Wednesday, August 17, 2005

State Names

How did your state get its name?

The hour I spend in bed before I get up is spent either in weird dreams or weird ponderings.  Today it was "How did our states get their names?"  I would rather sleep. My dreams are fascinating.  My ponderings, on the other hand, are mundane.

Some states were named atter monarchs, say Georgia, for King George, or Virginia, for Elizabeth, the virgin queen.  Some say that was a misnomer. One was named for a president, Washington.

Several are named after the Indian tribes who were displaced, such as Delaware, Iowa, Utah. 

I presume Montana was named for its topography, mountains.

My own state has such an obscure name that even the governor of the state can't pronounce it.  California.  What the heck is a californ?

New York was named after York, plain enough, but why was York named York anyway?  New Hampshie for Hampshire, which is Ham's village.  Was that the biblical Ham? Or some peasant who owned a few acres of England and was routed out of bed some morning by invading Romans? Poor Ham.  I wonder what he was pondering that morning? 

LATER: I could have saved myself a lot of pondering by simply looking them up.

http://www.infoplease.com/ipa/A0854966.html

The majority of state names are Indian in origin.

Thanks everyone for getting involved.  This has been fun.

9 comments:

Anonymous said...

Interesting ours is colorado Colorful Colorado no clue how it got is name though lol

Deb

Anonymous said...

I think we need to ask a Fourth grader in California how the state got it's name.  That is when we study our state history.  Oddly enough, though it grates on most of us, the Governator pronounces "California" more closely to its Spanish roots than the rest of us, except those native Spanish speakers, of course.

KAH-lee-4- knee- ah

KAH 8

Anonymous said...

Here's all about my state.
http://www.enchantedlearning.com/usa/states/northcarolina/

Anonymous said...

Minnesota -- From an Indian word meaning "sky tinted water".
Thanks for giving me the incentive to look it up. : )
Candace

Anonymous said...

Massachusetts is an Indian word.  It means "Weather sucks big wompum."  No,but I know it's an Indian word.  The weater just moderately sucks.  Especially in winter. -Dawn-

Anonymous said...

Pennsylvania means "Penn's Woods".  William Penn was the founder of PA, and a quaker.  He named PA after his father.  Penn wanted to start up PA as sort of a religious utopia.  To read more about Penn and the beginnings of Pennsylvania check out:
http://xroads.virginia.edu/~CAP/PENN/pnintro.html  

Krissy
http://journals.aol.com/fisherkristina/SometimesIThink

Anonymous said...

Connecticut's name comes from the Mohican word (Quinnehtukqut), which means "beside the long tidal river." The river is ths Connecticut River, of course, but now the Mohegan tribe lives in, and runs its casino, The Mohegan Sun, in Uncasville, CT. It was named after the Grand Sachem, or chief, Uncas, but that's another story. Margo

Anonymous said...

You come up with some doozies. I should know this and I don't but will look it up when I have time. I know I have read how Texas got its name. Shame on me. Paula

Anonymous said...

Illinois is an Indian name also.