384 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1954 



Kio Grande. When this region was annexed to the United States 

 through the cession of 1846, the name was retained but with the trans- 

 lation into English as New Mexico. Mexico, in the official orthog- 

 raphy of Mexico, is written Mejico, but the older orthography, Mexico, 

 still largely obtains throughout the world, even in Spanish-speaking 

 countries. The Aztec spelling is Mexico, of which the pronunciation is 

 meci'ko, this being one of the names of Mexico City and apparently 

 meaning the "place of Mexitli." Mexitli is a byname of Huitzilo- 

 pochtli, the god whose temple stood where the cathedral now stands 

 in Mexico City. The name Mexico also had, and still has, reference 

 to the region of Mexico City and to the entire nation. New Mexico 

 was created a Territory in 1850, a State in 1912. 



New York. — The earlier name of New York was New Amsterdam, 

 the capital of the Dutch colony of America, known as New Nether- 

 land. When Governor Stuyvesant, the last Dutch Governor of the 

 Dutch colony, surrendered to the English in 1664, the Dutch colony 

 came under the British crown. It was proclaimed at once that the 

 name New Amsterdam be changed to New York, in honor of James, 

 Duke of York and Albany, younger brother of Charles II of England. 

 York is probably the corruption of a British word meaning "a grove 

 of yew trees." 



North Carolina. — The name Carolina is the feminine of a neo- 

 Latin adjective Caroliinus, derived from neo-Latin Carolus, Charles. 

 The name Carolina was first given in honor of Charles IX of France, 

 but later grants were named in honor of Charles I and again of 

 Charles II of England. The grant of Carolina of Charles I was made 

 in 1629, of Charles II in 1663. North and South Carolina were made 

 separate colonies in 1729. 



North Dakota. — Dakota is the Dakota Sioux Indian word meaning 

 "friend," in some of the eastern dialects beginning with 1 instead of 

 with d. The k is aspirated and the accent is on the next to the last 

 syllable. The originating form is dakhota. Dakota Territory was 

 created in 1861, The Territory received its name because of being 

 occupied by the Dakota tribe. In 1889 North Dakota and South 

 Dakota were admitted as separate States. 



Ohio. — La Salle was the first European to discover the Ohio Eiver, 

 and wrote in 1680 that the Iroquois call it Ohio, spelling the name as 

 it is spelled today, in French pronunciation, of course, the i being pro- 

 nounced like English ee. W. N. Fenton states that what is evidently 

 the same word is still in use in the Seneca language of the Iroquoian 

 stock in the form 'Ohiiyo', the Seneca name of the Allegheny River. 

 The ordinary word for "beautiful," "magnificent," in Seneca is wiiyo', 

 which is to be connected, perhaps, with 'Ohiiyo'. The name 'Ohiiyo' 

 is also applied by the Seneca to the Ohio River, into which the Alle- 

 gheny River flows, and one of the informants stated that the name 



