~Native Americans had a Major Influence on the Names of U.S. States ~

Alabama - Derived from a Chocktaw Indian word meaning "thicket clearers", or "vegetation gatherers"; it was a name of a Muskhogean Tribe that once occupied the area.

Alaska - Alakshak or alayeska "a great country"; Aluet word thought to mean "main land" or "and that is not an island".

Arizona - Derived from the Pima Indian village of Arizonac, probably means" place of the small (little) spring".

Arkansaw - Quapaw - a tribe known as Arkansas - meaning "downstream".

California - Named by early Spanish explorers after a fictional island in a16th century Spanish tale, the area so named was thought to be an island.

Colorado - Spanish word meaning "ruddy" or "reddish" - named by its first territorial governor, William Gilpin, because the region contains the source of the Colorado River.

Connecticut - Indian name Quonecktacut "Long River of the Pines"; Algonquian Indian quinnehtukgut, meaning "beside the long tidal river".

Delaware - Named after Thomas West - Baron de la Warr.

Florida - Ponce de Leon either called it "Feast of Flowers" because of the flowers or Easter week, "Pascua Florida", because that was when it was discovered.

Georgia - Named after King George II of Great Britain.

Hawaii - Of uncertain origin. Possibly named by Hawaii Loa, traditional discoverer of the islands, after himself, or named after the traditional home of the Polynesian, Hawaii, or Hawaiki.

Idaho - Uncertain origin. May have come from Idahi, the Kiowa-Apache name for Comanche Indians, or from Eedah-how, a Shoshonean greeting, roughly equivalent to "good morning".

Illinois - Named after an Indian tribe meaning "Tribe of Superior Men".

Indiana - Inhabited by people known as Mound Builders, The Miami; means "land of the Indians".

Iowa - Indian tribe of Siouan stock; named for The Iowa Indians; or Ayuhwa "Sleepy Ones", named by their Sioux enemies.

Kansas - Named after the Kansa Indians.

Kentucky - Meaning "prairie" or "meadowland" from the Iroquois Indians word Kentake.

Lousiana - Named after King Louie XIV of France.

Maine - Distinguished from the term "main"; was called "The Main".

Maryland - Named after Queen Henrietta Maria, wife of Charles I.

Massachusetts - The Massachusetts Indians; thought to be of Algonquian origin meaning "near the great hill".

Michigan - Algonquian Indian word meaning Michiguma or "great water" or "great lake"; or Algonquian words michi ("large") and gami ("lake"). (See another meaning at the bottom of this section)

Minnesota - Sioux called Minisota meaning "sky tinted water" because of the land of sky blue water nickname; another source says "clouded water" because of the light colored clay it carried in suspension.

Mississippi - Algonquian words misi and sipi, meaning "big river", also meaning "father of waters".

Missouri - Illinois Emissourita "dwellers of the big muddy"; named for the Missouri Indians and means either "town of the large canoes" or "people having wooden canoes".

Montana - Spanish for "mountains", also said to mean "mountainous region".

Nebraska - From the Siouan or Oto Indian word nebrathka, meaning "flat water".

Nevada - Spanish word meaning "snow covered".

New Hampshire - Named after the English county of Hampshire.

New Jersey - Named after the Isle of Jersey off of England.

New Mexico - Self explanatory.

New York - Named in honor of the Duke of York and Albany, later King James II.

North Carolina - Named in honor of Charles I of England.

North Dakota - Dakota Indian's Siouan word for "allies".

Ohio - Iroquois word meaning "beautiful" or "great river".

Oklahoma  - Chocktaw word meaning "red man"; or "okla" and "humma" meaning" people" and "red".

Oregon  - Uncertain origin. Frontiersman Robert Roger was the first to use the name (spelled Ouragon, Ourgan, or Ourigan) in 1765, referring to the Columbia River; one account traces the name to a corruption of the French word for Wisconsin (ouisconsin).

Pennsylvania  - Named after William Penn ("Penn's Woods") by King Charles II of England.

Rhode Island  - Variously attributed to the Italian navigator, Giovanni daVerrazano, who wrote that one of the Islands in Narragansett Bay reminded him of the Island of Rhodes; and to the Dutch navigator, Adriaen Block, who gave an Island in the Bay the name "Red Island" (roodt eylandt in Dutch).

South Carolina  - Named in honor of Charles I of England.

South Dakota  - Dakota Indians Siouan word for "allies".

Tennessee  - Probably named for an ancient capital of the Cherokee Indians.

Texas  - From the Spanish word "tejas", rendering of the Hasinai Indian word tayshas, which meant "allies" or "friends".

Utah  - Ute - a North American Indian tribe of the Shoshonean branch of the Uto - Aztecan language family; also spelled Uta.

Vermont  - French words "monts" and "verts" meaning green mountains.

Virginia  - Name given for Queen Elizabeth I, Englands virgin queen.

Washington  - Named after first U. S. president.

West Virginia  - The western countries of Virginia remained loyal to the Union after the rest of the States joined the Confederacy in 1861. Two years later, they became the separate State of West Virginia.

Wisconsin  - Derived from Weeskonsan, an Ojibwa Indian word, also meaning "gathering of the waters".

Wyoming  - A Delaware Indian term meaning "at (on) the big (great) plains"; originally applied to the Wyoming Valley in Pennsylvania.