French Names Given To American States
Most of the names were bestowed by early French explorers who were not permanent residents of the area that became the U.S. Upwards of 10 U.S. states have names of either direct French origin (Louisiana, Vermont, Illinois), indirect French origin through other languages (Michigan, Wisconsin, Arkansas, Delaware, New Jersey) or possible / disputed French origin (Maine, Oregon).
- Arkansas – named by French explorers from the corrupted Indian word meaning "south wind";
- Delaware – named after Lord de la Warr (Anglo-Norman surname originally de la Guerre meaning; "of the war");
- Illinois – French for the land of the Illini, a Native American tribe;
- Louisiana – from the French "Louisiane", in honor of king Louis XIV of France;
- Maine – most likely from the French province of the same name. because Henrietta Maria of France, queen of Charles I of England was said to have owned the province of Maine in France.
- Michigan – French transcription of Ojibwe word Mishigamaw which means "great lake"
- New Jersey – named after the Bailliage de Jersey, the largest of the British Channel Islands, whose inhabitants are of Norman descent and many of whom still speak a Norman-French dialect. English and French are the official languages of Jersey and Guernsey;
- Oregon – may have been named by early French explorers after "le fleuve aux ouragans", the hurricane river, a name used to describe the windiness of the Columbia River;
- Vermont – comes from a contraction of French words, Vert, green, and mont, mount, mountain. Hence the "Green Mountain" (la montagne verte) state;
- Wisconsin – named after the Meskousing River. This spelling was later corrupted from the local Native American language to "Ouisconsin" by French explorers, and over time this version became the French name for both the Wisconsin River and the surrounding lands. English speakers anglicized the spelling to its modern form when they began to arrive in greater numbers during the early 19th Century;
Read more about this topic: French American
Famous quotes containing the words french, names, american and/or states:
“In most other modern societies working mothers are not put under these special and exaggerated pressures. For example, French and English mothers often prefer to breast-feed their babies, but they do not feel that their womanhood is at stake if they fail to do so. Nor does anyone else.”
—Sylvia Ann Hewitt (20th century)
“Ideas about life organize perception; names of emotions organize sensations; rules of syntax organize thought. But pain comes on its own.”
—Mason Cooley (b. 1927)
“Can you conceive what it is to native-born American women citizens, accustomed to the advantages of our schools, our churches and the mingling of our social life, to ask over and over again for so simple a thing as that “we, the people,” should mean women as well as men; that our Constitution should mean exactly what it says?”
—Mary F. Eastman, U.S. suffragist. As quoted in History of Woman Suffrage, vol. 4 ch. 5, by Susan B. Anthony and Ida Husted Harper (1902)
“If the Soviet Union can give up the Brezhnev Doctrine for the Sinatra Doctrine, the United States can give up the James Monroe Doctrine for the Marilyn Monroe Doctrine: Let’s all go to bed wearing the perfume we like best.”
—Carlos Fuentes (b. 1928)