| Alabama | Choctaw / Alabama | Named for the Alabama people. A widely cited Choctaw analysis connects alba, ‘plants’, with amo, ‘to clear’, yielding ‘plant-cutters’ or ‘thicket-clearers’. This is a proposed analysis of a tribal name, not a certain literal translation from modern Alabama. |
| Alaska | Unangam Tunuu (Aleut) | From Unangam Tunuu (Aleut) alaxsxaq, commonly glossed ‘mainland’, through Russian Alyaska. A fuller interpretation relates it to the land toward which the sea’s action is directed. The borrowing route is Aleut → Russian → English. |
| Arizona | O’odham / Basque? | The source remains disputed. One explanation traces Spanish Arizonac to O’odham ali ṣona-g, ‘having a little spring’; another proposes Basque aritz ona, ‘the good oak’. The map shows alternatives rather than choosing a settled winner. |
| Arkansas | Kansa / Quapaw via Miami-Illinois | Named through French Arcansas, a rendering of a Miami-Illinois name for the Quapaw. That name is connected with the Siouan tribal name also behind Kansa/Kansas. The route involves a Siouan name → Miami-Illinois → French → English; the familiar ‘south wind’ gloss oversimplifies that history. |
| California | Spanish | Probably taken from the fictional island of California, ruled by Queen Calafia, in the Spanish romance Las sergas de Esplandián by Garci Rodríguez de Montalvo. The immediate source is a Spanish literary place name; its deeper formation is debated. |
| Colorado | Spanish | Spanish colorado means ‘red’ or ‘ruddy’. The state takes its name from the Colorado River, whose name refers to its reddish appearance. The route is a Spanish descriptive river name → territory → state. |
| Connecticut | Eastern Algonquian | From an Eastern Algonquian expression conventionally rendered ‘at the long tidal river’, referring to the Connecticut River. The precise source language is less secure than the broader family attribution; Mohegan-Pequot and other southern New England languages appear in accounts. |
| Delaware | French via English | Named after the Delaware River, itself named for Thomas West, Lord de la Warr. The English title contains a surname of probable Norman French origin, often connected with de la guerre/de la werre, ‘of the war’. It is not derived from the Delaware/Lenape people’s own name. |
| Florida | Spanish | From Spanish Pascua Florida, ‘flowery Easter’, the name associated with Juan Ponce de León’s arrival during the Easter season in 1513. Florida is the feminine form of florido, ‘flowery’ or ‘in bloom’. |
| Georgia | Latin via English | Named for King George II of Great Britain using a Latinized form of George, Georgius, in English colonial naming. The personal name ultimately comes from Greek geōrgos, ‘farmer’ or ‘earth-worker’; the map labels the naming form, not every earlier ancestor. |
| Hawaii | Hawaiian | From Hawaiian Hawaiʻi. Its earlier explanation is not settled: accounts connect it with Hawaiki, the ancestral Polynesian homeland, or with Hawaiʻiloa, a legendary discoverer of the islands. The uncertainty concerns the earlier name story, not its Hawaiian source. |
| Idaho | Coined name? / Plains Apache? | Probably an invented name promoted by George M. Willing, initially with an unsupported claim that it meant ‘gem of the mountains’. A competing explanation connects it with Plains Apache ídaahę́, ‘enemy’, used for the Comanche. Neither that translation nor a Native-language origin should be presented as settled. |
| Illinois | Miami-Illinois | A French adaptation of an Algonquian designation for the Illinois/Illiniwek people, usually connected with Miami-Illinois ilenweewa, ‘speaks normally’. The history runs through a name for a people and French spelling, rather than the frequently repeated literal translation ‘tribe of superior men’. |
| Indiana | Latin | A Latinized formation meaning ‘land of the Indians’. The term ‘Indian’ was a European designation for Indigenous peoples; Indiana is therefore classified here as a Latin naming form, not as a word taken from an Indigenous American language. |
| Iowa | Dakota / Chiwere | Named for the Ioway people, through French Aiouez, from a name attributed to Dakota/Chiwere sources. Its deeper meaning is not securely established. The often-repeated ‘sleepy ones’ gloss is not treated here as a certain translation. |
| Kansas | Kansa | Named after the Kansas River, which was named for the Kaw or Kansa people. Their name, recorded in forms such as kką:ze and transmitted through French, is associated with ‘wind’; more elaborate word-for-word translations are less secure. |
| Kentucky | Iroquoian* | Originally the name of the Kentucky River, generally connected with an Iroquoian expression meaning ‘at the meadow’, ‘at the field’ or ‘on the prairie’. Iroquoian is a language family: the exact source language and derivation remain debated. |
| Louisiana | French | French Louisiane, named for King Louis XIV of France. The immediate source is a French royal commemorative name. Louis itself has older Frankish/Germanic roots, but those are not the colonial naming language shown on the map. |
| Maine | English / French? | Several explanations compete: English ‘main’ or ‘mainland’, contrasted with offshore islands; the French province of Maine; or an association with the English place Broadmayne. The origin language is therefore marked disputed rather than forced into English or French. |
| Maryland | English | An English commemorative formation honoring Queen Henrietta Maria, wife of King Charles I of England: Mary + land. Older proposed roots of the personal name Mary/Maria are a separate question and do not make Hebrew or Egyptian the colony’s naming language. |
| Massachusetts | Massachusett | From the Massachusett people’s name, conventionally interpreted as ‘at the great hill’ or ‘near the great little mountain’. The hill is commonly identified with Great Blue Hill near modern Milton and Canton. The source is Massachusett, an Eastern Algonquian language. |
| Michigan | Ojibwe | From Ojibwe mishigami, ‘large water’ or ‘large lake’, through French spelling. The name was associated with Lake Michigan before becoming the territory’s and state’s name. |
| Minnesota | Dakota | From Dakota mní sóta, referring to the Minnesota River and commonly translated ‘cloudy water’ or ‘cloudy-colored water’. The name describes the appearance of water, not simply the English adjective ‘blue’. |
| Mississippi | Ojibwe | From Ojibwe misi-ziibi, ‘great river’, transmitted through French. The river supplied the name of the territory and then the state. It is not literally ‘father of waters’, a popular but inexact rendering. |
| Missouri | Miami-Illinois | From Miami-Illinois wimihsoorita, a designation for the Missouri people associated with their dugout canoes, transmitted through French. It is often explained as ‘one who has a wooden boat’. The state and river names are not securely translated as ‘muddy water’. |
| Montana | Spanish | From Spanish montaña, ‘mountain’, used in creating the territorial name. The state’s name is a Spanish-derived mountain term even though its present spelling lacks the Spanish ñ. |
| Nebraska | Chiwere | From a Chiwere name commonly written ñįbraske, ‘flat water’ or ‘flattened water’, referring to the Platte River. The river was also known as the Nebraska River; the name reached English through earlier transcription and French contact. |
| Nevada | Spanish | Spanish nevada means ‘snow-covered’, a feminine form related to nevar, ‘to snow’. The state name comes from the Sierra Nevada, ‘snow-covered mountain range’. |
| New Hampshire | English | An English colonial name after Hampshire in England. Hampshire is historically connected with Southampton’s earlier name Hamtun and an English shire or county designation. ‘New’ marks the transfer of an existing English place name to North America. |
| New Jersey | English | An English colonial name after Jersey in the Channel Islands, the birthplace of co-founder Sir George Carteret. Jersey itself probably contains an Old Norse island-name formation, often reconstructed as Geirrsey, ‘Geirr’s island’; that deeper history is distinguished from the English colonial naming act. |
| New Mexico | Nahuatl + Spanish | From Spanish Nuevo México, ‘New Mexico’, containing the Nahuatl place name Mēxihco. English translated Nuevo to ‘New’ while retaining Mexico. The name’s Nahuatl root is clear, but its deeper literal meaning is debated; proposed ‘moon’ explanations are not presented as established fact. |
| New York | English | An English commemorative name after the Duke of York, later King James II. York itself has a much older history, passing through Celtic, Latin Eboracum, Old English and Old Norse forms. The map labels the colonial naming language, not every ancestral layer of the English title. |
| North Carolina | Latin via English | Carolina derives from Carolus, the Latin form of Charles, honoring the English kings Charles I and Charles II in its colonial naming history. ‘North’ distinguishes the later northern division. The personal name Charles has older Germanic roots, distinct from the Latin naming form. |
| North Dakota | Dakota | Named for the Dakota people, whose name dakhóta is commonly glossed ‘allies’ or ‘friends’. ‘North’ is the English directional qualifier added when Dakota Territory became two states. The map highlights the Dakota root of the shared name. |
| Ohio | Seneca | From Seneca ohi:yo’, referring to the Ohio/Allegheny river system, transmitted through French. The comparative linguistic source used here gives ‘large creek’; the familiar ‘beautiful river’ translation reflects a French interpretation rather than a secure literal analysis. |
| Oklahoma | Choctaw | From Choctaw okla, ‘people’, ‘tribe’ or ‘nation’, and homa, ‘red’: conventionally ‘red people’. The name was coined as a rendering of ‘Indian Territory’, rather than being an inherited river or settlement name. |
| Oregon | Unknown | The source language and original meaning remain unresolved. The name appears in an eighteenth-century petition by Robert Rogers, but competing later explanations have not produced a universally accepted derivation. ‘Unknown’ marks a genuine etymological dispute, not a missing entry. |
| Pennsylvania | Welsh + Latin | ‘Penn’s woods’: the Welsh surname Penn combined with a Latin-derived woodland element, silvania. The name honored Admiral William Penn, father of the colony’s founder. Penn is associated with Welsh pen, ‘head’; the complete state name is a mixed commemorative construction. |
| Rhode Island | Dutch / Greek? | Two leading accounts connect the name either with Dutch roodt eylandt, ‘red island’, or with a comparison to the Greek island of Rhodes. Both concern Aquidneck Island, whose name was extended to the colony/state. The language attribution remains disputed. |
| South Carolina | Latin via English | Shares Carolina with North Carolina, from Carolus, the Latin form of Charles, honoring Charles I and Charles II in the colony’s naming history. ‘South’ identifies the later southern division; the underlying royal name predates the separation. |
| South Dakota | Dakota | Named for the Dakota people, from dakhóta, commonly glossed ‘allies’ or ‘friends’. The English qualifier ‘South’ distinguishes the southern state formed from Dakota Territory. The map highlights the Dakota root, shared with North Dakota. |
| Tennessee | Cherokee | From Tanasi, the name of a Cherokee settlement, then used for the Tennessee River and the territory/state. The village name’s literal meaning is not securely known. Cherokee attribution does not justify inventing a modern English translation. |
| Texas | Caddo | From Caddo táyshaʔ/taysha, ‘friend’ or ‘ally’, transmitted through Spanish forms such as Tejas. The term became associated with Caddo peoples and Spanish provincial naming before reaching English. This route is also documented by UT Austin’s Texas Beyond History, developed in consultation with the Caddo Nation. |
| Utah | Apache / Ute? | From Spanish yuta, a designation for the Ute people. Its deeper origin is disputed: proposals include Western Apache yúdah, ‘high’, and a connection with the Ute self-designation. The often-repeated ‘people of the mountains’ translation is not treated as a settled literal etymology. |
| Vermont | French | Formed from French vert, ‘green’, and mont, ‘mountain’ or ‘mount’: ‘green mountain’. It is a French-derived construction rather than an ordinary modern French phrase, which would generally put the adjective after the noun: mont vert. |
| Virginia | Latin | A Latinized name honoring Elizabeth I of England as the ‘Virgin Queen’. The name invokes virgin/virginia rather than deriving from a Native place name. Her unmarried status supplied the royal epithet used in colonial naming. |
| Washington | English | Named for George Washington. His English surname comes from the place Washington in historic County Durham; its detailed place-name analysis is debated but ultimately Old English. The state’s direct namesake is the person, not a newly coined descriptive word. |
| West Virginia | Latin | Takes Virginia from its parent state, adding the English directional word ‘West’ when the state separated during the American Civil War. Virginia is the Latinized name honoring Elizabeth I, the ‘Virgin Queen’. The map highlights the inherited Virginia element. |
| Wisconsin | Miami-Illinois / Ojibwe? | A Native river name recorded in French as Mescousing and later Ouisconsin. A prominent account traces it to Miami-Illinois Meskonsing, associated with a red place or red landscape; an Ojibwe ‘red-stone place’ account also appears. Both exact meaning and attribution have been debated. |
| Wyoming | Munsee (Lenape) | From Munsee, a Lenape language, xwé:wamənk, conventionally ‘at the big river flat’. The name originally belonged to the Wyoming Valley in Pennsylvania and was transferred west to the territory/state. It does not imply that the state was the original location of that Munsee place name. |