THE ORIGIN OF AMERICAN STATE NAMES 



111 



ever, did not come into general use and 

 for a time disappeared. About 1630 the 

 country was referred to as Carolina in 

 some English state papers, and it was 

 considered to have been so named after 

 Charles I of England, but it was not until 

 1663 that the name Carolina was defi- 

 nitely applied to this section by the lords 

 proprietor, who had received a grant to 

 the land from Charles II and who named 

 the country in his honor. 



Georgia was named by and for King 

 George II of England, and the colony 

 was referred to under this name in the 

 charter which that monarch granted to 

 General Oglethorpe, the founder, in 1732. 



THREE OF OUR STATES HAVE FRENCH 

 NAMES 



Of the three States bearing French 

 names, the origin of one is doubtful. 

 This small number is out of proportion 

 to the extent of French explorations, evi- 

 dence of which can be gained from the 

 trail of French place-names from the 

 mouth of the St. Lawrence, through 

 Montreal, Quebec, and the Great Lakes, 

 Detroit, Sault Ste. Marie and Duluth, 

 down the Mississippi Valley, past Des 

 Moines and St. Louis to Xew Orleans. 



The French made some great discov- 

 eries — the St. Lawrence, some of the 

 Great Lakes, and Lake Champlain. for 

 instance. They were fearless adven- 

 turers : no land was too wild to explore, 

 no river too swift to cross or too danger- 

 ous to navigate, no mountains too high 

 to ascend. But the fact remains that, in 

 spite of all these accomplishments, they 

 were not vigorous colonists. 



Vermont was first explored by Samuel 

 de Champlain in 1609 and was so named 

 by him after its Green Mountains (Vert 

 Mont), which are the dominating natural 

 feature of the State. It is altogether 

 fitting that the name of this intrepid ex- 

 plorer should be perpetuated in that of 

 the largest fresh-water lake in the L nited 

 States (aside from the Great Lakes), 

 which forms the greater part of the west- 

 ern boundary of the Green Mountain 

 State. 



The generally accepted version of the 

 origin of the name of Maine is that it 

 was so called by some early French ex- 



plorers after the French province of that 

 name, wherein was located the private 

 estate of Henrietta Maria, wife of 

 Charles I of England. 



There is another meaning ascribed to 

 the name, fairly well supported by au- 

 thorities. According to this version, the 

 fishermen on the islands along the coast 

 of Maine always referred to that region 

 as the "Mayn land," and. in support of 

 this theory we find the colony referred 

 to in a grant of Charles I to Sir Fer- 

 nando Gorges in 1639 as "the province or 

 county of Mayne." 



The third State name of French origin 

 is that of Louisiana, so called in honor of 

 Louis XIV. The name was first applied 

 in 1683 by the daring French explorer, 

 La Salle, who employed it to indicate the 

 vast territory watered by the Mississippi 

 and its tributaries. 



THE SIX STATES WITH SPANISH NAMES 



Permanent Spanish settlements within 

 the present boundaries of the United 

 States were made earlier than those of 

 any other country and they were numer- 

 ous. As a result, we have six States 

 bearing names of Spanish origin, and in 

 them and their neighbors we find a large 

 number of towns and counties from this 

 tongue. 



The course of the early Spanish ex- 

 plorers can be traced from Florida with 

 such place-names as St. Augustine (an 

 Anglicized form of the Spanish name), 

 Hernando and Fernandina ; through 

 Texas with Corpus Christi. San Antonio, 

 and El Paso; New Mexico with Santa 

 Ee, Las Vegas, and Albuquerque ; Ari- 

 zona with San Carlos and many smaller 

 Spanish-named towns, to California, with 

 San Francisco, Sacramento, and Los 

 Angeles and a host of "Sans" running 

 the whole list of saints' names from An- 

 selmo to Rafael. In southern Colorado, 

 Nevada, and western Utah, also, traces 

 of Spanish exploration and settlement 

 can be gleaned from the place-names. 



The first State to bear a Spanish name 

 was Florida, which was discovered by 

 Ponce de Leon on Easter Sunday, 1512. 

 Two theories exist regarding the origin 

 of the name. One refers to the Spanish 

 term, Pascua Florida (Easter Sunday — 



