I think Kentucky was created by Native Americans, and it means "the dark and bloody ground."

they say it is kind of uncertain what Wisconsin means. It was derived from French translations of what the Indians called the Wisconsin River. Its either Meeting of the Waters or Grassy Place.

Minne·sota - From the Sioux words for "Land of Sky-Blue Waters".

New York. Fairly self-explanatory.

Indiana: Land of the Indians. Then we shipped them out to Oklahoma.

When state legislators were planning a new capital in the 1810s, one of the names suggested was Tecumseh, the leader of the Miamis who had recently fought against the US army. With memories of the battles fresh, the legislators decided on the more "classical" "Indianapolis"--Indiana City. Are there any other large cities in the US named after American Indian leaders? Pontiac, MI?

Many states in the Midwest and South are named after American Indian words or tribes: Ohio, Michigan, Illinois, Minnesota, Kentucky, Tennessee, Missouri, Arkansas, Nebraska, Kansas, Oklahoma, Dakotas...East of those you get mostly English names (ex Delaware), west are mostly Spanish (Arizona, Utah, Idaho (?) Oregon, and Washington are exceptions). Alaska and Hawaii are both indigenous names.

lord de la warr

Maryland honors Queen Henrietta Maria, the wife of King Charles I. He was king of England at the time of Maryland's settlement as a colony in 1632.

I know Texas comes from the Native American word "Tejas" which means friend.

My homstate of Connecticut is of Algonquin Indian derivation and translates to "on the long tidal river" referring to the Connecticut River.

The word "Alabama" comes from an indian tribe that had the same name. They lived in the central part of the state, maybe around what is now Birmingham.

New York. Fairly self-explanatory.


...named after the duke of york.

Charles, latinized and then feminized equals Carolina. Charles was the king of England when the Carolina colony first got going and to honor him the latin form of Charles, Carolus, was feminized to become Carolina. Carolina split in two over economic issues -- what became South Carolina was far richer and more cosmopolitan than the northern part, because they had the international port of Charleston, and our coast was too ragged for the establishment of any major ports.

Today, of course, the situation is reversed, with North Carolina being the richer of the two, though to this day we only have two major ports, Wilmington and Morehead City, among all those miles and miles of shoreline.

Pennsylvania=Penn's woods.

Colorado = colored in Spanish. But everyone knew that.

Nebraska= Flat water
Omaha= Above all other on a stream.

Both are from the Omaha Indians.

Ohio===> Indian for buffalo shit.

(i have no idea)

California: named by general Cortez, it is derived from a character in a book entitled "Las Sergas de Esplandián," by Garcia Ordóñez de Montalvo written in 1500. The book was about an island of women ruled by Queen Califa. :)

Besides Colorado, several other state names come from common Spanish words:

Montana: mountain
Nevada: snowy (referring to the snow-capped peaks of the Sierra Nevada, not the barren desert landscape of the rest of the state)
Florida: flowered/flowery

Illinois

[French, of Algonquian origin.]

1. A confederacy of Native American peoples formerly inhabiting southern Wisconsin, northern Illinois, and parts of eastern Iowa and Missouri, with present-day descendants mostly in Oklahoma.

2. A member of this confederacy.

3. The Algonquian language of the Illinois.

Besides Colorado, several other state names come from common Spanish words:

Montana: mountain
Nevada: snowy (referring to the snow-capped peaks of the Sierra Nevada, not the barren desert landscape of the rest of the state)
Florida: flowered/flowery

Not all of Nevada is barren desert landscape.. there are parts, especially in the north, where there are lush pine forests. But anyways.. another state derived from Spanish words would be Arizona, a combination of árido (arid) and zona (zone). :)

Alabama = Choctaw word for "thicket-clearers" or "vegetation-gatherers"
Arkansas = uncertain
Dakota = Sioux word for "allies"
Kansas = Sioux word for "people of the south wind"
Utah = Ute word for "people of the mountains"
Wyoming = Delaware Indian word for "mountains and valleys alternating"

Not all of Nevada is barren desert landscape.. there are parts, especially in the north, where there are lush pine forests. But anyways.. another state derived from Spanish words would be Arizona, a combination of árido (arid) and zona (zone). :)

Now that I did not know. I thought it was just those four states (CO, MT, NV, and FL). You learn something new everyday, heh.

Missouri = canoe haver

Nope California comes from the latin Califox or califax wich means hot oven

California: named by general Cortez, it is derived from a character in a book entitled "Las Sergas de Esplandián," by Garcia Ordóñez de Montalvo written in 1500. The book was about an island of women ruled by Queen Califa. :)
California comes from the latin Califox or Califox wich means Hot Oven....

i heard that california also came from that book, and that "ornia" or "fornia" is a bastardized or broken down spelling for the muslim word for "palace". "california" is a rough translation of "caliph's palace" in arabic or some other middle eastern language, and the "california" was used as the name of a mansion or something.