The origin of state names

Here are a few from the list:

• ALABAMA. Possibly from the Creek Indian word alibamo, meaning "we stay here."


• COLORADO. Means "red" in Spanish. The name was originally applied to the Colorado River, whose waters are reddish with canyon clay.


• DELAWARE. Named after Lord De La Warr, a governor of Virginia. Originally used only to name the Delaware River.


• FLORIDA. Explorer Ponce de Leon named the state Pascua Florida - "flowery Easter"—on Easter Sunday in 1513.


• ILLINOIS. The French bastardization of the Algonquin word illini, which means "men."


• KANSAS. Taken from the Sioux word for "south wind people," their name for anyone who lived south of Sioux territory.

The complete list

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