This document provides origin names, nicknames, mottos, and facts about 14 U.S. states: Michigan, Ohio, Kentucky, Georgia, Florida, West Virginia, North Carolina, South Carolina, Pennsylvania, New York, Vermont, New Hampshire, Maine, and Massachusetts. It discusses their names' origins and meanings as well as notable historical facts, people, and firsts associated with each state.

3. • ORIGIN OF NAME: From an Indian word
(Michigana) meaning “GREAT or LARGE LAKE”
• RESIDENTS: Michigander, Michiganian
• MOTTO: If you seek a pleasant peninsula, look
around you.
• NICKNAME: Wolverine State
• DID YOU KNOW?
• It is the country’s top producer of
• automobile and auto parts.
.
“Cereal City,”
maker of most of the breakfast cereal in the U.S.

4. • ORIGIN OF NAME: From an Iroquoian word
meaning “great river”
• RESIDENTS: Ohioan
• MOTTO: With God all things are possible
• NICKNAME: Buckeye State
• DID YOU KNOW ?
• The world’s first professional baseball
• team was the Cincinnati Reds.
Home of the FIRST electric traffic lights, invented
and installed in Cleveland in 1914.

5. • ORIGIN OF NAME: From an Iroquoian word
(Kentahten) meaning “land of tomorrow”
• RESIDENTS: Kentuckian
• MOTTO: United we stand, divided we fall
• NICKNAME: Bluegrass State
• DID YOU KNOW?
• “Happy Birthday to You” was written
• by two Louisville teachers.
Home of the LARGEST underground cave in the
world, the Mammoth-Flint Cave System, over 300
miles long.

6. • ORIGIN OF NAME: In honor of George II of
England
• RESIDENTS: Georgian
• MOTTO: Wisdom, justice and moderation
• NICKNAMES: Peach State and Empire State of the
South
• DID YOU KNOW?
• During the Civil War, Atlanta was burned
• and nearly destroyed by Union troops.
One of the World’s largest COLLEGE campuses,
Berry College, in Rome.

7. • ORIGIN OF NAME: From the Spanish, meaning
“feast of flowers”
• RESIDENTS: Floridian, Floridan
• MOTTO: In God we trust
• NICKNAME: Sunshine State
• DID YOU KNOW?
• There are two rivers in Florida with the
• name Withlacoochee.
Home of the U.S. spacecraft launchings from Cape
Canaveral, formerly Cape Kennedy.

8. • ORIGIN OF NAME: In honor of Elizabeth I, “Virgin
Queen” of England
• RESIDENTS: West Virginian
• MOTTO: Montani semper liberi (Mountaineers
are always free)
• NICKNAME: Mountain State
• DID YOU KNOW?
• Mother’s Day was first celebrated in
• Grafton in 1908.
Home of MARBLES. Most of the country’s glass marbles
are made around Parkersburg

9. • ORIGIN OF NAME: In honor of Charles I of
England
• RESIDENTS: North Carolinian
• MOTTO: Esse quam videri ( To be rather than to
seem)
• NICKNAME: Tar Heel State
• DID YOU KNOW?
• Although the state was pro-Union and
antislavery, it joined the Confederacy.
Home of Virginia Dare, the first English child born in America,
on Roanoke Island around 1587

10. • ORIGIN OF NAME: In honor of Charles I of England
• RESIDENTS: South Carolinian
• MOTTO: Animis opibusque parati (Prepared in mind
and resources) and Dum spiro spero (While I breathe, I
hope)
• NICKNAME: Palmetto State
• DID YOU KNOW?
• South Carolina was the first state to
• secede from the Union. The Civil War
• started here.
Home of the FIRST tea farm in the U.S., created in
1890 near Summerville.

11. • ORIGIN OF NAME: In honor of Sir William Penn, father
of state founder William Penn. It means “Penn’s
Woodland”
• RESIDENTS: Pennsylvanian
• MOTTO: Virtue, liberty and independence
• NICKNAME: Keystone State
• DID YOU KNOW?
• The first baseball stadium in the U.S.,
• Pittsburgh’s Forbes Field, was built in
• 1909.
Home of the FIRST magazine in America, American Magazine,
published in Philadelphia for three months in 1741.

12. • ORIGIN OF NAME: In honor of Duke of York
• RESIDENTS: New Yorker
• MOTTO: Excelsior (Ever upward)
• NICKNAME: Empire State
• DID YOU KNOW?
• New York was one of the nation’s
• first capitals. Congress met there from
• 1785-1790
Home of the FIRST presidential inauguration.
George Washington took the oath of office in
New York City on April 30, 1789.

13. • ORIGIN OF NAME: From the French vert mont,
meaning “green mountain”
• RESIDENTS: Vermonter
• MOTTO: Vermont, freedom and unity.
• NICKNAME: Green Mountain State
• DID YOU KNOW?
• Montpelier, with just over 8,000
• residents, is the smallest state capital
• in the United States.
Home of the largest production of maple syrup in the U.S.

14. • ORIGIN OF NAME: From the English county of
Hampshire
• RESIDENTS: New Hampshirite
• MOTTO: Live free or die
• NICKNAME: Granite State
• DID YOU KNOW?
• The world’s highest wind speed, 231
• m.p.h., was recorded on top of Mount
Washington.
Home of Artificial rain. First used near Concord in 1947 to
fight a forest fire.

15. • ORIGIN OF NAME: First used to distinguish the
mainland from the coastal islands
• RESIDENTS: Mainer
• MOTTO: Dirigo ( I lead)
• NICKNAME: Pine Tree State
• DID YOU KNOW?
• Maine is the worlds largest producer
• of blueberries.
The most easterly point in the U.S., west Quoddy
Head

16. • ORIGIN OF NAME: From the Massachusett Indian tribe,
meaning “at or about the great hill”
• RESIDENTS: Bay Stater
• MOTTO: Ense petit placidam sub liberate quietem ( By
the sword we seek peace, but peace only under
liberty.)
• NICKNAMES: Bay State and Old Colony State
• DID YOU KNOW?
• The first basketball game was played in
• Springfield, Massachusetts, in 1891.
Home of the first World Series, played between
the Boston Pilgrims and the Pittsburgh Pirates in
1903.

17. • ORIGIN OF NAME: From the Greek island of
Rhodes
• RESIDENTS: Rhode Islander
• MOTTO: Hope
• NICKNAME: Ocean State
• DID YOU KNOW?
• Rhode Island is the smallest of the 50
• U.S. states.
Home of the Rode Island Red chickens, first bred in 1854;
the start of poultry as a major American industry.

18. • ORIGIN OF NAME: From the Mohegan Indian word
Quinnehtukqut, meaning “beside the long tidal river”
• RESIDENTS: Nutmegger
• MOTTO: Qui transtulit sustinet (He who transplanted
still sustains)
• NICKNAME: Constitution State or Nutmeg State
• DID YOU KNOW?
• The U.S. Constitution was modeled after
• Connecticut’s colonial laws.
Home of the first American cookbook-American Cookery by
Amelia Simmons- published in Hartford in 1796.

19. • ORIGIN OF NAME: From the Isle of Jersey in the
English Channel
• RESIDENTS: New Jerseyite, New Jerseyan
• MOTTO: Liberty and prosperity
• NICKNAME: Garden State
• DID YOU KNOW?
• The street names in the game Monopoly
• were named after streets in Atlantic City.
Home of the world’s first drive-in movie theater, built in
1933 near Camden.

20. • ORIGIN OF NAME: From Delaware River and Bay,
named for Sir Thomas West, Baron De La Warr
• RESIDENTS: Delawarean
• MOTTO: Liberty and independence
• NICKNAMES: Diamond State, First State and Small
Wonder
• DID YOU KNOW?
• Delaware was the first of the original 13
• colonies to ratify the U.S. Constitution.
Home of the first log cabins in North America, built in
1683 by Swedish immigrants.

21. • ORIGIN OF NAME: In honor of Henrietta Maria
(Queen of Charles I of England)
• RESIDENTS: Marylander
• MOTTO: Fatti maschii, parole femine (Manly
deeds, womanly words)
• NICKNAMES: Free State and Old Line State
• DID YOU KNOW?
• During the Civil War, Maryland was a
• slave state but part of the Union.
Home of the first umbrella factory in the U.S., opened in 1828, in
Baltimore