Talk:List of U.S. state name etymologies

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On the etymology for the state of Colorado it states that the meaning of the word is "Colored river, presumably referring to the Colorado River", from my recollection, and the wikipedia article on Colorado, I thought it meant "The Color red" or "reddish in color" etc., can anyone confirm or dispute this? Thunderbolt16 18:30, Apr 12, 2004 (UTC)

Agreed, it means 'red'. Compare e.g. Palo Colorado, the early Spanish name for the Coast redwood. - MPF 21:57, 15 Apr 2004 (UTC)

Idaho: can anyone confirm the double aspiration in "ee-dah-how"? Would not "ee-da-how" be more accurate? - MPF 21:57, 15 Apr 2004 (UTC)

Was there any reason for the page being dark blue? It wasn't very readable so I changed it. If there was a reason for it then please revert. Angela 22:22, Oct 4, 2003 (UTC)

no, there was no reason .. i've got the same claim on the Swedish version. This colour did I found in another article and thought wiki would change it depending on the user theme set in the preferences. // Rogper 23:19, 4 Oct 2003 (UTC)

Thanks, btw, for adding more specific things to it. I read a book that is dated back to 1974 so I clued that there was some more things that have been restored. Anyone knows what Hawaii means, or is it still unknown ? // Rogper 23:21, 4 Oct 2003 (UTC)

According to Terry Crowley (An Introduction to Historical Linguistics. Oxford University Press, 1992, pg. 289), "Māori oral traditions tell of canoe voyages from the distant land of Hawaiki, many many generations ago. The stories record the names of particular canoes which came ashore at different locations along the coastline of the new land that they called Aotearoa, and modern Māori groups speak of their descent from one or another of these founding waka, or canoes. The name Hawaiki has the same origin as the name of the biggest island in Hawaii, which is phonemically /hawaiʔi/, as well as the name of the largest Samoan island, /savaiʔi/. --Whimemsz 22:42, 30 December 2005 (UTC)


I believe some of these need a little checking, or at least some alternative derivations. See http://www.statehousegirls.net/resources/symbols/names/statenamesorign/ and http://www.rootsweb.com/~neresour/OLLibrary/Montgomery/mahx025.htm for example. It gives different kings that Carolina was named after. Bill Bryson also contends that Idaho is a made-up word. DJ Clayworth 18:29, 16 Oct 2003 (UTC)

For what it's worth, many many of Bryson's claims about languages are wrong. Nonetheless, in this case, he seems to be right. This PDF paper, for example, says that "Idaho" was a word invented by one George M. Willing, which he claimed came from an "Indian" word meaning "gem of the mountains," but which in reality meant nothing at all. --Whimemsz 22:42, 30 December 2005 (UTC)
Also, the Arkansas article says the name is derived from a French word. I've not changed either because I don't know which is correct -- sannse 16:30, 29 Nov 2003 (UTC)
I think that the Arkansas article is wrong, tho can't check right now. What source do that article have ?

Hmm. This list disagrees with what is at the head of Minnesota, though I don't know Dakota, so I couldn't say what's right —Mulad 02:12, 20 Jul 2004 (UTC)

Shouldn't there be links to the entities that the states were named after, e.g. Missouri after the Missouri River? Chl 04:46, 14 Nov 2004 (UTC)

Is there any cite for the name of Louisiana being from King Louis, or is it just a guess? I ask because there is an area in Denmark named Louisiana, and the state may have drawn it's name from there. Then again, I don't know where the name of that place comes from. --Smári McCarthy 21:55, 17 August 2006 (UTC)

Louisiana is named after King Louis, according to the CD-ROM "History" which provides an overview of world history and American history. King Louis was in fact the king of France at the time. Also, it was a French man, La Salle, who first named it.--Beezer137 (talk) 00:11, 10 March 2008 (UTC)

[edit] European countries etymological map?

What about some cool dude making one? Hasbro 21:01, 25 August 2006 (UTC)

In several notes, the (commercial) online discussion website Wordreference.com and its forum are quoted as a source. Can a commercial website and a forum open to non-professionals and amateurs be considered an authoritative source? --84.173.52.163 04:27, 3 March 2007 (UTC)

I don't see where the forums are cited. Wordreference's dictionary is cited several times, but I wasn't aware that the dictionary itself was not a reliable source; it's served me well so far. But any good Spanish dictionary would have definitions for, say, montaña or colorado, so it strictly isn't necessary to use Wordreference as the source. I just don't have an authoritative print dictionary I can cite--does someone else? --Miskwito 04:42, 3 March 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Arizona

I always though "Arizona" was from Spanish, arido zona (arid zone). Seems to make sense, too. 128.138.131.250 22:51, 10 October 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Oregon (toponym)

Oregon has a separate article for the discussion of its name that was split out from the Oregon article. Would it make sense to link to it instead of Oregon in the first column of the table? Or else add some sort of "see also" to the Oregon section? Katr67 (talk) 18:05, 30 January 2008 (UTC)