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Writer's pictureAnant Katyayni

What's In A Name


Name of a place bears the legacy built over centuries. Many times it is based on a local river, mountain, flora, fauna or any other naturally occuring phenomenon earning the place its unique identity. In some distinct cases, it's named after a famous son of the soil. While in India there has been an effort going on at present, to rid the cities of their centuries-old Mughal legacy names and renaming randomly after the ideologues of politicians in power, let us have a look at how the western world did the same long back to the land of (native) Indians. The USA as we know today is of 50 states and then some additional territories. Born out of a freedom struggle from British, with help from French, but not long after the British pushed out the native tribes and their fellow European neighbours in this game of thrones. Meanwhile, some of the new territories conquered were named after common words like Oklahoma, Ohio, Dakota etc from the native American languages like Aztecan, Siouan and others. You can identify a few by an 's' in the end indicating this as a plural word, such as Arkansas, Kansas, Massachusetts, Illinois. Others simply are variations of words related to mountainland (Montana, Vermont, Nevada, Nebraska, Maine, Massachusetts), flowers and forest (Alabama, Arizona, Florida), river bodies (Indiana, Missourie, Mississippi, Michigan, Minnesota, Connecticut, Delaware, Colorado, Idaho, Kentucky, Wisconcin, Wyoming) Some other American states were named after famous persons. Mostly Europen Queens or Kings. In total eleven: Carolina (South & North): after King Charkes I of England Lousiana: after King Louis XIV of France Virginia & West Virginia: after the Virgin Queen Elizabeth I of England Maryland: after Queen Henrietta Maria of England Georgia: after King George II of England California: after a fictional Queen Calafia of the land from a 16th century novel Pennsylvania: after the state's founder Admiral Willian Penn New York: after the Duke of York James II Washington: ain't that obvious? ;) And you say, what's in a name?

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