Wordorigins.org

One might think that that the state of Delaware is named for the Indian tribe. But in fact, the state, the river, and even the Indian tribe are named for the first English governor of Virginia, Thomas West, Lord Delaware (Baron De La Warr). The river was named by the first European to discover it, Captain Samuel Argall, in 1610. The colony and the Indians who lived in the area were named after the river.

The Delaware Indians’ native name for themselves is the Leni-Lenape.¹

¹Webster’s Third New International Dictionary of the English Language Unabridged, edited by Philip Babcock Gove (Springfield, MA: Merriam-Webster, 1993), 595;
Illustrated Dictionary of Place Names: United States and Canada, edited by Kelsie B. Harder (New York: Van Nostrand Reinhold Company, 1976), 140.

The Nutmeg State gets its name from the Connecticut River, which in turn gets its name from the Mohican quinnitukq-ut, meaning long tidal river.¹

¹Illustrated Dictionary of Place Names: United States and Canada, edited by Kelsie B. Harder (New York: Van Nostrand Reinhold Company, 1976), 118;
Webster’s Third New International Dictionary of the English Language Unabridged, edited by Philip Babcock Gove (Springfield, MA: Merriam-Webster, 1993), 481.

The state of Colorado takes its name from the Colorado River, literally red river, from the color of the muddy water. The name was applied by Spanish explorers in the 16th century. An earlier name for the river was Rio de Tison, or firebrand river. By 1540, the name Colorado was being applied to the territory now occupied by the US state.¹

¹Webster’s Third New International Dictionary of the English Language Unabridged, edited by Philip Babcock Gove (Springfield, MA: Merriam-Webster, 1993), 449;
Illustrated Dictionary of Place Names: United States and Canada, edited by Kelsie B. Harder (New York: Van Nostrand Reinhold Company, 1976), 114.

The Golden State’s name comes from a Spanish romance written in 1510. Las sergas de Esplandian (The Exploits of Esplandian), by Garcia Ordóñez de Montalvo, contains a reference to a fictional island called California.

“…on the right hand of the Indies, there is an island called California, very near to the Terrestrial Paradise…”

Since the name was deliberately coined in fiction, we don’t know for sure what roots Ordóñez used to come up with California. It could be from the Spanish califa, succession, or calif, sovereign. Or he could have combined the Latin calida and forno into a word that roughly meant hot furnace.

Hernando Cortes was the first European to visit the peninsula of Baja California in 1535 and the name was applied either by him or someone who followed shortly after him. What is now the US state is Alta, or upper, California. The name was appearing in English texts by the 18th century.¹

¹Webster’s Third New International Dictionary of the English Language Unabridged, edited by Philip Babcock Gove (Springfield, MA: Merriam-Webster, 1993), 316;
Illustrated Dictionary of Place Names: United States and Canada, edited by Kelsie B. Harder (New York: Van Nostrand Reinhold Company, 1976), 75-76.

See Arkansas.

Unsurprisingly, Arkansas shares a common root with Kansas. Both come from the Quapaw Sioux word kansa, meaning people of the south wind. The terminal s was added by the French to conform to their spelling conventions.

¹Illustrated Dictionary of Place Names: United States and Canada, edited by Kelsie B. Harder (New York: Van Nostrand Reinhold Company, 1976), 20, 267;
Webster’s Third New International Dictionary of the English Language Unabridged, edited by Philip Babcock Gove (Springfield, MA: Merriam-Webster, 1993), 118, 1232.

The name Arizona is native American, probably from the Papago arizonac, meaning little spring or few springs. Although there are other possibilities so this origin should not be taken as a certainty.

Many believe it to come from the Spanish arida (dry) + zona (area). This is certainly not the ultimate origin, although it is likely that this Spanish combination influenced the form and adoption of the word in both Spanish and English.¹

¹Illustrated Dictionary of Place Names: United States and Canada, edited by Kelsie B. Harder (New York: Van Nostrand Reinhold Company, 1976), 19-20;
Webster’s Third New International Dictionary of the English Language Unabridged, edited by Philip Babcock Gove (Springfield, MA: Merriam-Webster, 1993), 118.

The name of the 49th US state comes to us, via Russian, from the Aleut alakshak or alaeksu or any one of a number of spelling variants. The Aleut word is reported as meaning either mainland or peninsula.

The form Alaska was in common use by the time of the US purchase of the territory from Russia in 1867. The official name was suggested by Senator Charles Sumner under the misapprehension that the word meant great land.¹

¹Illustrated Dictionary of Place Names: United States and Canada, edited by Kelsie B. Harder (New York: Van Nostrand Reinhold Company, 1976), 6; Webster’s Third New International Dictionary of the English Language Unabridged, edited by Philip Babcock Gove (Springfield, MA: Merriam-Webster, 1993), 49.

Harder, Kelsie B., ed. (1976). Illustrated Dictionary of Place Names: United States and Canada. New York, Van Nostrand Reinhold Company.

Dictionary of toponyms of North America. A bit dated, but one of the most comprehensive, single-volume works on the subject available.

This US state gets its name from the Alabama River, but where does the river get its name?

The answer is not known for certain, but it could come from the name of an Indian tribe whose name comes from the Choctaw alba, meaning plant or thicket, and amo, meaning cleaners or reapers. So the name of the tribe means reapers of thickets.¹

¹Illustrated Dictionary of Place Names: United States and Canada, edited by Kelsie B. Harder (New York: Van Nostrand Reinhold Company, 1976), 5.