whose name likely came from a native word mussoik i'm really sorry i'm mispronouncing all of these but i just couldn't find the proper pronunciation and this term directly translates to big mountain moving on to rhode island despite its name most of rhode island is located on the mainland of the united states prior to 2020 the state's official name was state of rhode island and providence plantations which was created after the merger of four colonial settlements in 2020 they finally got rid of the plantations part because of the negative historical connotation and if nothing else because it's not a plantation anymore it's not certain where the original name of rhode island came from but two historical origins are presented as possibilities one comes from explorer giovanni daverazano who thought an offshore island of the region resembled the island of rhodes off the coast of greece and the other has to do with a dutch explorer avidian block who described it as an island of reddish appearance which was hardly island in 17th century dutch this would have then been adapted into rhode island and english connecticut is once again of native origin kinitukut was an eastern algonquin word which meant land on the long tidal river new jersey follows new hampshire's example and is named after jersey the largest of the british channel islands and the birthplace of one of the colony's two co-founders sir george the cartere however the state was initially created under the name of new caizadia because the roman name of the original jersey was thought to have been this during the times of the roman empire and new york continues this trend being named after the den duke of york later king james ii of england so both after the english town and its duke next to it is pennsylvania an english writer founded a province of pennsylvania as an english colony in honor of his father and probably his family in general he named it pennsylvania combining their name pen in the latin term sylvania which translates as woodlands delaware gets its name from the delaware river the river itself was named after lord delaware was the first governor general of the colony of virginia in maryland named by george calvert the first baron of baltimore after queen enriata maria wife of king charles the first of england although some catholic scholars believe the baron named the province after mary the mother of jesus virginia was the first british colony in continental north america its name at the time meant country of the virgin after elizabeth the first of england who was known as the virgin queen because she never married west virginia obviously has the same origin with the west referring to their possession over the western territories of the formerly larger virginia states upon separation ohio gets its name from a seneca native word oh hi yo meaning large creek originally the name of both the ohio and allegany rivers indiana's name is very simple and means the land of indians or simply indian land when in 1800 the united states congress passed legislation to divide the northwest territory into two areas it named the western section the indiana territory perhaps to differentiate it from the east where further colonization by europeans had taken place moving to kentucky in 1776 virginia's colony included most of england's claims in north america and the counties beyond the appalachian mountains became known to europeans as kentucky county named for the kentucky river the origin of the name is uncertain but probably based on an iroquois name meaning on the meadow in the two native languages of mohawk or seneca it was said as kentucky or gedake respectively others have suggested the term kinta aki which could have come from an algonquin language tennessee's name comes from the local cherokee 2 which had a village called tanazi located on a river with the same name the meaning of this name is unknown although some accounts suggest it meant something like meeting place moving to the carolinas north and south carolina were one colony carolina until 1729 by 1663 king charles ii of england granted a charter to start a new colony on the north american continent and apparently he ordered it to be named carolina in honor of his father charles the first alabama was named after the alabama river which in turn was named by the europeans due to the native alabama tribe in the native language the word for a person of this specific native lineage is also albamo georgia was named after british king george ii it is the feminine latin form of george it was also a reference to saint george whose name was derived from the greek word georgos meaning farmer from guer which is earth and ergon which is work and finally florida was named by the spanish in 1514 from the spanish term florida often referring to a place's abundance of flowers the state's name specifically is a shortening of la florida the flowery one or pascua florida flowery easter although then just being simplified to florida it is the oldest surviving european given place name in the us the united states also have some territories in a federal district very quickly the name origins of those are in washington dc or district of columbia the name comes from christopher columbus the famous european navigator american samoa is composed of two parts sa meaning sacred and moa meaning center so the name can mean holy center alternately it can also mean place of the sacred moa bird of polynesian mythology guam comes from the local chamorro language specifically the word guajan meaning what we have a designation for the island first used in the treaty of paris of 1898. the northern mariana islands were named by spain in 1667 after queen mariana of austria puerto rico comes from the name the spanish gave to the island in 1493 meaning rich port oddly enough the island was originally named san juan batista after saint john and the capital city was named puerto rico but eventually they switched the two the island became puerto rico and the capital san juan the us virgin islands were also named in 1493 illas virginis the name christopher columbus gave to them upon european discovery and finally the many u.
s outlying islands have various origins baker island and wake island the johnston adult and kingman reef were named after sea captains jarvis island was named after three people all named jarvis who discovered the island apparently midway atoll was named for its location being approximately halfway between north america and asia howland island was named after a whaling ship and the palmyra adult was also named after the locally shipwrecked uss palmyra while navasa island comes from the spanish term nava meaning plane since the island is very flat so that is the origin or supposed origin of each u.
