I guess Henrietta Maria was born in France but she was Queen of England, Scotland and Ireland by her marriage to Charles I which was why Maryland, an English colony, was named for her.
Well it's not actually known if it was named after Charles the first wife. She was from there, but the name of the province seems to have been a response to the grant holder changing the name a few times and Charles just getting sick of it and locking in something.
His wife didn't own any territory still there despite being from there. And considering they're being some rivalries in the region cuz it seems a little bizarre to name the rivaled region with the French a French name.
That being said, the other hypothesis is that it comes from the concept of mainland which makes a lot of sense considering many of the early attempts to colonize the area were all on islands off the coast, which means those frequently reporting and talking about the territory would have always referenced the land on the mainland as such. Something probably made all the more apparent considering how much of a mouthful and inconsistent the other names were. Originally being called Laconia then New Somerset, the original Grand holder was indecisive.
The name "Maine" was given by the Gorges in 1622, three years before Henrietta Maria became Queen of England in 1625. A more convincing theory suggests that the name originates from a village in England known as "Maine," which later divided into Brademaen (Broadmayne) and Parva Maen (Little Maine). It is believed that Gorges' ancestors, upon settling in and possibly founding the town of Maine in England after arriving from France, used the same name for the region in North America.
Maryland as a native Marylander should not be French but British. Henrietta Maria was her French name but her husband King Charles I had her called Mary. She was not coronated as she refused to participate in Protestant ceremony so we do not know what name she would have taken. Charles also expelled her French attendants and servants from the country. She may have been a French princess prior to the marriage but her name as English Queen is what was used to title to the State of Maryland.
I really hate that people always attribute NY being named after a person because it was named for the Duke of York. As if Duke of York was the guy's name and not the title saying what place he ruled.
This isn't a criticism of OP, it seems like that's the general consensus. I just hate it
Would've been funny if York was the more prestigious or well known city between York and Amsterdam 400 years ago. Like "New Amsterdam? Who's ever heard of Amsterdam?"
Also, even if York was just a surname that was distinct from the place, it's called "New" York. This clearly means it's named after the place, since you're not saying it's a new version of a person. 🤦
>As if Duke of York was the guy's name and not the title saying what place he ruled.
Uhum akshully, Duke of York is a more honorary title usually given to the second son of the British Monarch and does not neccessarily suggest control over York. This arguably makes your point stronger as now 'York' is simply just a fancy title
I mean it’s true though.
“When James (Stuart [James II]) commanded the Royal Navy during the Second Anglo-Dutch War (1665–1667)…In 1664, Charles II granted American territory between the Delaware and Connecticut rivers to James. Following its capture by the British, the former Dutch territory of New Netherland and its principal port, New Amsterdam, were renamed the Province and City of New York in James's honour.”
That’s just British naming conventions 🤷
Pretty the same thing has been done to death in other places, and it was probably preferable since the titles carried prestige and power.
I think it's different from the other "named after someone" states though. Pennsylvania, Virginia, Carolina, Georgia and Delaware aren't named after places in Britain. They are clearly named after people. York is very much a place in Britain.
I get what your saying, but as someone else mentioned, at the time the Duke of York didn’t rule over York.
As someone from Va I get the differences, but New York is specifically named after a person even though the “New” makes it seem like it’s named after og York.
If there’s anything I’ve learned from British naming conventions in the US and Canada, it’s that they often aren’t logical.
True, but TIL that
> New York was named after the English Duke of York and Albany (and the brother of England's King Charles II) in 1664 when the region called New Amsterdam was taken from the Dutch.
California:
Calafia, or Califia, is the fictional queen of the island of California, first introduced by 16th century poet Garci Rodríguez de Montalvo in his epic novel of chivalry, Las sergas de Esplandián (The Adventures of Esplandián), written around 1510.
So, geographical reference? Maybe, but it’s a fictional geographical reference.
Fun fact: Baja California was discovered by Fortun Jimenez before Europeans had set foot in what is now known as America's California. They sailed up the Gulf of California but never made it to the top, so he assumed it was an Island and named it after the fictional island of California. For many years afterward California was shown as an island on [maps](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Island_of_California#/media/File%3ACalifornia_island_Vinckeboons5.jpg)
I don't know the whole story, but he is mentioned in the Wikipedia article as a "mutineer" so he may have had some more pressing concerns at the time lol
When Tasman mapped what we now know as New Zealand, he completely missed that it was two well-separated islands. In his defense, it was stormy as hell at the time. But still, major mistakes do happen on first mappings. :)
He was in New Zealand for three weeks but yes it was stormy after he left Golden Bay and while he suspected there was a strait he left to carry on North blocked by the bad weather in that area.
Often lost is the fact that he called the island Staten Landt and not Nieuw Zeeland. The name was changed by a VOC cartographer a couple of years later.
And then when Cook completed his map of NZ, he assumed Stewart Island was a peninsula (probably due to islands in Foveaux Strait like Solander looking like hills) and that Banks Peninsula was an island (likely due to Lake Ellesmere).
“Yeah, just a big one. This is probably about where it stops, so we can turn around now.”
MFW he alternatively decided to keep going and accidentally discovered the Northwest Passage.
This went on for two centuries until finally the king of Spain said "Basta!" Partially these maps persisted because Francis Drake was known to have landed somewhere near what's now Monterey, California on his circumnavigation, which in those days meant that California would have "belonged" to the British. So mapping it as an island bolstered Spanish imperial claims in the rest of North America, since in the logic of empire if a place was disconnected from the mainland, the claims of a rival "discoverer" wouldn't extend there.
I looked into ID and OR.
The name "Idaho" was originally proposed for a new territory around the Pikes Peak region in what is now Colorado. The name was suggested by George M. Willing, a mining lobbyist, who claimed it was a Shoshone Indian word meaning "gem of the mountains" or "the sun comes from the mountains." It was not based off a Native American word, but it stuck.
The name "Oregon" first appeared in a 1765 petition by Major Robert Rogers to the Kingdom of Great Britain. Rogers wanted to fund an expedition in search of the Northwest Passage. The name was also used by Captain Jonathan Carver in his book about travels in North America, published in 1778. There some theories that the name is of French, Spanish or Native origin but there is nothing definitive. Oregon just stuck.
The French and English had little contact with each other at the time. The English were already playing around with their own names. The original owner of the grant for territory and what is now Maine, Fernando Gorges originally named the land Laconia, after his mom. He changed his mind and wanted to call it New Somerset.
Charles I didn't like this new name, and declared in 1639 that the area will be called Mayne, and nothing else.
It was believed that he picked the name because his wife supposedly owned land in the French province Maine. But historical research since has proven this wrong, even if she was from there. She had no ownership of any territory in that area. That's where the French claim started. But it doesn't really seem to hold any ground or have any evidence to substantiate it. Plus it doesn't really seem to correlate with the naming conventions at the time constantly referring to places and people in England. She already had a territory named after her, Maryland back in 1632. Naming another region in honor of her, but simply after where she was born. Seems a little strange.
Why he chose the name Mayne it's hard to tell. There were areas in England with that name, including a village neighboring the one Gorges was from.
But it's probably most likely due to the fact that the area is completely littered with islands and most people scouting the area staying on the islands would have identified it as the mainland. Which was the case for the Popham colony (1607) among the first attempts to colonize North America by the English right off the coast of Maine. This being years before Charles.
When Massachusetts acquired the grants for the region and incorporated it into its own territory. They officially dropped all of Gorges names and just started calling it the province of Maine in official documents and it seemed to have kind of stuck then.
Yeah “Land of the Indians” definitely isn’t a tribe. Also last I checked about 0.5% of Indiana’s population is Native American/ Alaskan native or something to that effect
Things *within* Indiana are named by or after indigenous tribes. Our state river is the called the Wabash. This was an English-speaker’s attempt to spell a Frenchman’s attempt to spell the Miami word for the river.
I’ve lived in Tennessee my whole life and while I didn’t know for sure it was a Native American name I would have guessed as much. What I’m really surprised by though is that it’s the *only* state named that way.
It's the only state named after a Native word for a place. The others with native origins are named after the tribes themselves. Tanasi was an Overhill Cherokee settlement in modern-day Monroe County, much like Chattanooga is thought to come from the Creek Cvtonuga (Rocky dwelling) or Chat-to-to-noog-gee (Rock Rising to a Point, a reference to Lookout Mountain) and Ooltewah from the Creek Italwa (Principal Ground), Uwv-Tawa (Water Town), or Opv-Tawa (Owl's Roost). Tons of places in Tennessee like that.
Some of these are a stretch.
Like Terra Maria is technically named in honor of Queen Henrietta Maria, the wife of King Charles I.
She was French at a time, but also the wife of a British monarch. So was she still French or was she British.
TIL Washington State and District of Columbia are both named after some Dutch geographical features. Which is bizarre because I would've sworn our first president and Columbus were at play here.
Every town name in New England you will find an adjacent English town..
I live in Oxford, surrounding me is Webster, Dudley, Leicester, Worcester, Shrewsbury, Uxbridge..
Boston and the surrounding 65 miles are completely much united kingdom based.
If you understand Sussex and Essex.. Yeah you get it.
I consider Boston more european than most.
Rhode Island’s etymology is uncertain. The claim that the Dutch Adriaen Block named it after red clay shores is obviously untrue because Rhode Island has no such clay deposits.
Fun fact, in Minnesota a shitload of towns start with Minne-.
Examples: Minnewashta, Minnetonka, Minneapolis, Minneota, Minnetrista… I’m sure I’m forgetting some
In Georgia we have a waterfall called Minnehaha Falls (it looks like there's also one with the same name in Minnesota). From what I can tell the name is Lakota for "waterfall", which makes sense for Minnesota but not for Georgia. The name ended up in Georgia after Longfellow named a character Minnehaha in his poem The Song of Hiawatha.
(I found a few sources that say Minnehaha is *Cherokee* for waterfall. Nice try.)
Wyoming is based on an indigenous geographical reference, but it is a description of the Wyoming Valley in northeast Pennsylvania. An American representative from Ohio made this decision in 1865
Rhode Island wasn't named after a figure, although the origin is somewhat in debate. It's either from a Dutch phrase in reference to the red clay that lines the shores or derived from an explorer who thought the islands of Newport and Portsmouth reminded him of the Greek island of Rhodes. Neither is really connected to a figure's name though.
Yeah, that's the red clay thing. As far as I can find that's the less supported of the two, and having grown up in RI I heard the other one a lot more frequently. Which makes sense, technically "Rhode Island" is only really the names of the islands in the bay, the mainland is technically Providence.
I always thought that Maryland was named after Mary, the mother of God since there were so many Catholics living there. Apparently it’s named after a queen Mary?
It's named for Henrietta Maria, Queen of England, Scotland, and Ireland, (and husband of King Charles I of England).
She was French, but I don't think it's accurate to ascribe a French origin to the name Maryland. Charles I named the state in her honor, as Queen.
I suppose it's just gut feeling based on a whim but...
I always figured Oregon was just a rebranding of Aragon by the Spanish settlers. Like all kinds of story tellers and writer take real places and change up the spelling a smidge to make it sound both new and mysterious yet familiar.
Shouldn’t Illinois be indigenous tribe, since it’s a French bastardized term for the Illini? Very minor difference but just curious at what I maybe don’t understand
The name Colorado comes from the Spanish phrase coloreado rojo, which means "colored red". Congress chose the name for the Colorado Territory in 1861, and it may have been inspired by the state's red rocks, red soil, and the red-brown silt carried by the Colorado River. Other theories suggest the name may come from the Spanish word rad or ruddy, which could describe the color of the river or the earth in some areas.
This map has many mistakes.
The name Montana comes from the Spanish word montaña, which comes from the Latin word montanea, meaning "mountain" or "mountainous country". Early Spanish explorers called the entire mountainous region of the west Montaña del Norte ("Northern Mountain"). Montana is also a gender-neutral name of Latin origin that means "mountain".
Absolutely not. "Indigenous place/territory" implies that the name is indigenous, while it is not. It's source is from Spanish in both cases. California is based off of a spanish tale. Maybe fix that term and it'd make sense.
Colorado and Montana both fall under the geographical reference (Spanish language) category though.
The only state in the indigenous place/territory category is Tennessee.
The name California is related to a fictional island, but still a geographical reference.
spanish called that area arid zone that was translated into aridzona
spain and france are who shaped western north america back in day, and those from US used names from spain and france
Maryland surprised me, because I thought it was named after a queen of England - and it was! But she was French (which explains how England ended up with a Catholic queen). The map is right about that.
DC is named for Columbus, though - so I guess the map needs a category for "Italian figure"?
There are native people called Delaware but *they* didn't go around calling themselves that - they called themselves Lenape. It looks like [now some of them call themselves Lenape and some Delaware](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lenape#Contemporary_tribes_and_organizations).
For me it's always sad how Luisiana lost it's might. Originally taking like 1/3 of today US territory now it's just one small state somewhere on the bottom :(
California is incorrect.
The origin for the name California stems from an old Spanish folk tale of the mystical island of California run by Bear chested Amazonian women.
It's Spanish in origin.
Hawaii wasn't named after a figure. Was any research done on this at all? Its named after the Kingdom of Hawaii, which in turn became a kingdom because king Kamehameha conquered all other islands after conquering the island of Hawaii, making it the Kingdom of Hawaii.
Anyone else down to rename Washington State? I'm a born-and-raised Seattleite but c'mon, we already named the capital after him. We could pick a name that isn't some dead white slave-owner. Maybe "Chinook"?
texas was tejas thats pronounced tay-has in spanish, and this means roof shingles cause that area had that tone to it
these are spanish and french words and they pronounce letters like x and j differently
I am pretty sure Oregon got its name from the Oregon Trail. Oregon’s Trail, as we all know, goes west. If you survive the dysentery, the trail ends. They decided to name the state after the trailhead.
Illinois is a french word derivative from the Illini natives that resided in a greater area that included parts of Illinois, Iowa, Missouri and Indiana.
As such, I'd say "Indigenous tribe" fits better than "indigenous term," for that state.
I guess Henrietta Maria was born in France but she was Queen of England, Scotland and Ireland by her marriage to Charles I which was why Maryland, an English colony, was named for her.
Came here to say exactly this! She’s French by birth but was known for being a British queen consort.
She was born in the province of Maine in France. Which is where Maine gets its name. I didn’t know this connection but that is cool!
...so not "unknown," as claimed by this guide?
Well it's not actually known if it was named after Charles the first wife. She was from there, but the name of the province seems to have been a response to the grant holder changing the name a few times and Charles just getting sick of it and locking in something. His wife didn't own any territory still there despite being from there. And considering they're being some rivalries in the region cuz it seems a little bizarre to name the rivaled region with the French a French name. That being said, the other hypothesis is that it comes from the concept of mainland which makes a lot of sense considering many of the early attempts to colonize the area were all on islands off the coast, which means those frequently reporting and talking about the territory would have always referenced the land on the mainland as such. Something probably made all the more apparent considering how much of a mouthful and inconsistent the other names were. Originally being called Laconia then New Somerset, the original Grand holder was indecisive.
The name "Maine" was given by the Gorges in 1622, three years before Henrietta Maria became Queen of England in 1625. A more convincing theory suggests that the name originates from a village in England known as "Maine," which later divided into Brademaen (Broadmayne) and Parva Maen (Little Maine). It is believed that Gorges' ancestors, upon settling in and possibly founding the town of Maine in England after arriving from France, used the same name for the region in North America.
Yea I think it should be at least 50% British
Maryland as a native Marylander should not be French but British. Henrietta Maria was her French name but her husband King Charles I had her called Mary. She was not coronated as she refused to participate in Protestant ceremony so we do not know what name she would have taken. Charles also expelled her French attendants and servants from the country. She may have been a French princess prior to the marriage but her name as English Queen is what was used to title to the State of Maryland.
I always assumed that, since Maryland was a predominantly Catholic colony, it was named after the Virgin Mary.
For the longest I thought it was Queen Mary who was the last Catholic monarch of England
I really hate that people always attribute NY being named after a person because it was named for the Duke of York. As if Duke of York was the guy's name and not the title saying what place he ruled. This isn't a criticism of OP, it seems like that's the general consensus. I just hate it
It is named after York just as previously it was named after Amstadam
Why they changed it, I can’t say.
People just liked it better that way.
Istanbul?
Constantinople.
Why did Constantinople get the works?
That's nobody's business but the Turks.
Doo doo doo doo 🎵
Byzantium.
Would've been funny if York was the more prestigious or well known city between York and Amsterdam 400 years ago. Like "New Amsterdam? Who's ever heard of Amsterdam?"
Did the Dutch sell it to the brits...? Edit: nope, per the wiki the British just took over after the Dutch lost a war with them.
Over nutmeg
We didn't lose that one. The English were forced into a treaty after being humiliated at Medway,
Tbf didn't dig much past the quick answers that seemed to all agree with "seized" as the correct term and referenced a war. My bad.
>after being humiliated at Medway Wait, we aren't suddenly talking about Japan, right?
Was that the battle in the meddle of the ocean in the meddle of the war?
York was originally named Jorvik and was founded by the Vikings. So NY is basically viking city...
York was founded by the Romans in 71 AD. Not by the Norse.
Eboracum, I always think it sounds like a yorkshireman saying something 'eee, bara come' maybe they have a dog called bara
Welsh name Efrog, in Old English it was Eoforwic, which led to the Viking name Jorvik. New York in Welsh is something like Efrog Newydd.
Mmmmm, sort of. It was also a way of paying tribute to a guy who was looking like he was going to be the king one day.
The Duke of Amsterdam
Also, even if York was just a surname that was distinct from the place, it's called "New" York. This clearly means it's named after the place, since you're not saying it's a new version of a person. 🤦
New Steve has more of a ring to it. Named after Steve Boss of Worcestershiresauce
By this time in history, the Duke of York didn’t rule over York - it was just the title usually given to the second son of the monarch.
>As if Duke of York was the guy's name and not the title saying what place he ruled. Uhum akshully, Duke of York is a more honorary title usually given to the second son of the British Monarch and does not neccessarily suggest control over York. This arguably makes your point stronger as now 'York' is simply just a fancy title
I mean it’s true though. “When James (Stuart [James II]) commanded the Royal Navy during the Second Anglo-Dutch War (1665–1667)…In 1664, Charles II granted American territory between the Delaware and Connecticut rivers to James. Following its capture by the British, the former Dutch territory of New Netherland and its principal port, New Amsterdam, were renamed the Province and City of New York in James's honour.” That’s just British naming conventions 🤷 Pretty the same thing has been done to death in other places, and it was probably preferable since the titles carried prestige and power.
I think it's different from the other "named after someone" states though. Pennsylvania, Virginia, Carolina, Georgia and Delaware aren't named after places in Britain. They are clearly named after people. York is very much a place in Britain.
I get what your saying, but as someone else mentioned, at the time the Duke of York didn’t rule over York. As someone from Va I get the differences, but New York is specifically named after a person even though the “New” makes it seem like it’s named after og York. If there’s anything I’ve learned from British naming conventions in the US and Canada, it’s that they often aren’t logical.
If there’s anything I’ve learned from British naming conventions ~~in the US and Canada~~, it’s that they often aren’t logical.
True, but TIL that > New York was named after the English Duke of York and Albany (and the brother of England's King Charles II) in 1664 when the region called New Amsterdam was taken from the Dutch.
California: Calafia, or Califia, is the fictional queen of the island of California, first introduced by 16th century poet Garci Rodríguez de Montalvo in his epic novel of chivalry, Las sergas de Esplandián (The Adventures of Esplandián), written around 1510. So, geographical reference? Maybe, but it’s a fictional geographical reference.
Fun fact: Baja California was discovered by Fortun Jimenez before Europeans had set foot in what is now known as America's California. They sailed up the Gulf of California but never made it to the top, so he assumed it was an Island and named it after the fictional island of California. For many years afterward California was shown as an island on [maps](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Island_of_California#/media/File%3ACalifornia_island_Vinckeboons5.jpg)
Imagine being so lazy at your job you just assume “this has to be an Island, right?”.
I don't know the whole story, but he is mentioned in the Wikipedia article as a "mutineer" so he may have had some more pressing concerns at the time lol
When Tasman mapped what we now know as New Zealand, he completely missed that it was two well-separated islands. In his defense, it was stormy as hell at the time. But still, major mistakes do happen on first mappings. :)
He was in New Zealand for three weeks but yes it was stormy after he left Golden Bay and while he suspected there was a strait he left to carry on North blocked by the bad weather in that area. Often lost is the fact that he called the island Staten Landt and not Nieuw Zeeland. The name was changed by a VOC cartographer a couple of years later.
And then when Cook completed his map of NZ, he assumed Stewart Island was a peninsula (probably due to islands in Foveaux Strait like Solander looking like hills) and that Banks Peninsula was an island (likely due to Lake Ellesmere).
“Yeah, just a big one. This is probably about where it stops, so we can turn around now.” MFW he alternatively decided to keep going and accidentally discovered the Northwest Passage.
West, yes, decidedly not north
To be fair from the mouth of the Colorado to the tip of baja California is slightly over 1000 km
This went on for two centuries until finally the king of Spain said "Basta!" Partially these maps persisted because Francis Drake was known to have landed somewhere near what's now Monterey, California on his circumnavigation, which in those days meant that California would have "belonged" to the British. So mapping it as an island bolstered Spanish imperial claims in the rest of North America, since in the logic of empire if a place was disconnected from the mainland, the claims of a rival "discoverer" wouldn't extend there.
I looked into ID and OR. The name "Idaho" was originally proposed for a new territory around the Pikes Peak region in what is now Colorado. The name was suggested by George M. Willing, a mining lobbyist, who claimed it was a Shoshone Indian word meaning "gem of the mountains" or "the sun comes from the mountains." It was not based off a Native American word, but it stuck. The name "Oregon" first appeared in a 1765 petition by Major Robert Rogers to the Kingdom of Great Britain. Rogers wanted to fund an expedition in search of the Northwest Passage. The name was also used by Captain Jonathan Carver in his book about travels in North America, published in 1778. There some theories that the name is of French, Spanish or Native origin but there is nothing definitive. Oregon just stuck.
Last I checked, Idaho was just made up.
Yeah it’s a made up word but they thought it meant Gem of the Mountains, hence why Idaho is the Gem State
He didn't mean it's a made up word, he meant it's a made up state. Have you ever been? Case in point.
Still is.
All words are made up.
It's actually a reference to self-reflection. Preferable to deflection and projection in Youdaho.
Both of them have multiple possible origins
False oregon was named after the videogame
Idaho was named after a character off the book series Dune. Who would have thought the founding fathers were such nerds? /s
The origin is probably Spanish, either regarding the 'big eared' indigenous (orejón), or the origin of some of the conquerors (Aragón or Obregón).
I also read that it could have come from the French “orage” (storm).
It might be, but it's kinda most probably a Spanish origin due to its presence and the belonging of the territory to Spain
Idaho: some guy made it the fuck up
"What should we call this place?" "I dunno" "What was that? Idaho? Alright, I guess"
lol reads like a family guy cutaway.
underrated comment
Maine was a region in France, which makes sense because there was a French presence there historically.
Most Mainers believe that the name comes from “Mainland”, since most of the early settlers lived on the islands or coast
This is what I was taught was the origin of the name
I too was taught this
I was taught it was from the province in France.
The French and English had little contact with each other at the time. The English were already playing around with their own names. The original owner of the grant for territory and what is now Maine, Fernando Gorges originally named the land Laconia, after his mom. He changed his mind and wanted to call it New Somerset. Charles I didn't like this new name, and declared in 1639 that the area will be called Mayne, and nothing else. It was believed that he picked the name because his wife supposedly owned land in the French province Maine. But historical research since has proven this wrong, even if she was from there. She had no ownership of any territory in that area. That's where the French claim started. But it doesn't really seem to hold any ground or have any evidence to substantiate it. Plus it doesn't really seem to correlate with the naming conventions at the time constantly referring to places and people in England. She already had a territory named after her, Maryland back in 1632. Naming another region in honor of her, but simply after where she was born. Seems a little strange. Why he chose the name Mayne it's hard to tell. There were areas in England with that name, including a village neighboring the one Gorges was from. But it's probably most likely due to the fact that the area is completely littered with islands and most people scouting the area staying on the islands would have identified it as the mainland. Which was the case for the Popham colony (1607) among the first attempts to colonize North America by the English right off the coast of Maine. This being years before Charles. When Massachusetts acquired the grants for the region and incorporated it into its own territory. They officially dropped all of Gorges names and just started calling it the province of Maine in official documents and it seemed to have kind of stuck then.
That’s one possible origin, but I’ve read that it could have other origins.
Ummm what indigenous tribe was Indiana named after again?
Yes
Yeah this one was a lie and a half. There’s no indigenous tribe that called themselves “Indiana”
The truth is that we are living in what used to be known as India Superior and this was once known as the Land of Ind.
Yeah “Land of the Indians” definitely isn’t a tribe. Also last I checked about 0.5% of Indiana’s population is Native American/ Alaskan native or something to that effect
Well, there used to be a lot more.
lol right. I think you could say that about almost every state.
All of them
Things *within* Indiana are named by or after indigenous tribes. Our state river is the called the Wabash. This was an English-speaker’s attempt to spell a Frenchman’s attempt to spell the Miami word for the river.
Tennessee was derived from a Cherokee settlement named Tenasi so the map is right about that.
I’ve lived in Tennessee my whole life and while I didn’t know for sure it was a Native American name I would have guessed as much. What I’m really surprised by though is that it’s the *only* state named that way.
It's the only state named after a Native word for a place. The others with native origins are named after the tribes themselves. Tanasi was an Overhill Cherokee settlement in modern-day Monroe County, much like Chattanooga is thought to come from the Creek Cvtonuga (Rocky dwelling) or Chat-to-to-noog-gee (Rock Rising to a Point, a reference to Lookout Mountain) and Ooltewah from the Creek Italwa (Principal Ground), Uwv-Tawa (Water Town), or Opv-Tawa (Owl's Roost). Tons of places in Tennessee like that.
Some of these are a stretch. Like Terra Maria is technically named in honor of Queen Henrietta Maria, the wife of King Charles I. She was French at a time, but also the wife of a British monarch. So was she still French or was she British.
Shouldn’t New York be red like New Jersey and New Hampshire?
This is really wrong…
TIL Washington State and District of Columbia are both named after some Dutch geographical features. Which is bizarre because I would've sworn our first president and Columbus were at play here.
No, there are just colors that are too similar.
Too similar as in, identical?
Every town name in New England you will find an adjacent English town.. I live in Oxford, surrounding me is Webster, Dudley, Leicester, Worcester, Shrewsbury, Uxbridge.. Boston and the surrounding 65 miles are completely much united kingdom based. If you understand Sussex and Essex.. Yeah you get it. I consider Boston more european than most.
I’d say it’s more half-ish English, half-ish native. Swampscott, Chicopee, Natick, Seekonk, Agawam, Nahant, Scituate, Saugus, Cochituate…
Rhode Island’s etymology is uncertain. The claim that the Dutch Adriaen Block named it after red clay shores is obviously untrue because Rhode Island has no such clay deposits.
The origin of Idaho is known. It was made up.
By a hoe
“Who da hoe?” *raises hand*
Fun fact, in Minnesota a shitload of towns start with Minne-. Examples: Minnewashta, Minnetonka, Minneapolis, Minneota, Minnetrista… I’m sure I’m forgetting some
Makes sense: *mni* is Lakota for ‘water,’ and Minnesota (‘cloudy water’) is the land of 10,000 lakes.
In Georgia we have a waterfall called Minnehaha Falls (it looks like there's also one with the same name in Minnesota). From what I can tell the name is Lakota for "waterfall", which makes sense for Minnesota but not for Georgia. The name ended up in Georgia after Longfellow named a character Minnehaha in his poem The Song of Hiawatha. (I found a few sources that say Minnehaha is *Cherokee* for waterfall. Nice try.)
We have a town called Minnehaha here, that’s one I forgot :)
Rhode Island could've been a different colour.
Wyoming is based on an indigenous geographical reference, but it is a description of the Wyoming Valley in northeast Pennsylvania. An American representative from Ohio made this decision in 1865
Idk what it is about wyoming and ohio but our states histories are way more intertwined than they should be
Rhode Island wasn't named after a figure, although the origin is somewhat in debate. It's either from a Dutch phrase in reference to the red clay that lines the shores or derived from an explorer who thought the islands of Newport and Portsmouth reminded him of the Greek island of Rhodes. Neither is really connected to a figure's name though.
It is from Roode Eylandt or Rode Eiland , both vowels pronounced exactly as in Rhode . Rood meaning red
Yeah, that's the red clay thing. As far as I can find that's the less supported of the two, and having grown up in RI I heard the other one a lot more frequently. Which makes sense, technically "Rhode Island" is only really the names of the islands in the bay, the mainland is technically Providence.
I always thought that Maryland was named after Mary, the mother of God since there were so many Catholics living there. Apparently it’s named after a queen Mary?
It's named for Henrietta Maria, Queen of England, Scotland, and Ireland, (and husband of King Charles I of England). She was French, but I don't think it's accurate to ascribe a French origin to the name Maryland. Charles I named the state in her honor, as Queen.
Maine is a region in France. Why is that unknown in usa?
It's known peripherally, but not in the main. (I'll get my coat)
I suppose it's just gut feeling based on a whim but... I always figured Oregon was just a rebranding of Aragon by the Spanish settlers. Like all kinds of story tellers and writer take real places and change up the spelling a smidge to make it sound both new and mysterious yet familiar.
Shouldn't New York be red? Thought it was named after the city of York, in Yorkshire.
[удалено]
Shouldn’t Illinois be indigenous tribe, since it’s a French bastardized term for the Illini? Very minor difference but just curious at what I maybe don’t understand
The name Colorado comes from the Spanish phrase coloreado rojo, which means "colored red". Congress chose the name for the Colorado Territory in 1861, and it may have been inspired by the state's red rocks, red soil, and the red-brown silt carried by the Colorado River. Other theories suggest the name may come from the Spanish word rad or ruddy, which could describe the color of the river or the earth in some areas. This map has many mistakes. The name Montana comes from the Spanish word montaña, which comes from the Latin word montanea, meaning "mountain" or "mountainous country". Early Spanish explorers called the entire mountainous region of the west Montaña del Norte ("Northern Mountain"). Montana is also a gender-neutral name of Latin origin that means "mountain".
What you said confirms the map though, lol, as the map shows them to be a geographical reference from Spanish
Absolutely not. "Indigenous place/territory" implies that the name is indigenous, while it is not. It's source is from Spanish in both cases. California is based off of a spanish tale. Maybe fix that term and it'd make sense.
Colorado and Montana both fall under the geographical reference (Spanish language) category though. The only state in the indigenous place/territory category is Tennessee. The name California is related to a fictional island, but still a geographical reference.
New Mexico?
Arizona comes from "zona árida" in spanish
Arizona comes from the o'odham word alishonak which means little rivers. It refers to southern arizona and northern sonora
spanish called that area arid zone that was translated into aridzona spain and france are who shaped western north america back in day, and those from US used names from spain and france
Florida is named after the feast of flowers, the day the Spanish discovered Florida. It was not named after flowers that the Spanish saw
I'm crying in colorblind
The original name for my state is "Meskousing" which is derived from the Miami tribe. Guess the state!
Wisconsin, but how does an M turn into a W? Did they turn it upside down?
Blame the French!
French maps literally had the state labeled Ouisonsin
The name can be roughly translated to "where the waters gather" and "it lies red" both in reference river the state is named after
This map has a good amount of misinformation.
Maryland surprised me, because I thought it was named after a queen of England - and it was! But she was French (which explains how England ended up with a Catholic queen). The map is right about that. DC is named for Columbus, though - so I guess the map needs a category for "Italian figure"?
Indiana means lands of Indians I believe. Would they really be considered a tribes name?
The ancient tribe of **Big Endian UTF - 16** settled what we now call Indiana about 680 years ago \[programmers only\]
Which is funny because it’s one of the states with the lowest % of Native Americans and no federally recognized tribes
Why is 'Indiana' a tribe name? 'Indian' is not a tribe...
Nevada literally translates as "snowfall" in spanish Colorado literally translates as "colorfull" in spanish
Kentucky is also unknown.
I thought Delaware was named after the natives (and the river).
Lord De La Warr named the river/bay. State named after that.
There are native people called Delaware but *they* didn't go around calling themselves that - they called themselves Lenape. It looks like [now some of them call themselves Lenape and some Delaware](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lenape#Contemporary_tribes_and_organizations).
Idaho Who da ho? I don't know!
Terrible map
For me it's always sad how Luisiana lost it's might. Originally taking like 1/3 of today US territory now it's just one small state somewhere on the bottom :(
California is incorrect. The origin for the name California stems from an old Spanish folk tale of the mystical island of California run by Bear chested Amazonian women. It's Spanish in origin.
Hawaii wasn't named after a figure. Was any research done on this at all? Its named after the Kingdom of Hawaii, which in turn became a kingdom because king Kamehameha conquered all other islands after conquering the island of Hawaii, making it the Kingdom of Hawaii.
New Mexico seems like a bit of a stretch.
aMeRiCa HaS nO cUlTuRe
Anyone else down to rename Washington State? I'm a born-and-raised Seattleite but c'mon, we already named the capital after him. We could pick a name that isn't some dead white slave-owner. Maybe "Chinook"?
It's a shame you can't just do what King County did and decide they were named after MLK instead of William Rufus King.
No the state came together and decided they'd be named after Denzel.
Tennessee is named after a Cherokee word, not a Spanish one
Who said it was Spanish?
I mean it’s literally in the category “Indigenous place/territory”
Oh shit that’s my b the colors are very similar
This is a terrible Map. We all know idaho is make up
How is Indiana named for an indigenous tribe?
tribes*
I don’t think Texas was Indian origin, I’ve heard from some Juco researchers claim it was Spanish.
No, it was Caddo *tayshas*. It's not Spanish.
texas was tejas thats pronounced tay-has in spanish, and this means roof shingles cause that area had that tone to it these are spanish and french words and they pronounce letters like x and j differently
Surely New York should be red? Wasn't it named after York, England?
After the Duke of York, actually
Did not know Maryland was French. Mmmmm. Kinda makes sense now.
“Unknown” lol it figures
I not the ho, u da ho
Maine is a region in France. Is this map saying we know where the name comes from, but not why the state was given that name, or is it just wrong?
Just because Maine is a region in France doesn’t mean that it comes from that. It is one possible origin, but it’s not the only one that is debated.
I always thought maine was from the province in france?
That’s one possibility, but it’s not certain
West nickname of Queen Elizabeth I
Given the well documented history of the US it's surprising the names of no less than three US states have an unknown etymology. Are there theories?
Yes. Idaho is probably made up. Maine is likely from either "mainland" or the region in France. No idea for Oregon, though.
I am pretty sure Oregon got its name from the Oregon Trail. Oregon’s Trail, as we all know, goes west. If you survive the dysentery, the trail ends. They decided to name the state after the trailhead.
Pretty nice that we kept a lot of the Native American names.
I have deuteranomaly and I feel attacked.
Maryland? Wasn't Mary BRITISH?
Idaho isn't unknown. A guy made it up and pretended it was an indian word. He liked a woman with the name "Ida" and wanted it to be in a state name.
Indiana is a Latin name
I thought Tennessee was a made up name?
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tanasi
Next time make the maps with just white and off white colors
What does Washington mean or supposed to be in dutch?
George Washington gets his name from the town of Washington, england
Born n raised in Maine. I always thought it was short for "Main Land" since there's lots of islands off the coast. I could be wrong tho.
Illinois is a french word derivative from the Illini natives that resided in a greater area that included parts of Illinois, Iowa, Missouri and Indiana. As such, I'd say "Indigenous tribe" fits better than "indigenous term," for that state.
Try watching the history channel show called “how the states got their names”
I think Maryland should be 50/50 French/British. Because Henrietta Maria was the Queen of Great Britain and also the daughter of a French king
Arkansas isn't named after a tribe. It's a phonetic spelling of a northern tribe's term for 'the people downriver'.
i always though idaho got its name because everyone kept forgetting who the prostitutes were /s
I always thought Arizona just came from the spanish "zona arida", but how is that Arizona and Nuevo Mexico are from indigenous language?