What Does Your State's Name Mean?

[spartyonbeale]

Tennessee...Yuchi American Indian for the land of a "meeting place". Kind of coincidental considering Tennessee boarders/meets with 8 other states the most of any other state (tied with Missouri).

[Styles G Shmooth]

Home state? Well I'm no historian but I believe it roughly translates to Land of Mary.

FEAR THE TURTLE!

[TeamCaptainJohn]

i believe Michigan is a Huron word for 'crippling depression'

[TX Sparty]

According to Wikipedia, Texas means "friends" or "allies" in Caddo.

[pterp12]

Originally Posted by TeamCaptainJohn

i believe Michigan is a Huron word for 'crippling depression'

I believe that belongs to the city of Cleveland,Ohio.

[Colonel Forbin]

Pennsylvania -

It means Penn's Woods, named after William Penn's father Admiral Penn.

I can hit a golf ball and hit where William Penn first landed here.

[pterp12]

Originally Posted by Styles G Shmooth

Home state? Well I'm no historian but I believe it roughly translates to Land of Mary.

FEAR THE TURTLE!

I should have listed you on the top 5 posters list.

[Colonel Forbin]

Originally Posted by pterp12

I believe that belongs to the city of Cleveland,Ohio.

Actually little turtle, I believe "Cleveland" is an Indian word for "Land without a King".

[red_cedar]

I don't have the will to read and summarize, so I'll just copy and paste:

Origin of the name California

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Jump to: navigation, search

This 1562 map by Diego Gutiérrez was the first map to print the toponym California.


California is currently a place used by three North American entities—in the United States, by the state of California; and in Mexico, by the states of Baja California ("Lower California") and Baja California Sur ("South Lower California") (collectively, these three areas constitute the region formerly referred to as Las Californias)—and shared by many other places in other parts of the world whose names derive from these.
Several origins have been suggested for the word "California", including Spanish, Latin, South Asian, and Aboriginal American origins. All of these are disputed.^[1] The following paragraphs illustrate some of the extant claims.
California, called the Las Californias Province of the Viceroyalty of New Spain, originally referred to the entire region composed of the Baja California peninsula now known as Mexican Baja California and Baja California Sur, and upper mainland now known as the U.S. states of California and parts of Nevada, Utah, Arizona, and Wyoming. After Mexico's independence from Spain, the upper territory became the Alta California province. In even earlier times, the boundaries of the Sea of Cortés and the Pacific Ocean coastlines were only partially explored and California was shown on early maps as an island, 'Califa.'
The Sea of Cortés is also known as the Gulf of California.
[edit] From the novel Las Sergas de Esplandián


The island of California, from a map circa 1650. Restored.


In the minds of European explorers, an island populated by Amazons off the coast of the Indies was a long-established expectation. The earliest known application of the name "California" to this island of the Amazons was in the romance novel Las Sergas de Esplandián (The Adventures of Esplandián) by Spanish author Garci Rodríguez de Montalvo, whose earliest surviving edition (but not first edition) is from 1510. The book described the Island of California as being east of the Asian mainland, "very close to the side of the Terrestrial Paradise; and it is peopled by black women, without any man among them, for they live in the manner of Amazons." The Island was ruled by Queen Califia. In his work, the author drew on a long-standing European belief in such an island.

Sabed que a la diestra mano de las Indias existe una isla llamada California muy cerca de un costado del Paraíso Terrenal; y estaba poblada por mujeres negras, sin que existiera allí un hombre, pues vivían a la manera de las amazonas. Eran de bellos y robustos cuerpos, fogoso valor y gran fuerza. Su isla era la más fuerte de todo el mundo, con sus escarpados farallones y sus pétreas costas. Sus armas eran todas de oro y del mismo metal eran los arneses de las bestias salvajes que ellas acostumbraban domar para montarlas, porque en toda la isla no había otro metal que el oro.

Know that on the right hand from the Indies exists an island called California very close to a side of the Earthly Paradise; and it was populated by black women, without any man existing there, because they lived in the way of the Amazons. They had beautiful and robust bodies, and were brave and very strong. Their island was the strongest of the World, with its cliffs and rocky shores. Their weapons were golden and so were the harnesses of the wild beasts that they were accustomed to domesticate and ride, because there was no other metal in the island than gold.

–Las Sergas de Esplandián, (novela de caballería)

by García Ordóñez de Montalvo.

Published in Seville in 1510.

Since then, that unknown Amazon's Island came to be known as California.
Some scholars speculate the Song of Roland, an 11th century Old French epic poem, may have served as the inspiration for the name California. It refers to the defeat suffered August 15, 778, in the retreat of Charlemagne's army at the hands of the Muslim army in Battle of Roncevaux Pass in the Pyrenees. On line 2924 of the poem, which is in verse number CCIX (209), the word Califerne is one of the lands mentioned, with no indication of its geographic location. It is, however, named after a reference to Affrike, or Africa.

Morz est mis nies, ki tant me fist cunquere

En****re mei revelerunt li Seisne,

E Hungre e Bugre e tante gent averse,

Romain, Puillain et tuit icil de Palerne

E cil d'Affrike e cil de Califerne.

My nephew's dead, who won for me such realms!

Against me then the Saxon will rebel, and after be rumbled by the people of jamaizina.

Hungar, Bulgar, and many hostile men,

Romain, Puillain, all those are in Palerne,

And in Affrike, and those in Califerne;

–Song of Roland, Verse CCIX (i.e. 209; lines 2920–2924), 11th c.

"Since the Roland poem concerns the "evil" Saracens, it's possible that the poet derived Califerne from caliph. Montalvo might also have been influenced by such similar names as Californo and Calafornina in Sicily or Calahorra in Spain."^[2]
This notion of a place of women without men echoes a passage from the diary of Christopher Columbus's first voyage:

Dixéronle los indios que por aquella vía hallaría la isla de Matinino, que diz que era poblada de mugeres sin hombres, lo cual el almirante mucho quisiera por llevar diz que a los Reyes cinco o seis d'ellas... mas diz que era cierto que las avía y que cierto tiempo del año venían los hombres a ellas de la dicha isla de Carib, que diz que qu'estava d'ellas diez o doze leguas, y si parían niño enbiábanlo a la isla de los hombres, y si niña, dexávanla consigo.

The Indians told him that along that route he would find the island of Matinino, which they said was populated by women without men, to which the admiral replied he wanted very much to bring five or six of them to the king and queen… but they said that it was certain that they [the women] existed and that at a certain time of the year men came to them [women] from the aforementioned island of Carib, which they said was ten or twelve leagues away, and if they gave birth to a son they sent it to the island of the men, and if a girl, they kept her with them.

The lure of an earthly paradise, as well as the search for the fabled Strait of Anián, helped motivate Hernán Cortés,^{[citation needed]} following his conquest of Mexico, to send several expeditions in the late 1530s and early 1540s to the west coast of New Spain. The first expedition reached the Gulf of California and the Baja California peninsula, and proved that California was in fact a peninsula. Nevertheless, the idea that California was an island persisted for well over a century and was included on many maps. The Spanish gave the name "Las Californias" to the lower Baja California peninsula and to the upper northern mainlands later known as Alta California and U.S. California.
[edit] Fourth carta de relación of Hernán Cortés

In his fourth carta de relación (a letter to the Spanish monarch narrating events of the Spanish conquest of Mexico), datelined Mexico, New Spain, 15 October 1524 (present day Mexico City) - Hernán Cortés wrote to the King Charles V on certain information about a legendary island, information that had been brought to him by the captain who had achieved the conquest of Colima.

Y así mismo me trajo relación de los señores de la provincia de Cihuatlán, que se afirman mucho de haber toda una isla poblada de mujeres, sin varón ninguno, y que en ciertos tiempos van de la tierra firme hombres que con ellas han acceso… y si paren mujeres, las guardan; y si hombres, los echan de su compañia; y que esta isla está a diez jornadas de esta provincia; y que muchos dellos han ido allá y la han visto. Dícenme asimismo que es muy rica en perlas y oro; yo trabajaré en teniendo aparejo de saber la verdad y hacer de ello larga relación a vuestra majestad.

And in the same manner I was brought a story from the men of the province of Cihuatlán, which reinforced completely that there is an island populated by women, without a single male, and at certain times men come from the mainland, who are granted access by the women… and if they give birth to women [sic], they keep them; and if men, they throw them out of their company; and that this island is ten days journey from this province; and that many of them have gone there and have seen it. They tell me also that it is very rich in pearls and gold; I will prepare myself to know the truth and tell it at length to your majesty.

–Hernán Cortés. Fourth carta de relación.

[edit] The name of California is applied

The name California is the fifth-oldest surviving European place-name in the U.S. and was applied to what is now the southern tip of Baja California as the island of California by a Spanish expedition led by Diego de Becerra and Fortun Ximenez who landed there in 1533 at the bequest of Hernán Cortés.^[3]
Cortés, on his third journey of exploration (1535–36), tried unsuccessfully to establish a colony at La Paz near the southern tip of the recently discovered Baja California Peninsula under a royal charter granting him that land.
Hernando de Alarcón, sent by the viceroy Mendoza—an enemy of Cortés—on a 1540 expedition to verify Cortés's discoveries, referred to the inhospitable lands as California, after the imaginary island in Las Sergas, discussed above. There is no question about Hernando de Alarcón's use of the term, nor about his allusion to Las Sergas, but there is question as to whether this is the first use of the name to refer to those lands and whether he intended the name as mockery. Alarcón provides a clear link from the literary, imaginary California to the real place, but his usage cannot be proven to be the actual origin, in that the name might predate him.^[4][5][6]
Today the name California is applied to the Baja California Peninsula, the Gulf of California (also known as the Sea of Cortés or Cortez), the U.S. State of California, and the Mexican states of Baja California and Baja California Sur.
[edit] Other origin theories

It is suggested that the word California may signify that it is a place that is "hot as an oven", because in Catalan "cal" means hot and "forn" means oven. (From the latin roots calida > hot, fornax > oven).^[7]
Another suggested source is kali forno, an indigenous phrase meaning "high mountains".^[8]

[pterp12]

Originally Posted by Colonel Forbin

Actually little turtle, I believe "Cleveland" is an Indian word for "Land without a King".

Well, the "Land without a King" does have a main export of crippling depression. Close enough.

[SpartanGuard]

According to Wikipedia, "The name Michigan is a French adaptation of the Ojibwe word mishigama, meaning 'large water' or 'large lake'." Sounds almost self-explanatory.

[Colonel Forbin]

Originally Posted by pterp12

Well, the "Land without a King" does have a main export of crippling depression. Close enough.

No doubt. Man, **** that town.

[yatta08]

cold and broke

[TheJape]

Thank you red_cedar for making this thread suck to read on my blackberry.

[northeastspartan]

The prevailing theory has to do with a practical nautical term, "the main" or "Main Land", "Meyne" or "Mainland", which served to distinguish the bulk of the state from the numerous islands. This is still commonly used today.

Origin of Maine’s Name: Maine State Library

[footbdude]

Originally Posted by Colonel Forbin

Pennsylvania -

It means Penn's Woods, named after William Penn's father Admiral Penn.

I can hit a golf ball and hit where William Penn first landed here.

Penn's Landing? Great shops over there.

[Colonel Forbin]

Originally Posted by footbdude

Penn's Landing? Great shops over there.

What are you talking about? There is no shopping in Penn's Landing. It's a park/concert/riverfront area.

[A. Allen]

"Alaska" is an old Aleut word meaning "The Great Land."

[#1]

Ohio comes from the Alleghany Indian tribe and means "round on the ends and high in the middle."

[spartyonbeale]

Originally Posted by northeastspartan

Origin of Maine’s Name: Maine State Library

That's cool...

[pterp12]

Why does 75% of this board live outside of Michigan? No jobs? Too cold?

[northeastspartan]

Originally Posted by pterp12

Why does 75% of this board live outside of Michigan? No jobs? Too cold?

Both of my parents went to State, mom was from Michigan....dad was from Maine. I grew up in Maine knowing the whole time where I was gonna go to school.

[spartyonbeale]

Originally Posted by pterp12

Why does 75% of this board live outside of Michigan? No jobs? Too cold?

A. Um...yes...
B. Um...yes...

Lock it...

[spartan_in_mpls]

sky-tinted water

[Bob Sakimano]

Originally Posted by pterp12

Why does 75% of this board live outside of Michigan? No jobs? Too cold?

I have a great job and, for me, it's not cold enough..