Origin and Names of the States of USA

1. ALABAMA: Possibly from the Creek Indian word alibamo, meaning "we stay here".
2. ALASKA: From the Aleutian word alakshak, which means "great lands," or "land that is not an island".
3. ARIZONA: Taken either from the Pima Indian words ali shonak, meaning "little spring," or from the Aztec word arizuma, meaning "silver-bearing".
4. ARKANSAS: The French somehow coined it from the name of the Siouan Quapaw tribe.
5. CALIFORNIA: According to one theory, Spanish settlers names it after a utopian society described in a popular 16th-century novel called Serged de Esplandian.
6. COLORADO: Means "red" in Spanish. The name was originally applied to the Colorado River, whose waters are reddish with canyon clay.
7. CONNECTICUT: Taken from the Mohican word kuenihtekot, which means "long river place".
8. DELAWARE: Named after Lord De La Warr, a governor of Virginia. Originally used only to name the Delaware River.
9. FLORIDA: Explorer Ponce de Leon named the state Pascua Florida – "Flowery Easter" on Easter Sunday in 1513.
10. GEORGIA: Named after King George II of England, who charted the colony in 1732.
11. HAWAII: An English adaptation of the native word Owyhee, which means "homeland".
12. IDAHO: Possibly taken from the Kiowa Apache word for the Comanche Indians.
13. ILLINOIS: The French bastardization of the Algonquin word illini, which means "men".
14. INDIANA: Named by English-speaking settlers because the territory was full of Indians.
15. IOWA: The Sioux word for "beautiful land," or "one who puts to sleep".
16. KANSAS: Taken from the Sioux word for "south wind people," their name for anyone who lived south of Sioux territory.
17. KENTUCKY: Possibly derived from the Indian word kan-tuk-kee, meaning "dark and bloody ground." Or kan-tuc-kec, "land of green reeds", or ken-take, meaning "meadowland".
18. LOUISIANA: Named after French King Louis XIV.
19. MAINE: The Old French word for "province".
20. MARYLAND: Named after Queen Henrietta Maria, wife of English King George I.
21. MASSACHUSETTS: Named after the Massachusetts Indian tribe. Means "large hill place".
22. MICHIGAN: Most likely from the Chippewa word for "great water." micigama.
23. MINNESOTA: From the Sioux word for "sky tinted" or "muddy water".
24. MISSISSIPPI: Most likely taken from the Chippewa words mici ("great") and zibi ("river").
25. MISSOURI: From the Algonquin word for "muddy water".
26. MONTANA: Taken from the Latin word for "mountainous".
27. NEBRASKA: From the Otos Indian word for "broad water".
28. NEVADA: Means "snow-clad" in Spanish.
29. NEW HAMPSHIRE: Capt. John Mason, one of the original colonists, named it after his English home county of Hampshire.
30. NEW JERSEY: Named after the English Isle of Jersey.
31. NEW MEXICO: The Spanish name for the territory north of the Rio Grande.
32. NEW YORK: Named after the Duke of York and Albany.
33. NORTH AND SOUTH CAROLINA: From the Latin name Carolus; named in honor of King Charles I of England.
34. NORTH AND SOUTH DAKOTA: Taken from the Sioux word for "friend," or "ally".
35. OHIO: Means "great," "fine" or "Good River" in Iroquois.
36. OKLAHOMA. The Choctaw word for "red man".
37. OREGON: Possibly derived from Ouaricon-sint, the French name for the Wisconsin River.
38. PENNSYLVANIA: Named after William Penn, Sr., the father of the colony’s founder, William Penn. Means "Penn’s woods".
39. RHODE ISLAND: Named "Roode Eylandt" (Red Island) because of its red clay.
40. TENNESSEE: Named after the Cherokee tanasi villages along the banks of the Little Tennessee River.
41. TEXAS: Derived from the Caddo Indian word for "friend," or "ally."
42. UTAH: Means "upper," or "higher," and was originally the name that Navajos called the Shoshone tribe.
43. VERMONT: A combination of the French words vert ("green") and mont ("mountain").
44. VIRGINIA AND WEST VIRGINIA: Named after Queen Elizabeth I of England, the "virgin" queen, by Sir Walter Raleigh in 1584.
45. WASHINGTON: Named after George Washington.
46. WISCONSIN: Taken from the Chippewa word for "grassy place".
47. WYOMING: Derived from the Algonquin word for "large prairie place".