List of U.S. State Name Etymologies

List Of U.S. State Name Etymologies

The fifty U.S. states have taken their names from a wide variety of languages. The names of 24 states derive from indigenous languages of the Americas and one from Hawaiian: eight come from Algonquian languages, seven from Siouan languages (one of those by way of Illinois, an Algonquian language), three from Iroquoian languages, one from a Uto-Aztecan language, and five from other Native American languages.

Twenty-two other state names derive from European languages: seven come from Latin (mostly from Latinate forms of English personal names), five come from English, five come from Spanish (and one more from an Indigenous language by way of Spanish), and four come from French (one of these by way of English). The etymologies of six states are disputed or unclear: Arizona, Hawaii, Idaho, Maine, Oregon, and Rhode Island (in the table below, those states have one row for each potential source language or meaning).

Of the fifty states, eleven are named in honor of an individual. Of those eleven, seven are named in honor of kings and queens: the two Carolinas, the two Virginias, Maryland, Louisiana and Georgia. Only one is named after a president of the United States.