Where do you live?

[Gob]

Some of America's most familiar names are full of hidden meaning.

Whether is be the names of each of the 50 states to cities, countries, rivers, oceans and even mountain ranges, a map has been created with their etymological meanings.

And so New York becomes 'New Yew Tree Village', New Jersey is 'New Isle of Spears' whilst Pennsylvania apparently means 'Land of the Main Hill Wood'.

[dales]

Auqua Caliente

[Joe Guy]

Auqua Caliente

When I was a kid my family vacationed in Agua Caliente every summer for 4 or 5 years. All we did was swim & barbeque every day & night.

[dales]

I'm always in "hot water".

[Econoline]

It may a bit embarrassing to live in the City of Stink Onions, but I am extremely proud to reside here in the Land of Those Who Speak Normally!

[Jarlaxle]

Half of that isn't even right...offhand, Pennsylvania, New Hampshire, New York, and Georgia are wrong and Rhode Island might be.

[rubato]

Agua Caliente refers to a lot of places in the West because there are a lot of hot springs.

yrs,
rubato

[dales]

REALLY?

[Joe Guy]

BUT I'm a scientist and I know all about WARM H2O...!

[Miles]

Actually Pennsylvania was named for William Penn and translates to Penns woods.

[Crackpot]

Yes but what is the derivation of "Penn"

[Gob]

This is one of the most famous name in firstly British and then American, history. It has a number of possible sources. Firstly, the surname may be locational from the village of Penn in the county of Berkshire. It is first recorded as Penna de Tapeslawa in the Pipe Rolls of the county in 1188, or from the village of Penn in Staffordshire.

This is recorded as "Penne" in the Domesday Book of 1086. The derivation of the name is from the early British language of the pre Roman times word "pen", meaning hill. Walter de la Penne is noted in the Pipe Rolls of Berkshire in 1196. Secondly, it may be a metonymic occupational name for a shepherd or an impounder. This is from the Olde English pre 7th Century word "penn", meaning a sheep or cattle enclosure often built of stone.

John ate Penne is listed in the Ministers Accounts of the Earldom of Cornwall in 1296. William Penn (1644 - 1718), the founder of Pennsylvania, was the son of Admiral Penn. On his fathers death In 1680 he obtained from King Charles 11nd of England, a grant of lands in New England, where he was to set up his colony of (initially) only Quakers. However he was not the first "Penn" into America. Francis Penn, aged twenty two, left London in 1632, aboard the ship "Mathew" bound for Virginia, although his later fate is not recorded.

The first recorded spelling of the family name is shown to be that of Warin de Penne, which was dated 1176, in the "Pipe Rolls of Staffordshire", during the reign of King Henry 11, known as "The Builder of Churches", 1154 - 1189. Surnames became necessary when governments introduced personal taxation. In England this was known as Poll Tax. Throughout the centuries, surnames in every country have continued to "develop" often leading to astonishing variants of the original spelling.

Read more: http://www.surnamedb.com/Surname/Penn#ixzz2XAHxLVG0
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[Rick]

The name Arkansas is the French interpretation of a Sioux word: acansa, meaning "downstream place." The Quawpaw settled here making them the "Downstream people".

Soooo Arkansas would be more correctly referred to as "The land of the downstream people"...

[Jarlaxle]

Georgia: named for King George.
Rhode Island: either named for resemblance to the Isle of Rhodes or from the Dutch words for "red clay". (Some of the seaward cliffs are red clay.)

[Rick]

Guess this map may have a little problem standing up to scrutiny

The Navajo’s name has Spanish origins, derived from the Pueblo Indian word for “planted fields” or “farm land.”

Today all 275,000-plus members of the Navajo Nation live in the tribe’s original territory of the Four Corners region: Arizona, New Mexico, Utah and Colorado.