What Meanings of All 50 State Names

http://www.likecool.com ^ | January 7, 2014 | Ben

[NKP_Vet]

Here is all 50 state names meaning and how the name originated: Alabama: From the Choctaw word albah amo meaning "thicket-clearers" or "plant-cutters." Alaska: From the Aleut word alaxsxaq, from Russian Аляска, meaning "the object toward which the action of the sea is directed." Arizona: From the O'odham (a Uto-Aztecan language) word ali sona-g via Spanish Arizonac meaning "good oaks." Arkansas: From a French pronunciation of an Algonquin name for the Quapaw people: akansa. This word, meaning either "downriver people" or “people of the south wind," comes from the Algonquin prefix -a plus the Siouan word kká:ze for a group of tribes including the Quapaw. California: In his popular novel "Las sergas de Esplandián" published in 1510, writer Garci Ordóñez de Montalvo named an imaginary realm California. Spanish explorers of the New World could have mistaken Baja California as the mythical place. Where Montalvo learned the name and its meaning remain a mystery. Colorado: Named for the Rio Colorado (Colorado River), which in Spanish means "ruddy" or "reddish."

[deport]

That web site could have done a better job of formatting.

[Verginius Rufus]

Many years ago, before the US census records were online, I was going through some census records (perhaps from 1880) and ran across an individual with the name Oklahoma. I didn’t write the location down—the man was an American Indian. It was well before the name Oklahoma was adopted for what was then Indian Territory.