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What is the origin of the names of the states in USA?
#1
What is the origin of the names of the states in USA?
I've always wondered where do these names originate from. Some of them don't even sound like English words - Wyoming, Idaho, Utah or Iowa, for instance. 
Suppositions, anyone?
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#2
RE: What is the origin of the names of the states in USA?
Some of them are Native American in origin.
I can't remember where this verse is from, I think it got removed from canon:

"I don't hang around with mostly men because I'm gay. It's because men are better than women. Better trained, better equipped...better. Just better! I'm not gay."

For context, this is the previous verse:

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#3
RE: What is the origin of the names of the states in USA?
At least one is Spanish.  Florida = La Florida, 'flower-land'.

Some of them are named for people:  Louisiana,  Pennsylvania.

That's all I know.  *handing off to the Yanks*

Boru
‘But it does me no injury for my neighbour to say there are twenty gods or no gods. It neither picks my pocket nor breaks my leg.’ - Thomas Jefferson
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#4
RE: What is the origin of the names of the states in USA?
Here is a list of them all:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_st...ted_States

"A wise man ... proportions his belief to the evidence."
— David Hume, An Enquiry Concerning Human Understanding, Section X, Part I.
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#5
RE: What is the origin of the names of the states in USA?
Iowa:

possibly it means 'sleepy ones'



I'm sure in grade school we were told it meant 'friend' or 'friends'.


Not sure what to make of that.
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#6
RE: What is the origin of the names of the states in USA?
There's probably a few meanings for some of them. I noticed Arizona has quite a few on that page. Spanish "Arid zone" makes the most sense to me though, considering it's a desert state.

It's probably especially true for the states that have names of Native origin though, considering many of these languages have been lost or influenced by others we probably can't be sure what a lot of the names mean.
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"Ironically like the nativist far-Right, which despises multiculturalism, but benefits from its ideas of difference to scapegoat the other and to promote its own white identity politics; these postmodernists, leftists, feminists and liberals also use multiculturalism, to side with the oppressor, by demanding respect and tolerance for oppression characterised as 'difference', no matter how intolerable."
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#7
RE: What is the origin of the names of the states in USA?
(July 14, 2015 at 5:25 pm)Atheist_BG Wrote: Some of them don't even sound like English words

Only a few of them are rooted in English words/names.
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#8
RE: What is the origin of the names of the states in USA?
(July 14, 2015 at 5:38 pm)Pyrrho Wrote: Here is a list of them all:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_st...ted_States

Thanks, man. That doesn't quite answer the question but it's still interesting to read. Wink
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#9
RE: What is the origin of the names of the states in USA?
The Carolinas were named after one of the King Charles.

North Carolina's capital is named after Sir Walter Raleigh.

The city I grew up in Fayetteville, is named after Marquis de Lafayette
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#10
RE: What is the origin of the names of the states in USA?
So the original thirteen colonies were mostly named after British things and people. New York, New Jersey, Carolina. One in particular is that Virgina is supposedly because queen Elizabeth is a virgin queen (because she never married, although we know that she has several lovers) After that they are largely named after Native American tribes and lands, mostly they were territories before we ever set foot in them, so we just retained what we were calling it before. A few have Spanish names, specifically those that were owned by Spain or Mexico and we bought or took. I think California is Spanish and certainly the names of most of the cities are.
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