The meaning of Maine, a state in US (United States)
Maine: the mainland, to distinguish it from the islands along the coast
Alaska: from an Aleutian word for mainland
Alabama: from Alabama River, from an ethnic name
Arizona: Papago ali shonak: place of a small spring
Arkansas: from Arkansas River, from an ethnic name
California: Named by Hernan Cortez in 1535 after a fictional island in the poem “Las Sergas de Esplandián”, by Garcí Ordóñez de Montalvo
Colorado: from Colorado River, Spanish colorado: red
Connecticut: Algonquian kuenihtekot: long river
Delaware: after Thomas West, Lord de la Warr, first governor of Virginia
District of Columbia: named for Christopher Columbus
Florida: Spanish Pascua Florida: Palm Sunday, because discovered on 1513-03-20, Palm Sunday
Georgia: Named for King George II of England
Hawaii: Polynesian Owhyhii: place of the gods
Idaho: from a native word which means either “eaters of fish” or “stone of the mountains”
Illinois: from Illinois River, from Algonquin illini: warriors
Indiana: land of Indians
Iowa: from Iowa River, from native word ay-ah-wah: the sleeper
Kansas: from Kansas River, from an ethnic name, Sioux for south wind people
Kentucky: probably from Iroquois kentake: meadow land
Louisiana: named for King Louis XIV of France on 1681-08-22
Maryland: named for Queen Henrietta Maria of England, consort of Charles I
Massachusetts: from Massachusetts Bay, from an ethnic name, from Algonquian for big hills
Michigan: from Lake Michigan; Algonquian for big lake
Minnesota: from Minnesota River, from a Dakotan word for cloudy water
Mississippi: from Mississippi River, from Algonquian for big river
Missouri: from Missouri River, from an ethnic name
Montana: from Spanish montaña: mountain
Nebraska: from an old name for the Platte River, from Dakotan for flat water
Nevada: from the Sierra Nevada, from Spanish nevada: snowy
New Hampshire: named in 1629 after Hampshire county in England
New Jersey: named in 1664 after Jersey, a Channel Island
New Mexico: from Spanish Nuevo Mexico, applied to new lands north of the Mexican provinces
New York: after the city and county of York in England, but explicitly in honor of the Duke of York
North Carolina: Northern part of Carolina, named for King Charles I (Latin: Carolus) of England
North Dakota: Northern part of Dakota, from an ethnic name
Ohio: from Ohio River, from Iroquoian for beautiful river
Oklahoma: Choctaw for red people (originally applied to a smaller region)
Oregon: possibly from a mistaken identification of the Columbia River with a conjectural Ouaricon River on old maps
Pennsylvania: Penn (William Penn, grantee of land) + Latin silva: forest + -nia (suffix for country)
Rhode Island: from the island now known as Aquidneck, likened by Giovanni da Verrazano to Rhodes in the Mediterranean
South Carolina: Southern part of Carolina (see North Carolina)
South Dakota: Southern part of Dakota, from an ethnic name
Tennessee: from Tennessee River, which was named for a Cherokee town near its headwaters
Texas: from a group of natives known as teyas or tejas, meaning friends
Utah: from Utah River, from an ethnic name (Utes)
Vermont: a coined name, intended to represent French monts verts: green mountains
Virginia: named by Queen Elizabeth I of England using an epithet which alluded to her unmarried state
Washington: named in honor of George Washington
West Virginia: descriptive; separated from Virginia in 1862 to adhere to the Union
Wisconsin: from Wisconsin River, possibly from Alonquian for big long river
Wyoming: after the Wyoming Valley in Pennsylvania, which was named from Algonquian for big flats