Hit me with some more interesting US place name origins. Comment below. And remember you can get TypeAI PREMIUM now! Start your FREE trial by clicking the link here: bit.ly/Mar24RobWords

@Verysx

Ай бұрын

How the heck is this five hours ago

@Into_Ingrid

Ай бұрын

I am disappointed in seeing your use of AI generated images, and taking a sponsorship from a generative AI company. The amount of energy wastage, stolen artwork, and unethical business practices that goes into these image generators are way too high for any "benefit" they may have to a workflow. You are also using them to depict historical events and people, in which there are plenty of images and references that accurately depicts your historical references already available through stock photos. So choosing to use generated images that are known to create inaccuracies is baffling to me.

@AnglephileSwedenGerman

Ай бұрын

I'm from Fall River where there are many native American names still of the streets n rivers but it is called Fall River because the native Americans called it that cause many many hills n many river n streams n ponds that end up in the Taunton river n if u day dream when you look at all the now paved hills you can see why it's call "falling rivers" or now it is Fall River Massachusetts in fact the quecachan river still flows through the entire city n ends up in the Taunton river n my good friend from Taiwan who is a chemistry professor at UMass says we have some of the best tap water in the world n this city was mostly French Canadian then mostly saint Michael's accoreana which is the southern most island of the islands of accoreze owned by Portugal n it's common for us who well basically me n everyone my age have parents who were born in the accoreana soa Miguel we tattoo a 5 digit from a die or pair of dice in the middle of our thumb n pointer finger on the backhand of our left or right hand also the city has a "rolling rock" that is massive deposited by the retreat of glacier its a massive rock but it forms to a little point n looks like it will tip , other than that n a lot of native american names n old mills n factories , its not a must see

@jsnsk101

Ай бұрын

Grand Teton national park, someone once told me it was a funny name in some language or another

@jcortese3300

Ай бұрын

TONS of Welsh ones in the area of the old Barony in Pennsylvania. Might be interesting for you to look at Welsh place names around the world? Pennsylvania, Patagonia, maybe someplace else starting with P ...

50% - Tribe X was living here 50% - Great River

@RobWords

Ай бұрын

A bit.

@ROBYNMARKOW

Ай бұрын

California was named for a Spanish novel about a mythical country so it’s the exception to that rule..

@pltntn1337

Ай бұрын

Pennsylvania means Penn's Forests

@nicolettaveganthibeault8781

Ай бұрын

For the states with vaguely indigenous names, yes kind of

@zappababe8577

27 күн бұрын

@@pltntn1337 Have to let Penn Gillette know, he's seemingly come into a bit of land!

About Vermont not being Montvert: there is evidence that when French and a Germanic language come into contact, sometimes placenames undergo a switch of word order, e.g. Neufchâteau (Belgium) or Neuchâtel (Switzerland). In some corner cases, French adjectives also come before the noun (e.g. "petit"), which is also thought to be a Germanic influence.

@OaxBratt

Ай бұрын

Another interesting aspect of Vermont’s name is that it was first called New Connecticut by a convention of the leaders of a rebellion against… the colony of New York. It’s a fascinating piece of U.S. history that I can’t summarize properly here, but worth looking up. At the time, most of the European settlers to the land had come from Connecticut Colony, and named the towns they founded after places in Connecticut (Windsor, Hartford, New Haven, etc.) My understanding is that the name was changed to Vermont to avoid confusion with the old Connecticut. The intention was always to join the other colonies, and eventually states. But New York did not allow it until 1791, and only after Vermont gave some of the disputed land back. During that time, Vermont had to sort out its identity as an independent place. Samuel de Champlain was the first European to see the lands that are now called Vermont and described them as « green mountains » (in French, of course). The rebels knew this, and named themselves the Green Mountain Boys. All this to say, I bet your theory is right, but it’s at least plausible that a group of Anglophone backwoods men would take the story about de Champlain and end up naming their new home in broken French.

@Hepad_

Ай бұрын

Totally agree ! I'm from Northern France, which has quite the Germanic influence, and we still sometimes use a word order closer to German !

@wellard3862

Ай бұрын

my theory is that Vermont comes from the French vers les monts (towards the mountains or hills), and was slowly condensed over time by English speakers, but no one will ever know!@@OaxBratt

@mimzim7141

Ай бұрын

The switching of word order does not sound that odd to me as french speaker when it is about names of places.

@Kumagoro42

Ай бұрын

It's not a matter of corner cases. In French, like in Italian, there's not a fixed position for adjectives, so there's plenty of cases where they come before the name. Cf. Nouvelle Vague (New Wave) or simple common sentences like "C'est une belle femme" (She's a beautiful woman). In fact, in reference to your examples, neuf/neuve and nouveau/nouvelle (slightly different ways to say "new") almost always come before the name (mon nouveau travail, sa nouvelle voiture, le nouveau film de Tarantino), but the art movement is called Art Nouveau and in Paris there's the Pont Neuf (just like in Florence there's Ponte Vecchio, but we usually say "un vecchio amico" /an old friend or "una nuova vita" / a new life, and Fellini's movie is "La dolce vita"). (In fact, in some cases the position changes the meaning, because "un vecchio amico" means a friend we've known for a long time, while "un amico vecchio" means a friend who is old of age).

The most fun theory of how Oregon got its name comes from the 1945 book "Names on the Land" by George R. Stewart. As the story goes, a French explorer in 1715 made a map where he labeled an upper tributary of the Mississippi the "Ouisconsinc" (this would later be Anglicized as "Wisconsin"). But a careless scribe back in France created a copy of the map where he mistakenly changed "Ouisconsinc" to "Ouariconsint." The copier also ran out of room, so he put the "sint" underneath the rest of the word, with a hyphen. Subsequent copiers missed the "sint" entirely, leaving "Ouaricon." Eventually, in the minds of explorers, "Wisconsin" and "Ouaricon" became two distinct rivers: one the existing Wisconsin River we know today, the other a great, mythical river that we will surely find if we just keep going west. But they pushed all the way to the Pacific and didn't find the river, so they named the coastal region they'd found after the nonexistent river. Only by this time the name of the river had morphed from Ouaricon to Ouragon to Ourgan to Ourigan to-you guessed it-Oregon. So Oregon is literally just the word Wisconsin after a long game of telephone.

Being a tribal member and living in Oklahoma. We don’t have a problem with the state name here. It works for us.

A point about the name of Vermont and the possibility of it coming from French with a strange word order: French actually does reverse noun and adjective order quite often when it comes to place names and more generally for poetic reasons, or at least it used to. It's a feature that has dropped from modern French, but might still have been commonplace back then. I can totally picture the French looking at said mountains and calling it "le Vert-Mont"

@RobWords

Ай бұрын

Thanks for this, I had no idea it was a poetic tool. Consider me educated.

@AndreaAvila78

Ай бұрын

😮❤Wow that makes so much sense because Spanish does the same thing for poetic purposes!

@halo7oo

Ай бұрын

Interesting that English sometimes does the same for poetic reasons, for example "Upon the mountain green, so beautiful!"

@Christian_Martel

Ай бұрын

Absolutely. The reverse order in French is a feature of literature, but also in the popular language with some adjectives, like beau, bon, grand, petit, etc.. Examples: Other French names formed in this way: Beauport, Beaufort, Belmont, Beaulieu, Grand-Pré, Vieux Carré, Neufchâtel, Neuville, etc….

@frenchcoyote5198

Ай бұрын

Blanche Neige and Snow White

On Oregon: According to the records of the state, "The first written record of the name "Oregon" comes to us from a 1765 proposal for a journey written by Major Robert Rogers, an English army officer. It reads, "The rout... is from the Great Lakes towards the Head of the Mississippi, and from thence to the River called by the Indians Ouragon." Also, the name was originally applied to the entire region, in 1848 the United States Congress approved the formation of the Oregon Territory. At the time, the Oregon Territory included all the present day states of Oregon, Washington, Idaho, and even parts of Montana and Wyoming. The route the homesteaders (pioneers) followed through a pass in the northern Rockies and along the Snake and Columbia Rivers to reach the Pacific coast was called the Oregon Trail.

@Kineticboy2K1

Ай бұрын

Growing up in the Pacific Northwest they hammer you with the history of the Oregon Trail, Lewis and Clark, and various local tribes and Wild West towns that still exist today. My school even held a play, multiple years in a row, where we acted out different pioneer scenarios and sang songs about them. I still have some lines memorized: Lewis: It's Lewis and Clark! Clark: That's Clark and Lewis! Both: Going down the trail to see what we can find!~ It was a while before I learned anything about any state beyond the PNW, let alone any other countries.

@ellinganderson5434

Ай бұрын

Another possible origin of the name Oregon is from the smelt, a small greasy fish traded throughout the west known to the natives as ooligan or oorigan. This is just another theory being explored.

@StereoSpace

Ай бұрын

@@Kineticboy2K1 I don't know if you've read "Undaunted Courage" by Stephen Ambrose about the Lewis and Clark Expedition, but it's a fantastic book.

@Kineticboy2K1

Ай бұрын

@@StereoSpace Wow, what a blast from the past! Yes, my teacher had dozens of copies and handed them out for us to read aloud from during class. I didn't remember the title when you said it, but googling it gave me such a nostalgia trip seeing the cover. Wild!

@4runningaway417

Ай бұрын

@@Kineticboy2K1. What about chief Joseph’s cuneiform tablet ?

H. B. Cushman, author of "History of the Choctaw, Chickasaw and Natchez" (first published 1899) spent his early years around the Choctaw. In his book, he recounted stories he heard growing up. One of them was the Choctaw origin story from their oral history. The story tells of the time of the great migration from the west to the east. When the people came to the river, they were amazed. Never had they seen such a moving body of water. According to Cushman, the people called the river "Misha Sipokni" ("beyond age") saying that surely it could have neither beginning nor end. But... going quite a bit further north we find the name Mississauga which would indicate that Mississippi is not of Choctaw origin. The book is actually an interesting read since it is his childhood memories living among the Choctaw before The Removal. And as always, love the video!!

Rhode Island's name originally referred to Aquidneck Island (southern part of the state where city of Newport is), named by early explorers who compared its appearance to the Greek island of Rhodes. The name later extended to the entire state, formally known as "State of Rhode Island and Providence Plantations," but recently shortened to "State of Rhode Island" in 2020 to avoid associations with the term "plantations."

@hakimkashiamya3142

Ай бұрын

only in 2020? Pff.. better late than ever I guess...

@carlosfontanez9804

Ай бұрын

I believe the term island was given to the land because the settlers of the state were fleeing religious prosecution and separated them selves from the rest of the land like an island. Not religious prosecution from Europe though but from those living in Connecticut. This would be why the state is so small as well being that it was just a small group of people wishing to separate themselves from the rest of the land compared to the other colonies.

@r12raul

Ай бұрын

​@carlosfontanez9804 that was the homie Roger Williams who came down from Massachusetts to settle what is now Providence.

Etymology of U.S. Territories & The Federal District: Puerto Rico: Rich Port (Spanish) Guam: What We Have (Chamorro, "Guahan") American Samoa: Place of the moa (Maori) U.S. Virgin Islands: Named for St. Ursula Northern Mariana Islands: Named for Spanish Queen Mariana of Austria Washington D.C.: President Washington, District of Columbia (Columbia is a Poetic name for the U.S., named after Christopher Columbus) Etymology of the U.S. Minor Outlying Islands: Baker Island: Named for Michael Baker (Nicknamed, New Nantucket)(Hawaiian laborers named Baker Island "Paukeaho", meaning "out of breath") Howland Island: Named Howland after the lookout who spotted it (Originally named Worth by a whaling ship's captain) Jarvis Island: Named for Edward, Thomas and William Jarvis (Nicknamed, Bunker Island) Johnston Atoll: Named for Captain Charles James Johnston Kingman Reef: Named for Captain W. E. Kingman (Previously charted as, Caldew Reef and Maria Shoal) Midway Atoll: Midway is roughly equidistant between North America and Asia (Hawaiian, "Kuaihelani", the backbone of heaven, & "Pihemanu", The loud din of birds) Palmyra Atoll: Named for U.S. trading ship Palmyra (Itself named for the ancient Syrian city) Wake Island: Named for either Captain Samuel Wake or Captain William Wake (Marshallese, "Ānen Kio", island of the kio flower) Navassa Island: Named Navaza from Spanish for plain or flat (French, "Île de la Navasse", Haitian Creole, "Lanavaz") Etymology of U.S. Compact of Free Association Nations: Marshall Islands: Islands of the Marshallese (Marshallese, "Ṃajeḷ") Micronesia: The region of small islands (Italian) Palau: Village (Palauan, "Belau" or "Beluu")

@beachboysandrew

Ай бұрын

This comment should definitely be pinned!

@Hand-in-Shot_Productions

Ай бұрын

This is a good summary of the names of the territories, Minor Outlying Islands, and the associated states! Also, Guam's "what we have" reminded me of some of the states with Native American names (which are often self-referential, such as the "allies in Texas and the Dakotas), while the Northern Mariana Islands is of the same genre of names as Virginia, Maryland, or Lousiana. Thanks for the added information!

@dr.atlantis2194

Ай бұрын

Spanish "rico" means beautiful, not rich.

@fitito500

Ай бұрын

​@@dr.atlantis2194means a lot of things could be "yummy" if you talk about a food, could be "rich, wealthy" if you talk about money, could be "a lot of..." If you talk about concentration "Rico en azucar" (have a lot of sugar), etc. .... Could be a lot of thing but in this case it would be"wealthy port or rich port" (in terms of natural resources, gold, silver, fish, etc).... Spanish is my mother tongue Greetings bro 👍

@fitito500

Ай бұрын

​@@dr.atlantis2194Rico like "beautiful" sounds weird maybe could be a slang in central America in places, but it's not used in that way... Something beautiful is "lindo", "bello", "hermoso", "precioso", "bonito", etc

Do the same with Canadian provinces and territories. I live in Nova Scotia, New Scotland, but there’s tons of English, German, Irish, Danish, even Icelandic people here.

@Christian_Martel

Ай бұрын

Yea. I’m Canadian too and I live in the Province of Where the River is Narrow.

@wyattstevens8574

Ай бұрын

​@@Christian_MartelQuebec! (I had to look it up, but I used to know about a lot of all 61 states/provinces in N.A.)

@Hisscreeper46

Ай бұрын

@@wyattstevens857461? 50 states and 10 provinces... where's the last one?

@wyattstevens8574

Ай бұрын

@@Hisscreeper46 I got confused- but did Canada (sometime in the past 10 years- see "International Relations" by Studio C, where I think one of them mentions 11 and not just 10) actually have 11?

@Hisscreeper46

Ай бұрын

@@wyattstevens8574As a Canadian, no. It used to have two territories but now it has three, and they are basically provinces these days, but its number of provinces hasn't changed since 1949, when Newfoundland joined.

Thank you Rob & team! You all deliver in spades.

Love your work rob! Please keep posting!

For Minnesota, according to Šišókaduta, a Dakota language instructor at the university of Minnesota: "A literal translation would be clear water," Šišókaduta said. "But what it ... really refers to is where the waters reflect the skies, because the water is clear and still." Some people interpret that as the source of the cloudy water - it’s simply water reflecting clouds. I’ve always heard it translated as “water that reflects the sky,” and I thought that was such a beautiful name for our state. The land of the waters that reflect the sky.

@Phlarx

Ай бұрын

Came here to say the same thing! (Although you have me beat on details). Hello fellow Minnesotan!

@Sea0fTime

Ай бұрын

"from the land of sky blue waters .."

@user-yp6kn2uw4k

Ай бұрын

Why don’t you like the clouds?? Clouds save in the heat, clouds are a source of heavenly water, the clouds themselves are beautiful and not banal, like the ordinary, unpoetic, plain blue sky.🙄🙄🙄😬

@stephgreen3070

Ай бұрын

I wondered about that too because sometimes the waters will be so still it feels like you’re canoeing in the sky. And sometimes it’s so windy, the breaking waves feels like you’re boating through the clouds, so I guess it could go either way lol.

@stephgreen3070

Ай бұрын

@@Sea0fTimegood ole Hamm’s.

Lake Char­gogg­a­gogg­man­chaugg­a­gogg­chau­bun­a­gung­a­maugg officially known as Lake Chaubunagungamaug, also known as Webster Lake in Massachusetts. It has the longest name of any land mark in the US It translates roughly from the nipmuc language to "fishing place at the boundary" Up until 2020 the official name of Rhode Island was State of Rhode Island and Providence Plantations. Providence plantations being the City of Providence.

@mikep3226

Ай бұрын

And, I'll point out that the population of the Providence metro area is higher than the population of the state (because much of the metro area is actually in nearby Massachusetts).

@jamescaron6465

Ай бұрын

@@mikep3226 Yes it is! Bristol County, MA

@oldsoldier181

Ай бұрын

I have been to that lake many, many times :)

@trekkiejunk

Ай бұрын

I loved their hit song....I get knocked down, but i get up again, you ain't never gonna keep me down!!

@jamescaron6465

Ай бұрын

@@trekkiejunk LOL

I hadn't give the origins of the U.S. state names any thought, but this was really fascinating, thank you so much. I love your gently informative style as well. All together a real delight.

That's so cool! Thank you for your work 🎉💯🎯✨

You did a great job of presenting this at a pretty rapid pace, while somehow making it feel casually paced. Well done.

The final two made me laugh. 😆 Maybe Oregon is where people wound up after the California gold rush ended. “Ore gone.” 😉

@PygKLB

Ай бұрын

There was a joke at the time that where the California Trail split from the Oregon Trail, one signboard said “Oregon” and the other had a picture of a gold nuggets. Thus the literate went to Oregon.

I love the historical references you put into it. Very interesting and instructive.

The funny thing about Arkansas is that in French, at least here in Canada, we do pronouns the final S

@amethyst1826

Ай бұрын

I often wonder if Arksnsas is pronounced Arkansaw why isn't Kansas pronounced Kansaw?

@zetectic7968

Ай бұрын

@@amethyst1826IIRC it was the US government that decided the confused pronunciation (ar-kan-saw and ark-kansas) & distinguished it from Kansas

@HueghMungus

Ай бұрын

@@zetectic7968 Reject boomer English, use new English; "Ar-can sauce" and "Can sauce" 😂😂😂👌 don't be negative, be "can" positive!

@Jimeo722

Ай бұрын

My mother, from rural Ireland, pronounced Arkansas by adding "Ar" to the beginning of the state name Kansas, until i corrected her. She said that's how she was taught to pronounce it in school.

@sydhenderson6753

Ай бұрын

@@Jimeo722The river is pronounced that way in Kansas. In Oklahoma, it's pronounced like the state of Arkansas.

Very well presented and informative. Thank you.

Interesting as always! Thank you for teaching me stuff! 😊

Wow what a treat Rob ! I really enjoyed your tour of the US states and the background to the names. Thanks 👍

Interesting is also, why it's the "New York YANKEES"! Yankee is the english version (pronunciation) of the (quite typical) dutch name Janke, which translates to little John. So it was the City of the (dutch) Jankes, bc. NY was New Amsterdam in the beginning. 😅

@WaterShowsProd

Ай бұрын

In a marginally connected tangent: I'm currently in a show about the history of Samut Prakan, which is the area around the mouth of The Chaophraya River as it flows into The Gulf of Thailand. Before doing this show I was completely unaware that region was also named New Amsterdam, due to the Dutch traders who settled there.

@DickDiamond74

Ай бұрын

People just liked it better that way.

@stevetalkstoomuch

Ай бұрын

We were taught in Connecticut that "Yankee" came from the Dutch pronunciation of an English insult at the time. The insult was to call someone a "John Key", which the CT settlers called the Dutch. They in return would reply to the CT settlers in their pronunciation and call them "Jahn Key". And it stuck.

@FrogeniusW.G.

Ай бұрын

@@stevetalkstoomuch No, it's not Jahn/John Key. It's really just Ja(h)n-ke, little John. Which in itself is/is meant as an insult. Calling grown men "little.." is mostly not taken too well. The ending "-ke" in Dutch (and northern Germany) is marking a diminutive. In middle Germany it's "-che(n)" and in the south "le". In Swisse, even more south it's "li". Perterke, Peterche(n), Peterle, Peterli. Janke, Janche(n), Janle, Janli. 🤷‍♀️

@adamfox9651

Ай бұрын

The story I heard was that Yankee or Yankees comes from Jan Kees meaning John Cheese, an insult Dutch colonists in New Netherlands had for their neighbors in New England. As for how the baseball team in the Bronx got its name, the team was originally called the Highlanders, probably in reference to the fact that their original 1903 ballpark sat on the highest elevation in Manhattan. (It's now the sight of Columbia-Presbyterian Hospital.) Eventually, in 1912, the ball club moved into the Polo Grounds on the Harlem River, sharing it with Giants, before moving into their own stadium on the opposite bank in 1923. While still at the Polo Grounds, sportswriters began calling the team by the nickname Yankees, possibly because of the number of New Englanders playing on the team at the time.

I found your channel yesterday it’s great really enjoying it learning so much.

Excellent (also brilliant) presentation. Stuff I don't need to know, but tremendously enjoy learning.

I almost didn’t watch this, because I’ve seen other channels cover the topic, but this is definitely the best one. Well done, from the Four Corners region.

Thanks a lot Rob, I like etymologie and yours videos are huge sources of knowledge for this. Besides I almost understand everything you say, thanks to your clear oral expression and good English accent. Cheers from France.

Fascinating. Thank you for this excellent video, it's clear how much work went into it. You did a fine job with a very interesting subject. I'll second the request to do Canada next.

@jeremytrepanier2202

13 күн бұрын

Québec a été inventé par le peuple Québécois,qui sont les habitants fondateurs de la civilisation en américaine

Loved this, do canada next! I could have sat through a way longer video too! Take your time! Much love :)

Caliphate - California 🤯😆!?! I don't think I can ever unhear/ unsee that (and it was in plain sight all the time!). And I'll have to tell that now to everyone.

@RonNorwood

Ай бұрын

Yeah, my mind was blown by that one too. It makes sense with the Muslim influence in Spain for a long time.

@meatmoneymilkmonogamyequal5583

Ай бұрын

I feel the VERY SAME WAY NOW!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Love this sort of historical information. Thank you for sharing this.

That was very enjoyable! Thanks for doing this and researching it so well. Im an American and a Historian but some of these name derivations I had never heard.

Very well done. I learnt a lot of new things, thank you for the video.

Loved the joke about splitting Carolina and Charles.

@ThinWhiteAxe

Ай бұрын

I live in NC myself and I very much appreciated it 😂

@IamRobotMonkey

Ай бұрын

King Charles had a split personality.

@Jadeschannel255

24 күн бұрын

King Charles had a splitting headache.

I've heard that "Oregon" somehow comes from a word(s) meaning "great storm" or "hurricane" and is supposedly French related.

@RobWords

Ай бұрын

The French for hurricane is "ouragan". I bet it's that!

@TestUser-cf4wj

Ай бұрын

​​@@RobWordsIt's very probable that the French had a hand in the establishment of the name since they were active traders all across the northern tier of the modern US. I'll just point out that it may also be the case that the name derives from "ooligan," which was a type of fish based food that was traded in western north America and made from salmon smelt caught in the Columbia river and tributaries. It remains a question though if olligan is the original name of the food or if the food was named after the river .

@peztopher7297

Ай бұрын

@@TestUser-cf4wj Hmm, there is a car parked in my apartment complex that has the word "ooligan" stenciled on it. I thought they misspelled 'hooligan' (like 'gangster'?). Bet we're in southern California, not Oregon.

@b.a.erlebacher1139

Ай бұрын

​@@RobWords Hurricane comes from Hurakan, the Maya god of storms. Almost certainly the same origin for French ouragan, perhaps via English.

@b.a.erlebacher1139

Ай бұрын

​​@@TestUser-cf4wj You're thinking of oolachan, or candle fish. These fish are extremely oily, and were threaded on sticks and dried to be burned for light, like candles or torches. As you say, important use and trade item in the area, not just the Columbia watershed but much further north, all along coastal British Columbia.

This is so well put together! I love how you correlate to eachother the name origin of the states

Very enjoyable, very informative. Thank you.

OK so regarding Hampshire. The ham actually comes from Southampton and the location of it in an "area enclosed by a river", 2 in fact, the Test and the Itchen. The first name of the settlement was Hamwic with the wic meaning "trading area" it being a port 'n' all. As it gained importance the name was changed to Hamtun and the wider administrative area Hamtunscir. One of the earliest known uses of scir was when Hamtunscir was mentioned in records in 755CE. It was recorded as Hantescire in the Domesday book (Southampton as Hantune) and apparently the p was first used in later additions to the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle. The South was later added to Hampton to differentiate it from other similarly named places, most notably Northampton. The shire never got that added whereas Northamptonshire does exist, probably because Northampton already had its North (Northantone in Domesday) when it gave its name to the Shire. Fun fact: George Washington's Great-grandfather emigrated from Northamptonshire and an earlier ancestor was mayor of Northampton!

@lucylane7397

Ай бұрын

I thought it was named after Washington in Tyne and wear

@Ditchdigger2005

Ай бұрын

@@lucylane7397 Yes, that's where the surname comes from, but one of the descendents of the first person to take that name moved to Lancashire in the early 14th century and then one of his descendents moved to Northamptonshire. In an ironic twist the family was loyal to King Charles during the civil war and the fact that they lost their property as punishment after he lost may have been a factor in George's Great-grandfather leaving for the New World!

@kovskaja

Ай бұрын

Interesting. Hamburg/ Ham(me)-burg means swamp enclosed by a river & castle. (old saxon)

Idaho man here! I’m not sure how confident you are about the name of Idaho. It has been my understanding that the name was somewhat made up and slapped on by the senate. Surprisingly, I do not recall learning about the names origin during state history class (although we are not known for our education). Here’s a fun tidbit though: the nickname of Idaho is “The Gem State”. Very appropriate for the mining operation you mentioned. It is actually a treasure trove of precious and semi precious gems.

@kenster8270

Ай бұрын

I have also heard/read that the name Idaho was an entirely made-up name meant to sound "genericly Indian" and coined as a working titled for a newly organized territories out west: Colorado Territory and Idaho Territory.

@sewmeonekenobi639

Ай бұрын

I’m from Idaho and I agree with your comment. I was looking forward to hearing what he said, to see if he got it right.

@BareRoseGarage

29 күн бұрын

Just seen your comment and I too am from the great state of Idaho! I'm right next to the Sho-Ban Reservation and have many friends from the tribe, and the comment I just left on where the word "Idaho" came from is from what they've long said about it. I remember back in the late 70's and early 80's stopping into the Ft. Hall Trading Post and buying those T-Shirts that said "Eye-eEe-Dah-How, not your idaahe` and never quite understanding what the heck it meant until much later when I asked the right people about it.

This was so wonderfully fascinating and put together! Rivetting, thanks :) I'm from York, and now live in Amsterdam...so the New Amsterdam into New York always makes me smile. Bookends.

Fascinating. Great work!!!

I love you videos and the amount of research and effort you put into this free content. Thank you for your efforts.

I read that Rhode Island was possibly named "Roodt Eylandt" by a Dutch explorer, meaning "Red Island" after the red clay shoreline. Eventually it would either be misunderstood and/or Anglicized to Rhode Island, likely since people were already familiar with the Isle of Rhodes. I'm not sure how accurate this story is or if it's just apocryphal, but I thought I'd share.

@adamcetinkent

Ай бұрын

Wasn't that literally explained in the video?

@gunkulator1

Ай бұрын

Formally, the full name of the state is Rhode Island and Providence Plantations. The smallest state has the longest name.

@goekhanbag

Ай бұрын

@@gunkulator1used to be

@jamescook6564

Ай бұрын

Rhode Island actial name is Rhode Island and Providence Plantation

@johnforgrave7125

Ай бұрын

@@adamcetinkent Not exactly. The video seems to suggest that the etymology is either the Dutch name OR being named directly after the Isle of Rhodes. I was just trying to clarify that to my understanding nobody thought Rhode Island or any part of it looked like the Isle of Rhodes and nobody initially meant to name it after the island in the Aegean, but that the name itself was appropriated simply for it's familiarity to the primarily English-speaking colonists who either misunderstood the existing Dutch name or just found it too cumbersome to say.

Such a great, elaborate story! Thank you!

Wonderful explanations! Thank you!

Colorado the river was initially named the Grand river, hence Grand Canyon and Grand Junction. The Colorado River did not go through the eponymous state. In earlier nomenclature, the Colorado River began at its confluence with the Green River. Above the confluence, Colorado was called the Grand River. July 25th, 1921, Congress passed House Joint Resolution 460, which officially changed the name of the Grand River to the Colorado River to appease the Coloradans.

@RobWords

Ай бұрын

Excellent knowledge. I spotted Grand River on a few old maps.

@jfdavis668

Ай бұрын

Came here to explain the same thing. When Colorado was named, they didn't even know the river was there. Colorado Territory was named after Old Colorado City, which was named after the red rocks in the area. Garden of the Gods being the best example. The river was named Colorado in California, since it is red when full of silt. It starts in Grand Lake, largest lake in the state, and was named the Grand River. Hence Grand Junction Colorado and Grand Canyon. Only later did they figure out it was the same river as the Colorado.

@shawns242

Ай бұрын

Yes, the real Colorado River is in the Austin, Texas area... that other one to the west is an imposter!

@ellingtongriffin5521

Ай бұрын

I grew up in Grand Junction! Wild to see it here ❤

Thanks from sunny Florida for remembering your American pals! That was fun &, as ever, informative.

Brilliant presentation thank you

Great video. Thanks for sharing

Wonderful work, Rob. This is definitely in the top 10 videos that I have ever watched on KZread. Absolutely wonderful way to spend 20 minutes.

Brilliant video Rob, really interesting. 👍👍👍

Great video! Thanks! Never heard these explanations anywhere else

Would you consider doing Canadian provinces, territories and cities? We’ve got Indigenous, British and French names just like our American neighbours

@RobWords

Ай бұрын

I shall most certainly consider it. Need to come and visit too.

@gerardacronin334

Ай бұрын

@@RobWords I suggest you visit Newfoundland where there is a plethora of interesting place names!

@BluffyMoo

Ай бұрын

​@@RobWords Just ask DW to send you out here "on assignment." Or you could just go from DW's finest television presenter to their Canadian correspondent. 😉

@keithtorgersen9664

Ай бұрын

@@RobWords I don't know if there's enough content to also consider a video on Mexico, to round out the whole of North America but I wanted to mention a bit of trivia that you may or may not be aware. The Mexican-American holiday Cinco de Mayo does not commemorate independence from Spain, but rather, the French. September 16th is the commemoration of independence from Spain.

@ernestgalvan9037

Ай бұрын

@@keithtorgersen9664… and further ‘trivia’.. Cinco de mayo does NOT commemorate independence from France… it commemorates a major victory against French forces, which at that time were considered the best Army in the world. (Further, in. Spanish language the names of days and months are not capitalized.. unlike eg English spellings. And further, it is NOT a ‘Mexican-American’ holiday, any more than July 4th 🎆 being a ‘Mexican-American’ holiday. You Yanks just use it as an excuse to toss back a cold Corona or three 😁

Great work. I appreciate what you're doing.

Fascinating. Thank you so much.

I liked how you seque to TYPE AI. To promote it. Very effective. Great job. Kudos to all the info. We appreciate it.

I've seen several videos on the origins of the state names. Yours is my far the most comprehensive. Excellent, just like all your videos.

The information here is great as always but as someone dabble in video editing, the editing of the video is superb.

@RobWords

Ай бұрын

Thank you. I'm slowly improving.

@gilmotier

Ай бұрын

@@RobWordsYou do your own editing? You’re incredible! ❤

So well researched!

This is SO AWESOME! I love learning the meanings and reasons behind today's name for EVERYTHING. Thank you for doing this! Great vid! ❤❤

The California being related to Caliphat is crazzzzy

@timj9767

7 күн бұрын

The Conquistadores loved those adventure stories of wandering knights in the Middle Ages and their strange adventures. Don Quixote was written to make fun of how much they loved these books.

Love your channel! I always learn something. Thank you!

J’adore ça, tellement bien raconté! Merci pour le partage! Vert Mont is a poetic way to say Mont Vert… u’ve got the same in « verts pâturages »

@RobWords

Ай бұрын

Oh really! So it can be that way round. Thanks.

@AndreaAvila78

Ай бұрын

La même chose en Espagnol : los verdes prados (suena más poético)

@Hepad_

Ай бұрын

C'est assez courant, quand on nomme un lieu, en fait. Tout le monde dit "la Grand Place", par exemple.

@Paco-nq5yz

Ай бұрын

@@AndreaAvila78 así es

The pronunciation of vitamin is the one that gets me the most.

Very interesting thanks, lots of work !

20:28 - The "green mountain" etymology for Vermont ("vert mont") is supported by the fact that the mili'tary force led by Ethan Allen (not the furniture company) was named "Green Mountain Boys". So at least THEY believed the etymology, whether it was the correct explanation of the origin or not.

Really interesting (and, of course, well done!) video, Rob! 🤗

Excellent information and presentation

Very interesting! I love your channel :)

In western Montana there's a town called "Paradise." Despite being a very beautiful location, the town's name originally was actually Pair Of Dice - it was originally somewhat of a wild west "Las Vegas" of sorts!

@davidguthary8147

Ай бұрын

Incidentally, most of what the general public thinks of as "Las Vegas" is actually in the unincorporated town of Paradise, Nevada.

@cptawesome11

Ай бұрын

What's your source on that? Just curious. Only thing I found was a single sentence in a random person's blog which was posted in 2015: "Many argue that the name originally was “Pair o’ Dice” but not by the railroads accounts." I don't think you could conclusively say it's the origin of the town name. Edit: There's a lot more info online about the same origin name but for a town in California called Paradise. The story is that there was a bar there called 'Pair o' Dice', however according to a Snopes article there has been no documentation of any bar or establishment there by that name. The article provides a source from a former Mayor of a nearby town who was also the president of the local historical society, they say that story is not true and provides a different explanation.

@jeanbeard178

Ай бұрын

I live in the portion of Las Vegas called Paradise, or was it Pair o' Dice. That name is more fun!

@LeCrenn

Ай бұрын

Whether or not that's true, it's a fun story.

About Vermont, it's quite common in French to inverse the adjective, "les vertes collines" (the green hills) or "les vertes contrées" (the green country side) are poetic inversions you hear often, "le vert mont" would be well in line with these.

I always delight when I see you’ve uploaded another robwords

Rob, you never fail to fascinate. Particularly interesting was the root of Virginia, in reference to the virgin Queen, Elisabeth the first and New Mexico, being named before Mexico . Thoroughly enjoyable!

Love all your videos! Can you do Canadian provinces and territories next?

Insightful, informative and very interesting.

Very cool of you to take the time.. 😌 Thank You 🙏🏽

Really enjoyed this video thanks

Love it, thank you ❤

I really enjoyed this catagorical presentation format. At first I was confused why you weren't going by sequential admittance to the Union. Great video! Thanks.

@dimitar297

Ай бұрын

Everything was accurate except the part on Wisconsin which was named after a type of fish preparation.

So interesting! I never knew about that silent "C" in Connecticut until I saw this. I am so glad I stumbled across your channel recently while meandering around KZread! Thank you!

Really interesting, thank you!

This channel is 99.99% perfect for my brain that’s being fed with pure organic ethymology

Appreciate all the work you do to give us such a one-of-a-kind education every week ❤

20:45 as a frenchie who studied languages and love poetry : it isn't weird to write "Vert Mont". Adjectives are not necessarily put after the names in french. This sounds more like an old way to talk, or a way of making it look more "poetic".

excellent presentation sir!

Criminally undersubscribed ;) Best of luck to you and your channel.

I was hoping you'd discuss the recent change in Rhode Island's name, because prior to 2021, it was "Rhode Island & Providence Plantations."

@PygKLB

Ай бұрын

The smallest state with the longest name!

@garylancaster8612

Ай бұрын

That sounds much cooler

@sandeegrey5977

Ай бұрын

Strange name change because "Plantations" at least in that context had nohting to do with of what we would call "slave plantations" today

Stellar work as always, Rob! Speaking of things you can’t unsee - Montana might be whispering to Idaho, but what about the giant chef (Minnesota hat, Iowa head, Missouri belly, Arkansas pants, Luisiana boots) holding a Tennessee pan and frying some Kentucky chicken. Try and unsee THAT. :D

@peztopher7297

Ай бұрын

😄

@sakr-el-bahr272

Ай бұрын

And Florida is a handgun! How appropriate.

@evanseifert8858

Ай бұрын

AKA Mimal

@sandyjay276

Ай бұрын

I've seen the chef, but not the frying pan, 😂😂😂

You are delight. So much fun to learn these names.

this was great - thnx

i have to pause these videos quite a lot... a lot of information to soak in and quite to think about.

Very interesting; thanks Rob!

I love this one, Rob. BTW, thanks for pronouncing Oregon properly.

Thanks for this video, fascinating learning about the names in my homeland. I was never taught this in school.

Interesting theories on Hawaii both of which are, for the most part, accepted by the Native Hawaiians. Well at least the ones I’ve spoken to. A bit of an addendum to both Hawaii origin theories. 1) Hawaiiloa was said to arrive from the east coast of “the land with the Yellow Sea” or “ka aina o ke Kai Melemele” in the Hawaiian language. The ruler of that land (or maybe just a chief) was his brother named Kanaloa. Interestingly, the only islands within Polynesia that has a Yellow Sea are the Samoan Islands, to be specific, the Manu’a group of islands on the eastern edge of the Samoan archipelago, and within the Manu’a group is an island called Ta’ū. There on the east coast of Ta’ū is the “Tai Samasama” or the “Yellow Sea” in the Samoan language. Tagaloalagi (“Tagaloa of the heavens”, Tagaloa being the original form of the Hawaiian cognate Kanaloa) is the supreme god of the Samoa, Tonga, Tahiti islands, etc. is said to have originated on Ta’ū island. Back in Hawaii, there is a district (similar to shires of England) where the first landing spot is located. That district is now called Ka’ū, which seems like a cognate of Ta’ū. 2) Hawai’i (Hawaiki, Havai’i, Savai’i) as the homeland of Polynesians, eastern Polynesians to be more specific. Although the Polynesians as a whole share very similar culture and language, there are some clear differences between the western Polynesians and eastern Polynesians, mainly the god they placed as their supreme god amongst their local pantheon of gods. The western Polynesians (Samoa, Tonga, Tokelau, Niue, Tuvalu to name a few) worshipped the god named Tagaloalagi, or a god that is descended or attached to him. For the western Polynesians, their ancestral homeland is known as Pulotu. The eastern Polynesians (Native Hawaiians, Tahitians, Native Maori of New Zealand) worshipped a god named Tāne (or Kāne). It is only them that hold Hawaiki or Havai’i as their ancestral home. Note: although Tahiti is linguistically, culturally, and geographically considered eastern Polynesian, they are the only ones that hold Kanaloa (Ta’aroa in their language) as their supreme god. According to Tupaia, the Tahitian navigator that aided James Cook in his discovery of the Polynesian islands, Savai’i (the largest island in the Samoan group) is the “father of all Havai’i” and the mythical homeland to which the eastern Polynesians say they come from.

@ottodidakt3069

Ай бұрын

You've left out the hypothesis that the first Hawaiiens came from what is now British Columbia. I don't remember all the strong cultural and linguistic links, but I do remember that it's been proven that it's a natural sailing option given currents, rain and migrant bird paths. Also the Haida have an intersting story and tradition that gives extra weight to the hypothesis, when you add all up it becomes hard to dismiss.

@AE-ix2iz

Ай бұрын

@@ottodidakt3069 I’ve heard that one too. But to be honest, neither myself nor Hawaiians that I am familiar with buy into that hypothesis at all. Genetic, linguistic, and cultural differences are too great to ignore.

@damink_8508

Ай бұрын

I'm NZ Maori and for us and most Polynesians the supreme atua (god/element) changed with the season. This is why James Cook was treated kindly during his stay in Hawaii originally but was killed on his return, the season and therefore supreme atua had changed. Your information is very good, you very much know your stuff. Tena koe

@DanielBerke

Ай бұрын

@@ottodidakt3069 So, I'm no linguist, but I did take a year of Hawaiian in college, and looking at the Wikipedia page for the Haida language they look very different. For just a few examples, Haida can end a syllable in one or more consonants, which is not a feature of Hawaiian or closely-related Polynesian languages. Haida also has around three times as many consonants as Hawaiian, whereas Polynesian languages all tend to have similar (relatively small) numbers of consonants (and it's clear where consonant substitutions have been made between them). While Hawaiian is very obviously part of the Polynesian language family, the scholarly consensus is that Haida is either a language isolate or part of the North American Na-Dené family. It's not too unusual to find superficial similarities between unrelated languages; for instance, 'kahuna' ('priest') in Hawaiian is very similar to the word for priest in Hebrew, and 'pau' means 'finished' in both Hawaiian and Greek (as a root, it wouldn't appear on its own).

@AE-ix2iz

Ай бұрын

@@damink_8508 interesting, I’ve never heard that before. I will share that with my circle of friends. Thanks for sharing

How many tribal names mean "The People" or "The People Who Don't Talk Funny"

@philodendron6

Ай бұрын

As in Deutsche?

@jcortese3300

Ай бұрын

And so many of the wrong ones resulted from asking the tribe 20 miles away what they call those people over there, with the result being "people who eat weird stuff" or "people who talk funny."

@ffreeze9924

Ай бұрын

I think most names for peoples come from this, not just tribes

@jcortese3300

Ай бұрын

@@ffreeze9924 There are stories of linguists going to Australia and asking indigenous Australians the name for their language by asking "What do you call the language we're speaking now," and getting the reply, "Uhhhh ... this." And the linguists would then solemnly write down the word for "this." 😀

@halo7oo

Ай бұрын

A LOT of endonyms (What people call themselves) usually mean some form of "Talks Normal, Friendly, Allies, Homeland, Family, Neighbors"

Impressive! Thanks for this.

I went to college in Oregon. On of the classes I took was on the natural history, modern history, geography, demographics and industries of the state. The hypothesis stated by my professor was that it was related to old French maps and how they were drawn. Before the middle of the continent was mapped in the 1800s there were just lines drawn westward for territories that are now in the mid west. As Europeans moved westward and defined territories and mapped the area those lines would be chopped of and territories formed (hence the rather square shapes of the western states.) the name on some of these French maps for Wisconsin was “ouaricon” and that the name migrated west as the territories were formed. Several maps were able to be found that support this idea.