The Meanings of State Names – a Map

Everyone probably knows that Virginia was named after Elizabeth I, the “Virgin Queen.” And, if you know a little Spanish, you might know that Colorado is from the Spanish for “red” (chile colorado, anyone?)

I’ll bet you didn’t know, though, that Iowa means “sleepy ones.” Indeed, over half of our states derive their names from an Indian tongue. And if you don’t know any Algonquian, or Shawnee, or O'odham, you might have a little difficulty figuring all those out.

So, here’s what the US would like if the states’ names were all translated into English:

Couple of things ...

Note – There’s tons of disagreement on where some of these names come from. I feel I had to pick something, though, so I’ve gone with what I deemed the most likely.

Person – There’s no less than 15 states named after people (oh, and 1 god). Several of these are friendly people, but we’ve also got one enemy as well. Some are pretty generic (Carolina is from Charles, which basically means “man”), but we’ve also got some that are very particular – if not downright peculiar – including:

• Farmer (Georgia is from George, which is Greek for “farmer”)
• Thicket clearers
• Speaks normally
• Sleepy ones

Place – Looks like we’ve got 10 places (states, that is) named after other places. Some of these are pretty obvious – basically, adjective + land form – but some are rather out there:

• Bitter land – Mary is from the Hebrew word for “bitter” (now, why anyone would want to name their baby girl that is another matter entirely)
• Wheat sheaf town – Yup, that’s what our first president’s surname supposedly means
• Sheep pen woods – the “Penn” denotes someone who lived near a sheep pen; the “Sylvania” is just Latin for “woods.”

Water – Well, I guess you could say that a body of water is a thing. But there were just so darn many of ‘em (9), I thought I would separate 'em out. Nothing too odd here, and they’re all from Indian languages. By the way, there are also 4 that are related to water, including 2 islands, some river flats, and 1 “wooden boat.”

Adjectives – 8 states are simple adjectives, with 4 of those coming straight from the Spanish. “Of the war” is the oddest one here (and is actually from a Lord de la Warr, some Colonial dude).

Other thing – Maybe I should have called this “Miscellaneous.” We’ve got 2 winds, 1 tree, and 1 lime kiln. Yeah, that's pretty random.


More maps:

• Countries: Western Hemisphere
• Countries: Eastern Hemisphere