@Bee Middleton Texas was it's own country I believe called Texarkana? Correct me if I'm wrong. Then the USA annexed the state and the Cowboys still cant get a decent gm.
@Bee Middleton thank you bud. I read a lot about president James Polk and the Mexican War but I forgot a lot of stuff cuz lets face it Texas is the most recognized part of that whole area.
I love the idea that French missionaries turned up in Illinois and the natives kept telling them to "speak normally" but the French thought that was their name
like the alleged legend according to which the word "kangaroo" comes from the aborigin language, meaning "i don't understand", which was the answer the aborigins gave to english colonizers asking what animal was that. But apparently this is just a legend. May be some aussie mates can confirm?
Good story, but that had nothing to do with it. The votes to secure passage of the legislation were there if they named it Washington so politicians could go home and brag to constituents. The votes were not there if it was Columbia. The will of the locals just wasn't a consideration. That's politics.
If you want a real treat, do a deep dive into the local place names *in* the states. In New York State we have four kinds of place names: places named by homesick English settlers (Rochester, Liverpool, York, Albany, etc.), places named by homesick Dutch settlers (Amsterdam, Rotterdam), places from classical antiquity (Rome, Ithaca, Corinth, Syracuse, Troy), or Indigenous place names as spelled by the Dutch: Schenectady, Schaghticoke, Coxsackie, Schoharie, Schodack).
@@Axphyl Troy has become an amazing place in recent years. It's my hometown and it's great to see how it's rebounded from the low point in the 70s and 80s.
@@vogelvogeltje Nope there is a connection. Native groups in Mexico had trading routes where they made contact with native groups in the US thus there are similarities in language. Fun fact, Seattle actually derives from Nahuatl, the language of the Aztec.
You certainly have a RUSSIAN inflexión on your voice. What is clear is that you are wrong by mistake, or wrong with intention. Intention is to dis-inform. TeXas name is Aztec. Like MeXico. Louisiana is not a THIRD of the American territory. The fact remains that you and Russians have infiltrated US and UA-cam. We take notice.
Quick note: The name “Hawaiʻi” doesn’t have an apostrophe. The symbol commonly confused for an apostrophe is a separate Hawaiian character, called the ʻokina. It represents a glottal stop (e.g. the sound in the middle of “uh-oh”).
@@eldavis1311 So what if English isn’t the primary language of the person who operates this channel? You’re not going to do anything about it. Your second statement contains a grammatical error anyway, since you didn’t use the word ‘whose’ instead of ‘who.’ Stop being miserable.
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I find it fascinating that Texas almost got named 'New Philippines'. The name 'Philippines' in itself came from the Spanish, naming it after their king, King Philip.
KFC.. it was Named by the Founder of Kentucky, the Famous Military Hero, Colonel Sanders! I hear he had a top secret receipt for Thanksgiving that brought the people together like a Melting pot in the Heart land of America! 🐔🤤❤️🙌🏽😋💯
I'm Portuguese but spanish is a closer language. California means "Hot like an oven"; Arizona means "Arid zone" or "desert"; Florida is "with many flowers".
In Montana there's a town named Plevna. Bulgarian immigrants were heping to build the Northern Pacific Railroad through this area when news came of the Russian victory over the Turks in 1880 at Plevna, Bulgaria. The jubilant builders convinced the US Post Office to name the nearest station town in its honor.
Them: Wait, we can't name the state after Columbus, it will get confused with District of Columbia. Also them: Yeah, let's name it Washington, no way that will be confusing.
Those who want statehood for Washington, D.C. (which goes against the Constitution, which designates it as a federally run city) want to rename it: Washington, Douglass Commonwealth (after Frederick Douglass).
@@spiritmatter1553 What they should do is move the borders of DC, so that no one lives in DC. They should be citizens of Maryland or Virginia. The Federal city called Washing DC should have no citizens.
I read a while ago that Oregon comes from the mispronunciation of the community in Spain called Aragon. Nevada is literally the word for 'snowed' in Spanish but in Spain there is also a chain of mountains called Sierra Nevada. They probably named it after that place because it may have looked similar or something.
Utah was going to be named Deseret. The Mormon pioneers who inhabited the area chose the Hebrew word deseret which means “honeybee” because the honeybee is a common symbol of hard work, productivity, and self-reliance. The government didn't want the area to be named by a religion so it was rejected. The government decided on the name "Utah" from the Native American "Ute" tribe which means people of the mountains.
Of course, they did get "Beehive State" as a nickname. I'd seen "Deseret" before, from the newspaper in the area, but never knew what it actually meant until now.
Sure! The Uteh Indians are the ones called "yutas" in Spanish. And Texas, like Mexico, are spellings with the Old Spanish Orthography, it's optional to spell them with J because that's how they sound currently in Spanish. The X sounded "sh" when the names were adopted in Spanish from native languages but then in Spanish the sound changed to a "strong h" which is spelt J, only some place names continue to write X (which is misleading: since the "sh" dissapeared X is now used for "ks" and saying these names with "ks" like in English is incorrect) because of the tradition.
For the apostrophe in Hawaii, it's called an ‘okina (an upside down apostrophe). It's a glottal stop between syllable. The spelling "Hawai‘i" is still used today, as it's the "correct" spelling in Hawaiian, but just "Hawaii" works more as an everyday spelling ☺️
Never saw the apostrophe until about 8 years ago. Growing up, never saw it in print anywhere. Never noticed it was upside down, either. When God confused the languages at the tower of Babel, He wasn't leaving any room for error.
@@michaelalbertson7457 I agree, I think I've only been aware of it about 8 years ago. I use the diacritical marks heavily in my work place so it's very much second nature.
I have pronounced Hawai'i with the break. I learned that from my studies of WW II. I've gotten a lot of flack over the years for saying it that way and spelling it correctly. I also try to pronounce countries and cities as the natives of those localities do.
The j in Ojibwe is pronounced as a j. O-jib-way, although the o sound can apparently be reduced in some pronounciations, also leading to the name Chippewa (which is the more common name for the tribe in the US). Also, just worth noting that the Ojibwe/Chippewa languages fall into the Algonquin family.
Yes Ojibwe is the French word given by the French to the tribe so the French and English could identify them. Our actual name is Anishinaabe in (Canada) Chippewa in (U.S) But can also even be Anishinaabek to Anishinaabeg. For example the Navajo nation tribes name was the name given to them from the Spaniards. It Translates to “the thieves that kill with knives”. Kinda messed Up we use the word the Spanish gave them. thats the name and that’s what we go off of today. (Btw funny to call them the thieves, when the Spanish were the colonizers that came to their home land and started the war). You have the actual tribe names that are from the actual indigenous, then u have the names the Europeans gave the tribes to go off of. To use, Ojibwe or Chippewa or anishinaabe are all correct just ones that are actually the indigenous ones to the Europeans ones.
I feel like sometimes Americans wish the United States (the country) had a longer history, but i’m from Scotland/UK and i think it’s fascinating that you guys can know the exact origin of place names. In Europe it’s often hard to work out the origin of a place name, because it was so so long ago
@ emily As a historian I've always been jealous of folks over where you live, though. Short car ride and you're at a 1,000-year-old medieval site or a 2,000-year-old Roman site. All I have near me is a civil war battlefield from 1864.
Usually we can. Iroquoian names are a nightmare, because even closely related Iroquoian languages can have similar words which mean completely different things. Take Cuyahoga River in Ohio. That can mean 'On the chin' in Seneca, 'Elm River' in Cayuga, or 'Warfront' in Wyandot. Then, there's tons of native languages which are extinct & poorly recorded. This stuff is worst on the East Coast.
@@MrChristianDT yeah i understood from this video that it’s not always straightforward or possible to find place name origins in the US. But generally there’s a lot more concrete information out there compared to Europe
The naming of California is a pretty cool one among the rest. It's like if someone discovered a new territory and decided to dub it as either Isengard, Stygia, or after any other fictitious land.
Much of his information is incorrect. Someone from Portugal should not be trying to teach U.S. history. He probably got his information from so much bogus information online, instead of straight from our own history right here in the U.S.
When it comes to Hawaii, you may notice that both the archipelago and the the eastern most island share the name of “Hawaii”. It would have been worth mentioning that Kamehameha came from the island of Hawaii, and then went on to unify the islands, thus making the entire island chain the “Kingdom of Hawaii”
@Jermare I think its so dumb to just refer to the largest Hawaiian island as “the Big island” , almost insulting, especially as an official name. We should just call it Hawaii, and if it confuses tourist then great at least they’ve learned some history :)
@@Krizbonz True. I don't know why approximately 200,000 people live next to active volcanoes, though. I thought there were a lot fewer people on the actual island of Hawaii.
@@encycl07pedia- It’s actually quite predictable where the Lava will flow, the eruptions are relatively calm, and most people live a safe distance away.. however there are areas that are in a potential danger zone and people live there as well because of cheap land…
I used to think that Texas was named like that because in Spanish the X is pronounced as an J in many cases, so Tejas. Tejas are a kind of bricks used to decorate ceilings (look it up), and ceiling in Spanish is techo, but a synonym is tejado. Plus Texas being in the north of Mexico back then, made a joke as Texas being the tejado/ceiling of the country. I hope I explained myself well.
That's right, in Mexico, we have this habit of pronouncing the "X" as a "J". There are people who say "Texas", others "Tejas" because of the habit of changing the "x" to a "j". The case is quite similar to the state of "Oaxaca", foreigners mention the state using the "x" (Oaxaca), while all of Mexico pronounce it with the "j" (Oajaca). Or also "Mexico" for foreigners and "Mejico" or "Meshico or Mechico" (the latter on rare occasions) for those who are from Mexico. 😂💚🤍❤
The capital of New Spain was founded in 1521, and is the actual capital of Mexico, Ciudad de México (Mexico City) The name comes from the Mexicas, or Aztects, so the spanish names their city after that. So basically the state of New Mexico and the country of Mexico are both named after the capital of Mexico, Mexico City.
No, the official name gived by The emperor Charles V was ''Kingdom of Mexico-New Spain'', which is not the same political entinty as the Viceroyalty of New Spain. Even today ''Mexico'' refers loosly to central mexico for mexicans out of the central region. The name new mexico was given because it was conquered mostly by Mexican indians and a Grand doughter of Aztec Emperor Mocteczuma. New Mexico was Rule by the Kingdom of New Galice and the archibishop of Guadalajara.
What an educative and interesting video. Looking at the Montana flag I couldn't avoid but to notice there are two Spanish words written on it, "oro and plata" which means "gold and silver" respectively. I'm from South America, but I like learning history.
Big props to this guy, taking a chance on all these pronunciations. I'm sure you did a lot better than I could have! Very interesting research you have here. Thanks for sharing.
Hi General, I would like to suggest you use the UA-cam Chapter feature so people can just click on the progress bar, the timestamp you put in the description should be written like these: 00:00 - Intro 1:53 - Alaska 2:24 - Hawaii 2:57 - California 4:48 - Nevada 5:05 - Arizona and so on.. keep up the good work General.
Fun fact: "Nuevo Mexico" was the first time the word/letters "Mexico" appeared in written form. When Spanish colonists arrived in the region of the Rio Grande it reminded them of a region of Mexico (then Nueva España) where, incidentally, Tenochtitlan (modern day Ciudad de Mexico) stood in a region locally known as Mexica ("Mesheeca"). It also was more similar to the Spanish regions they were familiar with than places in modern day Florida and North Carolina that they had abandoned that they decided to settle there much more permanently. As a result, Santa Fe, NM is the oldest continuously governing regional capital in the U.S., founded 1610 and maintained ever since, including the Pueblo Revolt of 1680.
Funner fact, New Mexico the state was absolutely NOT named after the country of Mexico and is actually 258 years OLDER than Mexico. Conquistadores named the area Nuevo Mexico after the Aztec valley of Mexica in 1563. There was no country of Mexico until independence from Spain in 1821, after which they named their new country after the same Aztec valley (current day Mexico City). So, yes you are correct, the video got it wrong.
@@BOB-wo2nb The city of Mexico Tenochtitlan has been around for 600 years so no. Mexico and New Mexico got their name after the city of Mexico Tenochtitlan (Mexico City after the Spanish conquest).
The naming of Wyoming caught my interest a few years ago when I saw it affixed to a valley in PA. Logic dictated the name was carried west rather than east, so I couldn't figure out why American Indians indigenous to the state of Wyoming, would call it a name that had no meaning to them. Checking, it turns out many of the first white settlers who arrived in Cheyenne, decided, I guess in a bout of nostalgia, to name the region after their former Pennsylvania homestead. But he's right, it's an Algonquin word.
There's a Wyoming in Australia near Sydney that dates from 1824, also named after the valley in Pennsylvania, made famous by the 1809 poem Gertrude of Wyoming by Thomas Campbell. So Wyoming, Australia actually predates Wyoming, USA.
@@nobodytagota9813 Durham was definitely wrong, we just say "Durum" in England, don't pronounce the "ham" - same with places like Birmingham, Lewisham etc ...
In Mexico we are taught that California is a compound name that derived from two words: calor(heat) and fornos (furnace) therefore, California means Hot furnace.
As someone who’s gone through 15 different schools throughout all of Utah, I’m afraid I’m going to need a source for your citing “Yuta” as the origin of the name. It is universally taught here that the origin is from the Ute tribe.
Yeah, they named our state like that to honor the Ute tribe natives. People don't know it lot because they over look though little of the native Americans in history.
if you look at the map at 10:58 you'll see to the left of it "New Vizcaya" which is interesting because "Nueva Vizcaya" is also a province in the Philippines.
Minnesotan here- the two words are similar but pretty much mean the same- by cloudy water it’s not meant that it’s murky, but rather that you can see the clouds in the water: so reflective. Land where the water is so clear you can see the clouds in the sky
@@wennick4859 I learned it as either Ojibway or Ojibwah, both acceptable. He also isn't sounding the final e on Shoshone (sho-sho-nee). At least he did admit he may be pronouncing a lot of the names wrong; give him that. There are a lot of tribes that speak Athapaskan languages, from the Apaches in the southwest well up into western Canada (which, oddly, also has a name taken from Spanish: cañada, which can mean variously path, narrow valley, etc.
@@adriennegormley9358 really? Canada is from cañada? I heard it was after a native word Kanata, meaning settlement, close to the same time the east was first being explored.
As someone who lives and has grown up in Maryland, we were taught that the name came from the Catholic's naming it after Queen Mary, the last Catholic monarch of England, as they could not freely practice their religion in England after the rule of her sister Queen Elizabeth.
I'm from a small town in Ireland; its English name is Virginia, no need to explain that! But the Irish name is Acadh an Ùir, which means 'field of yews', after the field of yew trees which is still in the centre of the town.
I thought Utah was named after the local tribe, the Ute's. You also missed that Utah's original proposed name (by the Mormon founders) was Deseret, meaning "honeybee" which signifies industry. This is also signified by the current flag for Utah.
Just clarification, Deseret is a word from the Book of Mormon and means honeybee. Really Utah should be called “land of big smelly lake” but I love it here.
@@JIKwood I've never really been a fan of the name "The Holy War" for the rivalry. It doesn't make a lot of sense, BYU is owned by the church whose leaders are educated at the UofU. Plus it's hard to call a game a war especially when one side loses 60% of the time.
The "apostrophe" in Hawaiʻi is not technically a punctuation mark, but is actually a Hawaiian letter called "okina." Although 99% of the time people use the standard apostrophe ('), proper people use an okina (ʻ). The mark is slightly different.
Fun fact from a Kansan: the whole "people of the south wind" is actually in reference to the way the wind blows in the Kansas and Missouri River area. If I remember correctly, as well, it was an Osage word used to describe a native tribe known as the Kaw. For which is Kaw Valley in the region is named.
Yeh, I used to always wonder if Nebraska sucked or Kansas blows. In the winter, North Dakota blows, so I guess that means Nebraska sucks no matter what. That's becoming more true by the day in so many ways.
Kansas was named after the Kansa Indians, who did not call themselves "People of the South Wind". For the record, we get wind from all directions. It was the French explorers who named the Kansas river.
@@zorafay8025 So yes we get wind from all directions. However there are regions where wind direction is more predictable on a regular basis. The word Kansa is Lakota or Souix depending on your preference for the tribe. Much the same as Souix is a French word for enemy. Many of the names we use are from other tribes used to describe a people either based on relationship or region. The river was named after the people in the region, the Kansa. I will say my previous statement was incorrect Kansa is a Lakota word not Osage for as I said "people of the south wind". Now the Kansa called themselves Kaw which means "the people"
@Safwaan thats not the Río grande, it was a disputed territory between México and Texas known as the Nueces Strip. Texas claimed the Rio Grande as its southern border; Mexico claimed the Nueces River (150 mi north of the Rio Grande).
Have you ever thought that the greatest colonial empires in the world, whether Spanish, French, British, Dutch, Russian, etc., have passed through the United States? I am always amazed at how diverse the United States is.
For me, the US is the son of an Englishman who married a Spaniard, but cheated with a Frenchwoman and had Dutch and Russian ex-girlfriends. But in the end, he was in love with a Native American.
I like the way that the language and usage is in an almost constant state of evolution, including place names. I am from Missouri, and recently was informed by a rather self important young woman that by pronouncing it as Missourah I was wrong - it should be Missouree. So I asked her the proper pronunciation of the state's largest city. When she said Saint Loois, I corrected her that it is properly San Looee, French after all.
My grandpa was born in Missouri. He pronounced it the way you do. I mimicked him & call it Missourah. Is that how native Missourians say it? I live in Texas & when I mention Missourah no one tries to correct me. I’m not native to your home state. Where did that pronunciation come from?
This is an effect called "nativisation". Technically Amarillo and Saint Louis are Spanish and French respectively so one would think we should pronounce it how they do. But because they are nativised words they take on an English form where we pronounce it how it is spelled. This was often an effect of not knowing how the original languages sounded. Sometimes the nativisation doesn't take hold. For Arkansas people argued over whether to say Ar-kansas or Arkan-saw and ultimately the latter French way won. For Missouri we have a weird anomaly. So the French called it Missour-ee and even though the English is spelled the same way when they nativised it they felt the i at the end made it Missour-eye. Over time Missoureye became Missourah. So even though it is spelled Missouri, the English pronunciation is Missourah. But you'll find many still say Missouree like the French did.
Thanks, interesting. I also will remark about how over time and possibly, local dialects, some words change beyond belief. For example, the word bedlam, which now means noise and chaos, was originally an English town named Bethlehem, but over time the locals slurred that to Bedlum or Bedlam, and it was the site a a very old mental institution, whose inmates made so much noise through their shrieks, howls and screams that the name acquired it's present usage. Or the family name Coward, as in the actor Noel Coward, was likely originally cow herd or cow herder.
La Florida was named for a festival in Spain called the festival of flowers. Apparently the Spanish went ashore during the same month that the festival is celebrated in Spain and thus named the newly discovered land La Florida. At least it’s one of the stories I’ve heard on how Florida received its name.
Very interesting, thank you! One addition: Utah means top of the mountain, not just "high". It is an "Indian" word from the Ute tribe. Also, I remember learning what the natives in Tennessee said the name meant... if I come across that again I'll update this comment, because I don't remember exactly, something about the place where the rivers ran red with blood.
No it isn’t a Ute word. It’s an apache word for “higher up” used to refer to the mountain dwellers there who call themselves “noochie-e”. The Spaniards picked it up from the Apaches and started calling all the first nations in the region “Ute”, and Utah was simply named after the tribe directly.
@@hiren_bhatt Are you aware of how many natives call themselves Indians and have for generations?? I live between reservations, none of them say "native American" So keep rolling your eyes, but know of what you speak first
@@pagejames8754 if I start calling myself Martian from today, and then for the next few generations everyone starts calling themselves Martians, it will not change the fact that they are NOT Martians!! 🙄
It’s like the Australian aboriginals who when asked what that large mammal jumped on just its hindlegs was called told D settlers I don’t know, which in their language was kangaroo.
@@thomascarroll9556 I thought Rolf Harris' explanation of Captain Cook naming the animal after hearing the cries of the claustrophobic Scotsman stuck in the head, "I canna ger oot", was as good an explanation as any.
Sioux is pronounced the same as Sue. Choctaw is pronounced ch-UH-k-t-aw with a heavy emphasis on the w. Alabama was named after the Alibamu Indians who were a part of the Creek indian tribe. The rivers name was changed to Alabama after the state was named.
Thank you for this video! I really enjoyed learning the origin of our state n ames. I knew the story behind a few of the states but I will check back again to refresh my memory.
I just saw Minnesota has two rivers: "Pomme de terre", which means Potato in French, and "Lac que parle", which means (lac QUI parle) "talking/speaking lake". It's so funny!
Could you do a video on the name origins of the Canadian provinces? It'd be a shorter video, but fun. Perhaps you could combine Canada and Australia, since they're both former British colonies.
It was the territories northwest of the settled areas. Over time (most recently in 1999) they kept taking parts out of it and giving them different names.
I feel like everybody in PA probably knows Pennsylvania translates to “Penn’s Woods.” William Penn being the founder, etc. It’s something you’re taught here in like 1st-2nd grade lmao.
Noo it don't. They are uncertain where it come from. Some say it come from the French word Ouragan ( meaning windstorm, or hurricane. Another possibility is the name came from the Shoshoni Indian Tribe meaning River of West.
As a brasilian, I known the history of the four iberican kingdons: Castela/Castle, Leão/Lion, Navarra and Aragão/Aragon. Our origin came from Portugal/Spain. But I realy think Oregon don't referr to Aragon.👍🏻
Mid-west states was a translation from native Language to French then was translated from French to English. It was not directly translated from native language to English. States derived directly from French: Vermont, Oregon, Louisiana, Maine, Delaware, New Jersey States derived from Native to French then from french to English: Illinois, Iowa, Arkansas, Kansas, Mississippi, Michigan, Ohio, Wisconsin
@@Megalosaure ? do yo know french? I am not good at it, but I had learned french at school decades ago. doesn't sound french to me. esp. not old french. but that doesn't matter anyway. because the sound or read of a short name from hundrets of years ago cannot be allocated by sound, unless you can pinch it to a similar word. there is none, except a random place in france with a similar name - weak aproach. by sound allone it seems to be rather english if you ask me. but linguists would have picked that up for sure. so it's probably not.
@@nursen2106 I'm French. We have a River in France called Maine. It's also the name of a department. So it definitely sound french to me. check out Maine-et-Loire and Maine river (La Maine in French). It's not a random place in France, it's a big river connected to the biggest River in France
@@Megalosaure sure, but also other langueages carry that or used to in their old versions. english german in variations and even more exotic regions like near east, that allocated themselves there. it doesn't sound very french. it is a n old word anyway. how much does a word, speculated to be probably galic origine, but not for sure, called french? when there is no equivalent in modern french. The name for the state Main, could be from anywhere. maybe even from France. but not that obvious as it may seem to you because of that place and it's river, just because of one place in France. language doesn't work like that. it could be from anywhere, and travelled to maine also from anywhere. there are other names, that sound much more french, turned out to be indian. because it was used by french and changed a bit. could be the case here as well. but nobody knows for sure. at least not for now. who knows. maybe AI will work on this ;-)
It's really fascinating where places get their names and how the name can often bare little resemblance to the spelling (in the UK that's definitely the case, it's not just visitors to our country who struggle, i once spent an hour looking for a village, cursing my map app, only to find I had driven thru it several times but the name on the signpost bore no resemblance to the pronunciation, I mean, not even close) Really enjoyable video, thanks.
@@AL-jb1mh Brilliant! Here's a couple from the UK, from Norfolk county which is rural. Happisburgh sounds like Hayes-boro, Wymondom sounds like Win-dom. Must be a nightmare for new postal workers or those providing holiday cover.
@@oktc68 They just look at the postal code and go from there. The Brits have such an excellent system that their postal code can indicate the exact block of the recipient.
In the Channel Islands, the island of Jersey's name is of Norse or Scandinavian origin. Roughly in the 9th century the Vikings took possession of the Channel Islands.
Excellent vidéo... btw 7:02 Durham in England has a silent H - Dur'am. 9:19 Sioux is pronounced Sue like diminitive of Susan. 14:45 vert has silent T in French
Also, Ojibwe is not pronounced ohibway. The j is actually a j, not h. Obviously, he was not intelligent or respectful enough to research the correct pronunciation for a lot of these names
very good pronunciation for "La Louisiane", a little less good for "René-Robert Cavelier de La Salle", but good effort, especially since French is recognized for these silent letters including the "t" of "mont" and "vert". Always so nice to learn my English thanks to your videos (you articulate well), good evening, be well!
When I was a kid, we always heard a joke about Oregon being the only state named after an Irishman: O'Regan LOL. We knew it was a joke, but it was a fun one.
Las Sergas de Esplandián (The Adventures of Esplandián) is a novel written by Garci Rodríguez de Montalvo in the late fifteenth or early sixteenth century.The Esplandián novel describes a fictional island named California,[8] inhabited only by black women, ruled by Queen Calafia, and east of the Indies. When Spanish explorers, under the command of Hernán Cortés, learned of an island off the coast of Western Mexico, and rumored to be ruled by Amazon women, they named it California. (Wiki)
“Montana is not that mountainous”? We have around 100 mountain ranges here and 3000 separate peaks. Yes half of the state is fairly flat, but this state is huge.
Yeah that one sent me into a small rage. There are plenty of youtube videos he could have watched to see exactly where the name came from, if he couldn't be bothered to google for more info.
Montana is Montaña without the tilde. Pronounced Montanya...more or less.It means Mountain in spanish. One of these days I will go there to paint the tilde on all signs😃😃 Change the state name 😊😊
Alabama or the albamo get their name from borrowed Choctaw roughly translated as thicket clearers, compounded of Alba meaning "a thick or mass vegetation," and amo meaning "to clear, to collect, to gather up."
11:31 No confusions please: this territory with those specific borders was indeed french, but only for 3 years from 1800 to 1803, after the spanish gave it to them. The first french Louisiana at the time of Louis XIV looked different than that, although it also included the today's territory of the state of Louisiana. It was lost during the seven years war.
I love geography and anything I can learn about names and origins is great or anything in general about the United States is great thank you for this video
CHECK OUT "How Did Each American Country Get Its Name": ua-cam.com/video/G1s730BjK7M/v-deo.html
Hawaii was originally called Sandwich Islands.
@@charleBerglund mxxmxmmx
I hate when they call us America. America goes from Canada and Alaska to the southern tip of Argentina. We are the United States
@Bee Middleton Texas was it's own country I believe called Texarkana? Correct me if I'm wrong. Then the USA annexed the state and the Cowboys still cant get a decent gm.
@Bee Middleton thank you bud. I read a lot about president James Polk and the Mexican War but I forgot a lot of stuff cuz lets face it Texas is the most recognized part of that whole area.
FALSE: Florida was named after the famous rapper Flo-Rida
Yeah
Finally someone spoke facts
Saw Florida on a map, can confirm
The three sides of florida
Florida
Flooridah
Flawdah
Flawridder if you live in Boston
I love the idea that French missionaries turned up in Illinois and the natives kept telling them to "speak normally" but the French thought that was their name
Yeah, though the french would think them not speaking french would make em a bit slow
like the alleged legend according to which the word "kangaroo" comes from the aborigin language, meaning "i don't understand", which was the answer the aborigins gave to english colonizers asking what animal was that.
But apparently this is just a legend.
May be some aussie mates can confirm?
@@alessioartioli3323 also, the Yukatan peninsula, which also is derived from the phrase "i don't understand" in the native language
@@riograndedosulball248 this I didn't know. Thanks for the update!
@@riograndedosulball248 RS é top mano 🇧🇷
Abraço de Portugal 🇵🇹
"We can't name it Columbia! It'll get mixed up with the capital!"
*names it Washington*
Might have to do w the country Colombia we’ll have to see which came first
Zane Baylon, I thought the same thing!
Good story, but that had nothing to do with it. The votes to secure passage of the legislation were there if they named it Washington so politicians could go home and brag to constituents. The votes were not there if it was Columbia. The will of the locals just wasn't a consideration. That's politics.
bruh
@@joesmith942 That makes sense, but can't you tell the initial comment was a joke?
If you want a real treat, do a deep dive into the local place names *in* the states. In New York State we have four kinds of place names: places named by homesick English settlers (Rochester, Liverpool, York, Albany, etc.), places named by homesick Dutch settlers (Amsterdam, Rotterdam), places from classical antiquity (Rome, Ithaca, Corinth, Syracuse, Troy), or Indigenous place names as spelled by the Dutch: Schenectady, Schaghticoke, Coxsackie, Schoharie, Schodack).
I live in Rochester 🎉
I lived in Troy NY for 12 years, I’m surprised to see it be mentioned, most people don’t know about Troy
@@Axphyl Troy has become an amazing place in recent years. It's my hometown and it's great to see how it's rebounded from the low point in the 70s and 80s.
NoShitzky!!!!
In western New York, we have a lot of Native American town names. Geneseo, Canadaigua, Cansteo, Keshequa
Fun fact: Mexico also has a state named from an indigenous word that also roughly means the same thing as Michigan.
It's named.. Michoacan!
I had wondered if those were related.
One means place of the fish, the other just means place of the lake…. No connection at all
@@vogelvogeltje well, where do fish live?
Yup drug cartels are battling over drug trade there thanks YT
@@vogelvogeltje Nope there is a connection. Native groups in Mexico had trading routes where they made contact with native groups in the US thus there are similarities in language. Fun fact, Seattle actually derives from Nahuatl, the language of the Aztec.
You should place your timestamps and descriptions the other way around to make use of "UA-cam chapters." It'll break up the play bar into chapters.
Isn't it really tiring to do it 50+ freaking times!?
@@dead.dummy678 Spread sheet is a thing? And some pasting in between.
Plus it looks nicer the other way around
@@Liggliluff not sure why you would do timestams like that.
Always been chapter before name thereof. In any written book.
You certainly have a RUSSIAN inflexión on your voice. What is clear is that you are wrong by mistake, or wrong with intention. Intention is to dis-inform. TeXas name is Aztec. Like MeXico. Louisiana is not a THIRD of the American territory. The fact remains that you and Russians have infiltrated US and UA-cam. We take notice.
Quick note: The name “Hawaiʻi” doesn’t have an apostrophe. The symbol commonly confused for an apostrophe is a separate Hawaiian character, called the ʻokina. It represents a glottal stop (e.g. the sound in the middle of “uh-oh”).
Interesting! In Arabic the letter hamza (ء) has the same purpose…
Very interesting, thank you
Also at the start of the video, the word Alaska is misspelled - this channel is NOT operated by an AMERICAN who first language is ENGLISH.
@@eldavis1311 who cares
@@eldavis1311 So what if English isn’t the primary language of the person who operates this channel? You’re not going to do anything about it.
Your second statement contains a grammatical error anyway, since you didn’t use the word ‘whose’ instead of ‘who.’ Stop being miserable.
Background music/marches:
0:00 The Trombone King - Karl L. King
2:20 Bravura- Charles E. Duble
5:07 The Circus Bee- Henry Fillmore
7:50 The Purple Carnival- Harry Alford
11:25 Mother Hubbard - John Philip Sousa
13:48 National Emblem- Edwin E. Bagpey
16:48 King Cotton- J.P. Sousa
18:57 The Fairest of the Fair- J.P. Sousa
Thanks for your fine work, best regards
Underrated comment
Thank you so much for this information.
The Trombone King!! I played 2nd trombone in 10th grade lol I was shocked to hear it in this video
So basically:
-Native tribes
-Spanish adjectives
-European Kings.
@Earth and George Washington
@@EpicPlayer17 but that's just one occasion
@@relcnt 1 and a half
Literally
👍🏼👍🏼👍🏼
I find it fascinating that Texas almost got named 'New Philippines'. The name 'Philippines' in itself came from the Spanish, naming it after their king, King Philip.
Or in Spanish, Felipe II
It used to be named tejas which was an Indian word
@@andresmoreno45 which means friendly.
@@gorangers18bates2 yep
"Don't mess with New Philippines" doesn't have quite the same flow.
Correction, Kentucky means, "Fried chicken" in Native American
Bruuuuuughhh
On the Rez
This deserves a like
Native American isn’t a language, it’s a generic term to refer to all the different Native American tribes and each of those has a different language
KFC.. it was Named by the Founder of Kentucky, the Famous Military Hero, Colonel Sanders! I hear he had a top secret receipt for Thanksgiving that brought the people together like a Melting pot in the Heart land of America! 🐔🤤❤️🙌🏽😋💯
I'm Portuguese but spanish is a closer language. California means "Hot like an oven"; Arizona means "Arid zone" or "desert"; Florida is "with many flowers".
california is not that hot.
@@claus1225 but the hottest place on earth it is in california
Lies again? Apex Predator Novo Mix 30
@@ludzeppelin If I remember right the inner core of the earth is the hottest place on earth
@@Isaac-eb5vk on earth, not in earth c:
In Bulgaria we also have Montana as a city its actually in the same position as the state montana almost corner left
That's kind of a nest coincidence!
I was born in Montana!
Our Montana is probably bigger than your entire country.
In Montana there's a town named Plevna. Bulgarian immigrants were heping to build the Northern Pacific Railroad through this area when news came of the Russian victory over the Turks in 1880 at Plevna, Bulgaria. The jubilant builders convinced the US Post Office to name the nearest station town in its honor.
@@petergray2712 why were they happy?
Them: Wait, we can't name the state after Columbus, it will get confused with District of Columbia.
Also them: Yeah, let's name it Washington, no way that will be confusing.
Those who want statehood for Washington, D.C. (which goes against the Constitution, which designates it as a federally run city) want to rename it: Washington, Douglass Commonwealth (after Frederick Douglass).
@@spiritmatter1553 What they should do is move the borders of DC, so that no one lives in DC. They should be citizens of Maryland or Virginia. The Federal city called Washing DC should have no citizens.
@@TexanUSMC8089 then the government its not there too
As a resident of Washington (State)... hell yes.
Wasn't Columbus a Jesuit?
As a native Tennessean who drives the highways daily, I can tell you that the word "Tennessee" means, "orange barrel in road."
Alright, that was pretty good
You ain't lying!
And"civil assets forfeiture".😜😜😜
lol nice.
I spent a week in Tennessee in July of 2019. Yep, lots of orange barrels.
I read a while ago that Oregon comes from the mispronunciation of the community in Spain called Aragon. Nevada is literally the word for 'snowed' in Spanish but in Spain there is also a chain of mountains called Sierra Nevada. They probably named it after that place because it may have looked similar or something.
there is also a Sierra Nevada mountain range in CA right on the Nevada border
@@bigbloopboy8892 Yeah that’s why I said it. They probably named it like that for that reason.
Sierra Nevada..means snowy peaks...mountain range in California
Utah was going to be named Deseret. The Mormon pioneers who inhabited the area chose the Hebrew word deseret which means “honeybee” because the honeybee is a common symbol of hard work, productivity, and self-reliance. The government didn't want the area to be named by a religion so it was rejected. The government decided on the name "Utah" from the Native American "Ute" tribe which means people of the mountains.
Of course, they did get "Beehive State" as a nickname. I'd seen "Deseret" before, from the newspaper in the area, but never knew what it actually meant until now.
@@Zalis116 Yep. Their flag also has a beehive
Once I heard that incorrect origin, many others became suspect!
Wow, so much for religious freedom
@@speedmetalmassiah567they have every right to practice their religion openly, but there should also be a fair separation from the church and state
I always thought Utah came from Ute Indians.
As a Texan we were taught it was a Caddo word but it was Tejas.
Wassup New Filipino
Definitely calling Texas the New Philippines from now on
Sure! The Uteh Indians are the ones called "yutas" in Spanish.
And Texas, like Mexico, are spellings with the Old Spanish Orthography, it's optional to spell them with J because that's how they sound currently in Spanish. The X sounded "sh" when the names were adopted in Spanish from native languages but then in Spanish the sound changed to a "strong h" which is spelt J, only some place names continue to write X (which is misleading: since the "sh" dissapeared X is now used for "ks" and saying these names with "ks" like in English is incorrect) because of the tradition.
@Alejandro Melesio OR YOU could stop telling people what to say. That sounds better to me.
@Alejandro Melesio American Indians prefer the name as opposed to Native American
For the apostrophe in Hawaii, it's called an ‘okina (an upside down apostrophe). It's a glottal stop between syllable. The spelling "Hawai‘i" is still used today, as it's the "correct" spelling in Hawaiian, but just "Hawaii" works more as an everyday spelling ☺️
tbh, if we can put an apostrophe in it's I don't know why it would work more or less than anything else.
Thank you for sharing this information. From an amateur linguist. 🙂
Never saw the apostrophe until about 8 years ago. Growing up, never saw it in print anywhere. Never noticed it was upside down, either. When God confused the languages at the tower of Babel, He wasn't leaving any room for error.
@@michaelalbertson7457 I agree, I think I've only been aware of it about 8 years ago. I use the diacritical marks heavily in my work place so it's very much second nature.
I have pronounced Hawai'i with the break. I learned that from my studies of WW II. I've gotten a lot of flack over the years for saying it that way and spelling it correctly. I also try to pronounce countries and cities as the natives of those localities do.
Thanks!
Imagine being in a crew of 3 Jarvis's and you discover an island.
so tony hid two of them from us?
Imagine discoverin the island but you're the only guy not named Jarvis
@@michaelseybold1743 Captain Brown
Multiple Jarvis is actually Jarvai
I wonder which of the three Jarvis didn't contribute to the group project.
The j in Ojibwe is pronounced as a j. O-jib-way, although the o sound can apparently be reduced in some pronounciations, also leading to the name Chippewa (which is the more common name for the tribe in the US). Also, just worth noting that the Ojibwe/Chippewa languages fall into the Algonquin family.
Also Sioux is pronounced like the female name “Sue”. It’s not pronounced See-you or see-ou nor is it pronounced sy-ox.
Thank you for pointing this out. I was going to say something too!
Same with “Iriquoi” the “quoi” is pronounced more like “coy”
Yes Ojibwe is the French word given by the French to the tribe so the French and English could identify them. Our actual name is Anishinaabe in (Canada) Chippewa in (U.S) But can also even be Anishinaabek to Anishinaabeg. For example the Navajo nation tribes name was the name given to them from the Spaniards. It Translates to “the thieves that kill with knives”. Kinda messed
Up we use the word the Spanish gave them. thats the name and that’s what we go off of today. (Btw funny to call them the thieves, when the Spanish were the colonizers that came to their home land and started the war).
You have the actual tribe names that are from the actual indigenous, then u have the names the Europeans gave the tribes to go off of. To use, Ojibwe or Chippewa or anishinaabe are all correct just ones that are actually the indigenous ones to the Europeans ones.
@ Logan,
Would the Fox & the Sac tribes, who were indigenous to Iowa, be included in the Algonquin family?
Thx.
I feel like sometimes Americans wish the United States (the country) had a longer history, but i’m from Scotland/UK and i think it’s fascinating that you guys can know the exact origin of place names. In Europe it’s often hard to work out the origin of a place name, because it was so so long ago
@ emily As a historian I've always been jealous of folks over where you live, though. Short car ride and you're at a 1,000-year-old medieval site or a 2,000-year-old Roman site. All I have near me is a civil war battlefield from 1864.
@@71avalon36 in my town in Germany you can literally find everything from ww2 to medival houses and even Roman ruins
Usually we can. Iroquoian names are a nightmare, because even closely related Iroquoian languages can have similar words which mean completely different things. Take Cuyahoga River in Ohio. That can mean 'On the chin' in Seneca, 'Elm River' in Cayuga, or 'Warfront' in Wyandot. Then, there's tons of native languages which are extinct & poorly recorded. This stuff is worst on the East Coast.
@@MrChristianDT yeah i understood from this video that it’s not always straightforward or possible to find place name origins in the US. But generally there’s a lot more concrete information out there compared to Europe
@@71avalon36 The pub I drink in is older than your country haha
The naming of California is a pretty cool one among the rest. It's like if someone discovered a new territory and decided to dub it as either Isengard, Stygia, or after any other fictitious land.
Much of his information is incorrect. Someone from Portugal should not be trying to teach U.S. history. He probably got his information from so much bogus information online, instead of straight from our own history right here in the U.S.
I’m sure they’ll be plenty of new planets to use those names in the future 😂
When it comes to Hawaii, you may notice that both the archipelago and the the eastern most island share the name of “Hawaii”. It would have been worth mentioning that Kamehameha came from the island of Hawaii, and then went on to unify the islands, thus making the entire island chain the “Kingdom of Hawaii”
@Jermare I think its so dumb to just refer to the largest Hawaiian island as “the Big island” , almost insulting, especially as an official name. We should just call it Hawaii, and if it confuses tourist then great at least they’ve learned some history :)
@@Krizbonz True. I don't know why approximately 200,000 people live next to active volcanoes, though. I thought there were a lot fewer people on the actual island of Hawaii.
@@encycl07pedia- It’s actually quite predictable where the Lava will flow, the eruptions are relatively calm, and most people live a safe distance away.. however there are areas that are in a potential danger zone and people live there as well because of cheap land…
Dragon ball z?
I used to think that Texas was named like that because in Spanish the X is pronounced as an J in many cases, so Tejas. Tejas are a kind of bricks used to decorate ceilings (look it up), and ceiling in Spanish is techo, but a synonym is tejado. Plus Texas being in the north of Mexico back then, made a joke as Texas being the tejado/ceiling of the country. I hope I explained myself well.
not ceiling but roofs, that is on top of the houses
That's right, in Mexico, we have this habit of pronouncing the "X" as a "J".
There are people who say "Texas", others "Tejas" because of the habit of changing the "x" to a "j".
The case is quite similar to the state of "Oaxaca", foreigners mention the state using the "x" (Oaxaca), while all of Mexico pronounce it with the "j" (Oajaca). Or also "Mexico" for foreigners and "Mejico" or "Meshico or Mechico" (the latter on rare occasions) for those who are from Mexico. 😂💚🤍❤
@@josegiovanigonzalezmata5570 sólo en Méjico, en otros países no mezclamos la x con la j.
@@JuntosXlaLibertadMileyBuIIrich not only in México. That comes from old Castilian.
@@blassoriano109 you right with that but i meant nowadays
Fun fact, the New Mexico’s state name is older than Mexico’s country name, because before Mexico’s independence it was called Nueva España(New Spain)
The capital of New Spain was founded in 1521, and is the actual capital of Mexico, Ciudad de México (Mexico City) The name comes from the Mexicas, or Aztects, so the spanish names their city after that. So basically the state of New Mexico and the country of Mexico are both named after the capital of Mexico, Mexico City.
@Galleta de Soda Which then became the capital city of Mexico
The city of México-Tenochtitlan has been around for 600 years, so no.
No, the official name gived by The emperor Charles V was ''Kingdom of Mexico-New Spain'', which is not the same political entinty as the Viceroyalty of New Spain. Even today ''Mexico'' refers loosly to central mexico for mexicans out of the central region.
The name new mexico was given because it was conquered mostly by Mexican indians and a Grand doughter of Aztec Emperor Mocteczuma.
New Mexico was Rule by the Kingdom of New Galice and the archibishop of Guadalajara.
In the New Spain also was the province of Mexico that its the moderns states of Mexico, Mexico City, Guerrero and Morelos in Mexico
What an educative and interesting video. Looking at the Montana flag I couldn't avoid but to notice there are two Spanish words written on it, "oro and plata" which means "gold and silver" respectively. I'm from South America, but I like learning history.
“No one can name all 50 states in one sitting “
*Wacko joins the battle *
I think the one where he names the countries is more catchy tho. Lol
Xoomers dont get it.
That challenge is child's play to Wacko
I learned a song in elementary school called Fifty Nifty, where one sings all 50 states in alphabetical order. 🤷♀️
@@oscarzavala5183 that wasn't wakko who sang the countries song it was yakko
Oh wow, I've never thought about this. This is going to be so cool! Thanks for this.
Big props to this guy, taking a chance on all these pronunciations. I'm sure you did a lot better than I could have! Very interesting research you have here. Thanks for sharing.
Very informative.. Thank you 🙏🏻
“Montana is not that mountainous” while there’s a big flat part in the east, southern Montana and western Montana are about as mountainous as it gets
You are correct.
I see. But are there any buttes in Montana?
@@basilmarasco1975 Maybe next to the city named Butte?? Or maybe not.
I have driven it many times and I can vouch for the mountains
So the Rockies don't count as not that mountainous. Guess the continental divide is a myth as well.
Hi General, I would like to suggest you use the UA-cam Chapter feature so people can just click on the progress bar, the timestamp you put in the description should be written like these:
00:00 - Intro
1:53 - Alaska
2:24 - Hawaii
2:57 - California
4:48 - Nevada
5:05 - Arizona
and so on..
keep up the good work General.
This dude gave us timestamps, that's just legendary man
Great video! The content was engaging and of high quality
Fun fact: "Nuevo Mexico" was the first time the word/letters "Mexico" appeared in written form. When Spanish colonists arrived in the region of the Rio Grande it reminded them of a region of Mexico (then Nueva España) where, incidentally, Tenochtitlan (modern day Ciudad de Mexico) stood in a region locally known as Mexica ("Mesheeca"). It also was more similar to the Spanish regions they were familiar with than places in modern day Florida and North Carolina that they had abandoned that they decided to settle there much more permanently. As a result, Santa Fe, NM is the oldest continuously governing regional capital in the U.S., founded 1610 and maintained ever since, including the Pueblo Revolt of 1680.
Funner fact, New Mexico the state was absolutely NOT named after the country of Mexico and is actually 258 years OLDER than Mexico. Conquistadores named the area Nuevo Mexico after the Aztec valley of Mexica in 1563. There was no country of Mexico until independence from Spain in 1821, after which they named their new country after the same Aztec valley (current day Mexico City). So, yes you are correct, the video got it wrong.
Mexico - Tenochtitlan was first called New Mexico, then it was renamed Mexico City and the region a subdivision that was called "Reyno de México"
@@emmanuelake421 I suppose it's "Reino"
False
@@BOB-wo2nb The city of Mexico Tenochtitlan has been around for 600 years so no. Mexico and New Mexico got their name after the city of Mexico Tenochtitlan (Mexico City after the Spanish conquest).
The naming of Wyoming caught my interest a few years ago when I saw it affixed to a valley in PA. Logic dictated the name was carried west rather than east, so I couldn't figure out why American Indians indigenous to the state of Wyoming, would call it a name that had no meaning to them. Checking, it turns out many of the first white settlers who arrived in Cheyenne, decided, I guess in a bout of nostalgia, to name the region after their former Pennsylvania homestead. But he's right, it's an Algonquin word.
There was an important colonial battle there:
en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Wyoming
There’s a Wyoming Avenue in Philadelphia. Now you know 😀
Wyoming = What do you mean?
There's a Wyoming in Australia near Sydney that dates from 1824, also named after the valley in Pennsylvania, made famous by the 1809 poem Gertrude of Wyoming by Thomas Campbell. So Wyoming, Australia actually predates Wyoming, USA.
Wyoming, Michigan
This guy pronounces everything with confidence, I’m not sure if he is saying them wrong.
Anything sounds fishy to you?
@@nobodytagota9813 Durham was definitely wrong, we just say "Durum" in England, don't pronounce the "ham" - same with places like Birmingham, Lewisham etc ...
Predictably he pronounces Durham incorrectly. Should be "Durrum".
Ojibwe, at least in the Midwest, to my knowledge, is pronounced oh-jib-way.
He's totally saying them wrong. Confidence isn't always key.
This was amazing, you should do another one of the Caribbean Islands and its native names w/ meanings.
Him: Kentucky comes from the irroquoian language...
Me: IT COMES FROM THE KFC
I always thought it meant prairie in Iroquoian.
“Don’t mess with New Philippines” doesn’t quite have the same ring to it
Eh, neither does the original. Messing with Texas has been the meat and potatoes of lowbrow political comedy for the past century
Everything's bigger in ....New Phillipines?
ford f-150 new philippines edition
The stars at night are big and bright deep in the heart of.. New Phillipines
i really dont know this. first time i've heard texas was the new Philippines
Thank you. You put A LOT of work into this video. Good job!
Oregon is definitely Orejón which means big eared 👂 in Spanish, Arizona is Narizona which means big nosed 👃in Spanish
😂
In Mexico we are taught that California is a compound name that derived from two words: calor(heat) and fornos (furnace) therefore, California means Hot furnace.
@@irismariaadams7630
Interesting.
@@irismariaadams7630 They lied to u guys🤣
@Iris Maria Adams named after queen califia
Fun fact: Canada 🇨🇦 means "Village" in Iroquois.
And it means "no one at home" in bavarian German ("kana da") :-)
@@heikosteffens1661 waaaass?!?!😂😂
It means "home cold tree" in Roquisah
It means “friendly neighbor to the north” in American.
It mean jerk in south park verse
As someone who’s gone through 15 different schools throughout all of Utah, I’m afraid I’m going to need a source for your citing “Yuta” as the origin of the name. It is universally taught here that the origin is from the Ute tribe.
Yeah, they named our state like that to honor the Ute tribe natives. People don't know it lot because they over look though little of the native Americans in history.
What do you think the spanish called the Ute's? Yuta.
I liked the name Utah - Yuta. In my language Kannada (India) , Uta( Oota) means eating food.
So what if the spanish called it Yuta? Thats not the origin. The origin is the tribe of the Utes. So its not an accurate statement. @sebaschan-uwu
0:10 Aslaska?
😂 screaming
Ah yes, Aslaska, the unknown 51st state
😂
Also, Alaska is continental as well. Contiguous is the term he was looking for (and was written down)
@@General.Knowledge haha yes
My favorite state.
Wow! Very, very nice. I never got this in any history class that I ever went through. Thanks for sharing your insights!! Appreciate it!!
As a Filpino, I'm amazed that Texas was formerly known as Nuevas Filipinas.
if you look at the map at 10:58 you'll see to the left of it "New Vizcaya" which is interesting because "Nueva Vizcaya" is also a province in the Philippines.
Well you guys got your name from the Spanish
Spanish/Mexicans lived in present day Texas
Makes sense
fun fact, filipino was the first asian migrant to the US (In Louisiana)
@@worldhubtv6496 yeah just weird why the spanish needed two new Vizcayas lmao
@@derpizzaman1050 Vizcaya is a province from Spain
"three Jarvises discover an island" sounds like the beginning of a joke
Minnesotan here- the two words are similar but pretty much mean the same- by cloudy water it’s not meant that it’s murky, but rather that you can see the clouds in the water: so reflective. Land where the water is so clear you can see the clouds in the sky
Well done on the video it was very informative! I'm impressed with how many were named after the indigenous people
General knowledge had me thinking I was saying Ojibwe wrong this whole time I had to look it up 😂
I think it’a O-Jib-Way
@@strigiformes5434 it is
Glad I'm not the only one questioning my understanding of First Nations pronunciations.
@@wennick4859 I learned it as either Ojibway or Ojibwah, both acceptable. He also isn't sounding the final e on Shoshone (sho-sho-nee). At least he did admit he may be pronouncing a lot of the names wrong; give him that.
There are a lot of tribes that speak Athapaskan languages, from the Apaches in the southwest well up into western Canada (which, oddly, also has a name taken from Spanish: cañada, which can mean variously path, narrow valley, etc.
@@adriennegormley9358 really? Canada is from cañada?
I heard it was after a native word Kanata, meaning settlement, close to the same time the east was first being explored.
As someone who lives and has grown up in Maryland, we were taught that the name came from the Catholic's naming it after Queen Mary, the last Catholic monarch of England, as they could not freely practice their religion in England after the rule of her sister Queen Elizabeth.
Hm where im from in maryland we learned that the queen gave it the name not it being named after mary
Henrietta Maria was the sister of Louis XIII of France
Thank you for putting this together!! 😊
Half of the US named by the Spaniards but some people still ask ‘why you speaking Spanish?’ This is America.
I found this very entertaining. And I do very much appreciate that unlike most videos of this type you went from west to east
I thought he'd go in alphabetical order ... That's how I memorized the states as a child & remember them to this day
I'm from a small town in Ireland; its English name is Virginia, no need to explain that! But the Irish name is Acadh an Ùir, which means 'field of yews', after the field of yew trees which is still in the centre of the town.
Virginia is Latin, not English. Pretty common in Spain...comes from Virginidad....
@@Souliban I meant the name that the English colonisers imposed on it...
I thought Utah was named after the local tribe, the Ute's. You also missed that Utah's original proposed name (by the Mormon founders) was Deseret, meaning "honeybee" which signifies industry. This is also signified by the current flag for Utah.
It is named after the tribe.
Dude, I’m so utah right now! Woh
Just clarification, Deseret is a word from the Book of Mormon and means honeybee. Really Utah should be called “land of big smelly lake” but I love it here.
@@rich9684 ah, thanks for the clarification. And that works too. Or land of the Holy War.
@@JIKwood I've never really been a fan of the name "The Holy War" for the rivalry. It doesn't make a lot of sense, BYU is owned by the church whose leaders are educated at the UofU. Plus it's hard to call a game a war especially when one side loses 60% of the time.
The "apostrophe" in Hawaiʻi is not technically a punctuation mark, but is actually a Hawaiian letter called "okina." Although 99% of the time people use the standard apostrophe ('), proper people use an okina (ʻ). The mark is slightly different.
Fun fact from a Kansan: the whole "people of the south wind" is actually in reference to the way the wind blows in the Kansas and Missouri River area. If I remember correctly, as well, it was an Osage word used to describe a native tribe known as the Kaw. For which is Kaw Valley in the region is named.
Yeh, I used to always wonder if Nebraska sucked or Kansas blows. In the winter, North Dakota blows, so I guess that means Nebraska sucks no matter what. That's becoming more true by the day in so many ways.
Kansas was named after the Kansa Indians, who did not call themselves "People of the South Wind". For the record, we get wind from all directions. It was the French explorers who named the Kansas river.
@@zorafay8025 So yes we get wind from all directions. However there are regions where wind direction is more predictable on a regular basis. The word Kansa is Lakota or Souix depending on your preference for the tribe. Much the same as Souix is a French word for enemy. Many of the names we use are from other tribes used to describe a people either based on relationship or region. The river was named after the people in the region, the Kansa. I will say my previous statement was incorrect Kansa is a Lakota word not Osage for as I said "people of the south wind". Now the Kansa called themselves Kaw which means "the people"
People Of The South Wind is an underrated song from the band Kansas.
3:06 texas used to have a lot of water 😂
@Safwaan Yeah, but C'mon, if you can see the other side of the river from the coast, it has not to be so titanic.
@@danielzamora9491 the titanic sank at newfoundland (in canada)
Nevada used to be a big lake. If the Cascadia Subduction Zone goes, Nevada will once again be a big lake.
@Safwaan Tru dat. We will probably need an ocean liner to get across.
@Safwaan thats not the Río grande, it was a disputed territory between México and Texas known as the Nueces Strip. Texas claimed the Rio Grande as its southern border; Mexico claimed the Nueces River (150 mi north of the Rio Grande).
Have you ever thought that the greatest colonial empires in the world, whether Spanish, French, British, Dutch, Russian, etc., have passed through the United States? I am always amazed at how diverse the United States is.
For me, the US is the son of an Englishman who married a Spaniard, but cheated with a Frenchwoman and had Dutch and Russian ex-girlfriends. But in the end, he was in love with a Native American.
It really is a melting pot of nationalities and ethnicities. Really cool!
@@ikad5229 are you from wattpad?
@@General.Knowledge It is an honor for me that you responded to my comment.
@@joan8734 Hahahah nope. Not your man.
you did pretty good with native names...i was impressed on how you said Ojibwa...my grandfather who is a Ojibwa full blood pronounced it the same way.
I like the way that the language and usage is in an almost constant state of evolution, including place names. I am from Missouri, and recently was informed by a rather self important young woman that by pronouncing it as Missourah I was wrong - it should be Missouree. So I asked her the proper pronunciation of the state's largest city. When she said Saint Loois, I corrected her that it is properly San Looee, French after all.
I asked a Texan how to pronounce Amarillo. Apparently, pronouncing the Spanish name as if it is an English word is a big deal to some people.
My grandpa was born in Missouri. He pronounced it the way you do. I mimicked him & call it Missourah. Is that how native Missourians say it? I live in Texas & when I mention Missourah no one tries to correct me. I’m not native to your home state. Where did that pronunciation come from?
This is an effect called "nativisation". Technically Amarillo and Saint Louis are Spanish and French respectively so one would think we should pronounce it how they do. But because they are nativised words they take on an English form where we pronounce it how it is spelled. This was often an effect of not knowing how the original languages sounded. Sometimes the nativisation doesn't take hold. For Arkansas people argued over whether to say Ar-kansas or Arkan-saw and ultimately the latter French way won.
For Missouri we have a weird anomaly. So the French called it Missour-ee and even though the English is spelled the same way when they nativised it they felt the i at the end made it Missour-eye. Over time Missoureye became Missourah. So even though it is spelled Missouri, the English pronunciation is Missourah. But you'll find many still say Missouree like the French did.
Thanks, interesting. I also will remark about how over time and possibly, local dialects, some words change beyond belief. For example, the word bedlam, which now means noise and chaos, was originally an English town named Bethlehem, but over time the locals slurred that to Bedlum or Bedlam, and it was the site a a very old mental institution, whose inmates made so much noise through their shrieks, howls and screams that the name acquired it's present usage.
Or the family name Coward, as in the actor Noel Coward, was likely originally cow herd or cow herder.
Enjoyed this immensely!! I agree with Davis Dickey, there was a lot of work put into this video and it was AWESOME! Thank you and Great Job!!
In Spanish we still sometimes refer to Florida as “La Florida”, never knew why until this video
Because Is "the flowered" maybe
Simply a place plenty of flowers. "La tierra florida", being "tierra" this time a territory
i dont know if anybody else, but I still call california "Las Californias" sounds nicer.
La Florida was named for a festival in Spain called the festival of flowers. Apparently the Spanish went ashore during the same month that the festival is celebrated in Spain and thus named the newly discovered land La Florida. At least it’s one of the stories I’ve heard on how Florida received its name.
Very interesting, thank you! One addition: Utah means top of the mountain, not just "high". It is an "Indian" word from the Ute tribe. Also, I remember learning what the natives in Tennessee said the name meant... if I come across that again I'll update this comment, because I don't remember exactly, something about the place where the rivers ran red with blood.
No it isn’t a Ute word. It’s an apache word for “higher up” used to refer to the mountain dwellers there who call themselves “noochie-e”. The Spaniards picked it up from the Apaches and started calling all the first nations in the region “Ute”, and Utah was simply named after the tribe directly.
Not "Indian", but Native American. 🙄
@@hiren_bhatt Are you aware of how many natives call themselves Indians and have for generations?? I live between reservations, none of them say "native American"
So keep rolling your eyes, but know of what you speak first
@@pagejames8754 if I start calling myself Martian from today, and then for the next few generations everyone starts calling themselves Martians, it will not change the fact that they are NOT Martians!! 🙄
I love the fact that Illinois is derived from a word meaning, "Speak normally".
It’s like the Australian aboriginals who when asked what that large mammal jumped on just its hindlegs was called told D settlers I don’t know, which in their language was kangaroo.
@@thomascarroll9556 I thought Rolf Harris' explanation of Captain Cook naming the animal after hearing the cries of the claustrophobic Scotsman stuck in the head, "I canna ger oot", was as good an explanation as any.
@@nicholasconder4703 😂😂😂
That would explain the city of “Normal” in Illinois
Like Yucatán which means like "I don't understand what you're saying"
Sioux is pronounced the same as Sue. Choctaw is pronounced ch-UH-k-t-aw with a heavy emphasis on the w. Alabama was named after the Alibamu Indians who were a part of the Creek indian tribe. The rivers name was changed to Alabama after the state was named.
Thank you for this video! I really enjoyed learning the origin of our state n ames. I knew the story behind a few of the states but I will check back again to refresh my memory.
"You wrote Nevada twice.."
"I know (eats turkey anyway)"
hahaha gotta love Friends!
I just saw Minnesota has two rivers: "Pomme de terre", which means Potato in French, and "Lac que parle", which means (lac QUI parle) "talking/speaking lake". It's so funny!
We are just one potato loving talking lake up here dontcha know
Could you do a video on the name origins of the Canadian provinces? It'd be a shorter video, but fun. Perhaps you could combine Canada and Australia, since they're both former British colonies.
I wonder how they came up with Northwest Territories. Very creative.
@@MinecraftMasterNo1 Lol. True, but there is a history to it.
It was the territories northwest of the settled areas. Over time (most recently in 1999) they kept taking parts out of it and giving them different names.
@@sexygeek8996 That's partly true, but it's also a bit more complex history than that with the way Canada was colonized and settled.
We’re north of Canada in Metro Detroit. Right now I can’t buy the real Molson Canadian. This is damn irritating.
Both headache and knowledge gained! Thanks for both! 😊
I feel like everybody in PA probably knows Pennsylvania translates to “Penn’s Woods.” William Penn being the founder, etc. It’s something you’re taught here in like 1st-2nd grade lmao.
Penn wanted to name the colony Sylania, but the crown insisted that Penn's name be in the colony so . . .
@@richardstory6650 He said that?
@@andy-em5tp It was what I was taught in school so . . .
@@richardstory6650 Yea but what the original comment said doesn’t disagree with you
@@andy-em5tp I didn't say it did. I was just expanding the thought. I wasn't trying to correct.
Illinois = talk normally...*dies laughing*. Glad to see who Block Island was named after.
I think Oregon cames from the spanish mediaval kingdom (Aragon)
Noo it don't. They are uncertain where it come from. Some say it come from the French word Ouragan ( meaning windstorm, or hurricane. Another possibility is the name came from the Shoshoni Indian Tribe meaning River of West.
No. They didn't have seen 'Lord of the Rings' yet. Kkkk. Sorry, just kidding, bro.👍🏻
As a brasilian, I known the history of the four iberican kingdons: Castela/Castle, Leão/Lion, Navarra and Aragão/Aragon. Our origin came from Portugal/Spain. But I realy think Oregon don't referr to Aragon.👍🏻
@@pancakesbf2704 So they had control over Montana?...
I can see the similiars
Thanks a LOT!! I learned lots of interesting facts about US and the states' names!!
Mid-west states was a translation from native Language to French then was translated from French to English. It was not directly translated from native language to English.
States derived directly from French:
Vermont, Oregon, Louisiana, Maine, Delaware, New Jersey
States derived from Native to French then from french to English:
Illinois, Iowa, Arkansas, Kansas, Mississippi, Michigan, Ohio, Wisconsin
new jersey, delaware, maine .... very very obviously did not derive from french. why do you state something like that?
@@nursen2106 maine sound very french to me
@@Megalosaure ? do yo know french? I am not good at it, but I had learned french at school decades ago. doesn't sound french to me. esp. not old french. but that doesn't matter anyway. because the sound or read of a short name from hundrets of years ago cannot be allocated by sound, unless you can pinch it to a similar word. there is none, except a random place in france with a similar name - weak aproach. by sound allone it seems to be rather english if you ask me. but linguists would have picked that up for sure. so it's probably not.
@@nursen2106 I'm French. We have a River in France called Maine. It's also the name of a department. So it definitely sound french to me. check out Maine-et-Loire and Maine river (La Maine in French). It's not a random place in France, it's a big river connected to the biggest River in France
@@Megalosaure sure, but also other langueages carry that or used to in their old versions. english german in variations and even more exotic regions like near east, that allocated themselves there. it doesn't sound very french. it is a n old word anyway. how much does a word, speculated to be probably galic origine, but not for sure, called french? when there is no equivalent in modern french. The name for the state Main, could be from anywhere. maybe even from France. but not that obvious as it may seem to you because of that place and it's river, just because of one place in France. language doesn't work like that. it could be from anywhere, and travelled to maine also from anywhere. there are other names, that sound much more french, turned out to be indian. because it was used by french and changed a bit. could be the case here as well. but nobody knows for sure. at least not for now. who knows. maybe AI will work on this ;-)
It's really fascinating where places get their names and how the name can often bare little resemblance to the spelling (in the UK that's definitely the case, it's not just visitors to our country who struggle, i once spent an hour looking for a village, cursing my map app, only to find I had driven thru it several times but the name on the signpost bore no resemblance to the pronunciation, I mean, not even close) Really enjoyable video, thanks.
@@AL-jb1mh Brilliant! Here's a couple from the UK, from Norfolk county which is rural. Happisburgh sounds like Hayes-boro, Wymondom sounds like Win-dom. Must be a nightmare for new postal workers or those providing holiday cover.
@@oktc68 They just look at the postal code and go from there. The Brits have such an excellent system that their postal code can indicate the exact block of the recipient.
In the Channel Islands, the island of Jersey's name is of Norse or Scandinavian origin. Roughly in the 9th century the Vikings took possession of the Channel Islands.
Texas name is fully spanish as It is the ancient way to write Tejas, which means Roof Tiles.
As a French speaker I never realized how nicely some of the state names roll off the tongue.
Brilliant. I admire your depth of research into these State names. I did not realise just how many were of Native American origin. Thanks, Alec
How can you not? These were native lands before the invasion of Europe
Excellent vidéo... btw 7:02 Durham in England has a silent H - Dur'am. 9:19 Sioux is pronounced Sue like diminitive of Susan. 14:45 vert has silent T in French
Also, Ojibwe is not pronounced ohibway. The j is actually a j, not h. Obviously, he was not intelligent or respectful enough to research the correct pronunciation for a lot of these names
Awesome and an amazing job! Lots of research from you lots of knowledge for us. Thanks.
I’m very glad you did not leave out any of the US territories! They deserve way more representation!
very good pronunciation for "La Louisiane", a little less good for "René-Robert Cavelier de La Salle", but good effort, especially since French is recognized for these silent letters including the "t" of "mont" and "vert". Always so nice to learn my English thanks to your videos (you articulate well), good evening, be well!
Beware he is not an English speaker, but I can't figure out his accent!
@@virginiasanchis1717Of memory, he is portuguese 🧱
When I was a kid, we always heard a joke about Oregon being the only state named after an Irishman: O'Regan LOL. We knew it was a joke, but it was a fun one.
Las Sergas de Esplandián (The Adventures of Esplandián) is a novel written by Garci Rodríguez de Montalvo in the late fifteenth or early sixteenth century.The Esplandián novel describes a fictional island named California,[8] inhabited only by black women, ruled by Queen Calafia, and east of the Indies. When Spanish explorers, under the command of Hernán Cortés, learned of an island off the coast of Western Mexico, and rumored to be ruled by Amazon women, they named it California. (Wiki)
Maryland has one of the coolest flags I've ever seen.
I'm also partial to Indiana's!
That's why the put it on everything. Ie their license plate, which looks freakin sick
I like the old Mississippi flag
We'll have to ask Sheldon about that.
Original motto was There's Something About Maryland.
Freakin' awesome video!
TY for dropping all this knowledge.
“Montana is not that mountainous”? We have around 100 mountain ranges here and 3000 separate peaks. Yes half of the state is fairly flat, but this state is huge.
True fact: Montana is slightly larger in land area than the nation of Japan.
Yeah that one sent me into a small rage. There are plenty of youtube videos he could have watched to see exactly where the name came from, if he couldn't be bothered to google for more info.
@Connecticut Ball But Montana has a population of just over 1 million. Japan has 127 million people.
Montañas = Mountains
Montaña = Mountain
but is highly probable that for an English speaker "Montañas" sounds kind of like Montana.
Montana is Montaña without the tilde. Pronounced Montanya...more or less.It means Mountain in spanish. One of these days I will go there to paint the tilde on all signs😃😃 Change the state name 😊😊
Alabama or the albamo get their name from borrowed Choctaw roughly translated as thicket clearers, compounded of Alba meaning "a thick or mass vegetation," and amo meaning "to clear, to collect, to gather up."
11:31 No confusions please: this territory with those specific borders was indeed french, but only for 3 years from 1800 to 1803, after the spanish gave it to them.
The first french Louisiana at the time of Louis XIV looked different than that, although it also included the today's territory of the state of Louisiana. It was lost during the seven years war.
The Rocky Mountains go right through the entire western part of Montana. Seems logical to name the state after mountains.
I love geography and anything I can learn about names and origins is great or anything in general about the United States is great thank you for this video
Glad you liked it!