The names of a surprising number of U.S. states are based on Indian words, the meaning of which may surprise you. Anyway some of them surprised me when I read them in Barbara Ann Kipfer's Word Nerd. Here are a few.
Alabama — This comes from a Choctaw phrase alba ayamule, meaning, "I open the thicket (to obtain food)."
Arizona — The word means "small spring place."
Arkansas — This stems from a Sioux word meaning "south wind people or place."
Connecticut — The Mohican word quinnitukqut meant "at the long tidal river."
Dakota — This word referred to the Sioux and means "allies or friends."
Delaware — Must have been named for the Delaware Indians, right? Nope. The state actually got its named from a colonial governor, Lord de la Warr.
Illinois — The Algonquin work illiniwek means "men or warriors."
Ohio — The Iroquois word oheo means "beautiful" and referred originally to the Ohio River.
Kansas — This comes from the same Sioux word that gave us Arkansas.
Kentucky — Kentake was an Iroquois word meaning "meadow."
Massachusetts — The name means "at the big hill" in Algonquian.
Michigan — The Chippewa phrase mica gama refers to Lake Michigan and means "big water."
Minnesota — The name means "sky-tinted water" in Sioux.
Mississippi — No surprise here. Mici sibi means "big river" in Chippewa.
Missouri — The Algonquin word means "canoe."
Oregon — The Algonquin word waregan means "beautiful river."
Tennessee — This sounds like it must have Indian origins, but actually it's based on the name the Spanish gave to the Cherokee settlement, Tenaqui.
Texas — Like Dakota, the word means "friends or allies," but in this case refers to the Apaches.
Utah — This is thought to have been based on a Navaho word meaning "higher land."
Wisconsin — This comes from an Algonquin word meaning "grassy place or beaver place."
Wyoming — The Algonquian word mache-weaming means "at the big flats."
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