「#1735. カナダ州名の由来」 ([2014-01-26-1]) と「#1736. イギリス州名の由来」 ([2014-01-27-1]) に続いて，今回はアメリカの州 (state) の名前の由来を訪ねる．まずは，州境の入った地図から．
語源別に50州の内訳をみると，以下のようになっている．過半数がアメリカ先住民の言語に由来する．
| Number | Origin |
|---|---|
| 28 | American Indian |
| 11 | English |
| 6 | Spanish |
| 3 | French |
| 1 | Dutch (Rhode Island) |
| 1 | from America's own history (Washington) |
では，Crystal (145) を参照して50州名の由来をアルファベット順に示そう．
| Alabama | Choctaw "I open the thicket" (i.e. clears the land) |
| Alaska | Inuit "great land" |
| Arizona | Papago "place of the small spring" |
| Arkansas | Sioux "land of the south wind people" |
| California | Spanish "earthly paradise" |
| Colorado | Spanish "red" (colour of the earth) |
| Connecticut | Mohican "at the long tidal river" |
| Delaware | named after English governor Lord de la Warr |
| Florida | Spanish "land of flowers" |
| Georgia | named after George II |
| Hawaii | Hawaiian "homeland" |
| Idaho | Shoshone "light on the mountain" |
| Illinois | Algonquian via French "warriors" |
| Indiana | English "land of the Indians" |
| Iowa | Dakota "the sleepy one" |
| Kansas | Sioux "land of the south wind people" |
| Kentucky | Iroquois "meadow land" |
| Louisiana | named after Louis XIV of France |
| Maine | named after a French province |
| Maryland | named after Henrietta maria, queen of Charles I |
| Massachusetts | Algonquian "place of the big hill" |
| Michigan | Chippewa "big water" |
| Minnesota | Dakota Sioux "sky-coloured water" |
| Mississippi | Chippewa "big river" |
| Missouri | Algonquian via French "muddy waters" (?) |
| Montana | Spanish "mountains" |
| Nebraska | Omaha "river in the flatness" |
| Nevada | Spanish "snowy" |
| New Hampshire | named after an English county |
| New Jersey | named after Jersey (Channel Islands) |
| New Mexico | named after Mexico (Aztec "war god, Mextli") |
| New York | named after the Duke of York |
| North Carolina | named after Charles II |
| North Dakota | Sioux "friend" |
| Ohio | Iroquois "beautiful water" |
| Oklahoma | Choctaw "red people" |
| Oregon | Algonquian "beautiful water" or "beaver place" (?) |
| Pennsylvania | named after William Penn and Latin "woodland" |
| Rhode Island | Dutch "red clay" |
| South Carolina | named after Charles II |
| South Dakota | Sioux "friend" |
| Tennessee | Cherokee settlement name, unknown origin |
| Texas | Spanish "allies" |
| Utah | Navaho "upper land" or "land of the Ute" (?) |
| Vermont | French "green mountain" |
| Virginia | named after Elizabeth I, the "virgin queen" |
| Washington | named after George Washington |
| West Virginia | named after Elizabeth I, the "virgin queen" |
| Wisconsin | Algonquian "grassy place" or "beaver place" (?) |
| Wyoming | Algonquian "place of the big flats" |
（後記 2014/02/24(Mon)：アメリカ州名の学習にはこちらをどうぞ．）
・ Crystal, David. The Cambridge Encyclopedia of the English Language. 2nd ed. Cambridge: CUP, 2003.