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National Geographic : 1920 Aug
Contents
THE ORIGIN OF AMERICAN STATE NAMES 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. TREE 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 New 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 United 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 Fe, 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- 11
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