Wordorigins.org

Nevada is a clipping of Sierra Nevada, the mountain range on the state’s western border that it shares with California. The name is from the Spanish sierra, mountain range, and nevada, snow-covered.¹

¹Webster’s Third New International Dictionary, edited by Philip Babcock Gove (Springfield, MA: Merriam-Webster, 1993), 1522;
Illustrated Dictionary of Place Names, edited by Kelsie B. Harder (New York: Van Nostrand Reinhold Company, 1976), 374.