Name Origins of the Unites States + giveaway

  By Tiffany Amber Stockton

In February, we learned about carousels and their start as part of "little wars" in ancient times. You can read last month's post if you missed it.

Today, I'm going to start with the first of 5 total posts on the origins of the state names in the United States. These will be sprinkled throughout the rest of this year, not the next 4 months. So, let's go!

STATE NAMES and their ORIGINS

Alabama comes from the Choctaw word albah amo meaning thicket-clearers or plant cutters.

Alaska has ties to the Aleuts and the Russians, with the words alaxsxaq and Аляска, respectively, essentially meaning mainland.

Arizona has ancient roots to the Uto-Aztecan word ali sona-g, which was adopted by the Spaniards as Arizonac, meaning good oaks.

Arkansas is the French pronunciation of an Algonquin name for the Quapaw people, akansa.

California is truly a magical place. So magical in fact, it’s named after a fictional world invented by the author Garci Ordóñez de Montalvo, which Spanish explorers adopted when setting foot on the gold coast.

Colorado is another Spanish-influenced name that essentially means ruddy or ruddish. The name was first applied to the Colorado River for its distinctive color.

Connecticut, much like Colorado, was named for the river running through it. The word possibly stems from the Native American term quinnitukqut, meaning beside or at the long tidal river.

Delaware is also named for a body of water, but that body of water was named for Baron De la Warr, the first English governor of Virginia. The baron’s name is old French for of the war.

Florida taps into its Spanish roots by referencing Pascua florida, meaning flowering Easter, as Spanish explorers found the lush area during the holiday season. There's also a tie to the Latin word floridus, meaning strikingly beautiful.

Georgia may be known for its southern hospitality, but it’s actually named for King George II from Great Britain.

And that's all for today. If you're like me and LOVE puzzles, download this PDF for some puzzle challenge fun. You might be able to solve it on your own without reading the rest of the blogs in this set, or you can save it and add to it in future months. :)

NOW IT'S YOUR TURN:

* Which one of these states was the most fascinating to you?

* Do you live in any of these 10 states? If so, did you know this was the origin of its name?

* What do you think might be the origin of any of the other 40 states? (you'll learn about them throughout the year)

** Please do not reply via email with any comments. View the blog online and scroll down to the comments section.

Leave answers to these questions or any comments you might have on this post in the comment box below. For those of you who have stuck around this far, I'm sending a FREE autographed book to one person every month from the comments left on each of my blog posts. You never know when your comment will be a winner! Subscribe to comments so you'll know if you've won and need to get me your mailing information.

Come back on the 9th of April for my next foray into historical tidbits to share.

For those interested in my "fictional" life as an author and industry news about other authors, subscribe to my quarterly newsletter. Receive a FREE omitted chapter from my book, A Grand Design, just for subscribing!

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BIO

Tiffany Amber Stockton has been crafting and embellishing stories since childhood, when she was accused of having a very active imagination and cited with talking entirely too much. Today, she has honed those skills to become an award-winning, best-selling author and speaker who is also a professional copywriter/copyeditor. She loves to share life-changing products and ideas with others to help improve their lives in a variety of ways.

She lives with her husband and fellow author, Stuart Vaughn Stockton, along with their two children and four cats in southeastern Kentucky. In the 20 years she's been a professional writer, she has sold twenty-six (26) books so far and is represented by Tamela Murray of the Steve Laube Agency. You can find her on Facebook and GoodReads.

The Bride of Bride Brook

A Colonial Bride...and a Giveaway

In East Lyme, Connecticut, a little stream bears the name of Bride Brook. On its bank, the story goes, Jonathan Rudd married his love in late 1646 or early 1647.

Records from the time and place are sketchy, but the story is widespread. I first encountered it in the book The Bingham Family in the United States, by Theodore A. Bingham, while doing family research. Bingham quoted the History of Norwich. In the 1874 book by that name, written by Francis Manwaring Caulkins, we are told:
“The couple linked together were Jonathan Rudd and some unknown fair one to whom with little hazard of mistake, we may give the gentle name of Mary.”
Mary’s last name is not known for certain, but many believe she was Mary Metcalf, though some genealogists think she was Mary Burchard.

Whichever she may have been, the two living in or near Saybrook set their wedding date, but the magistrate who was supposed to come from another town to perform the ceremony couldn’t come because of a huge snowstorm. The nearest qualified person they could find to do the job was John Winthrop, Esq., then living in New London, and later governor of the Connecticut Colony. He was the son of the John Winthrop who was governor of the Massachusetts Bay Colony for twelve annual terms between 1629 and 1649.



John Winthrop
the Younger

The History of Norwich tells us that Winthrop had no authority to perform the ceremony in Connecticut at that time, as his authority as magistrate came from the Massachusetts colony. But he agreed that if the parties met at a certain brook, he would perform the ceremony there.

According to Caulkins, “a friendly cavalcade accompanied him [Winthrop] from New London, which, with the bridal party from Saybrook, and a few wild faces peering curiously from the woods, made a company sufficient to relieve the wilderness of its silence and solitude.”

Photo by Forest Wander Nature Photography

John Winthrop and his friends stood on the Massachusetts side of the brook and officiated while the happy couple stood on the Connecticut side and took their vows.




Caulkins wrote, “Never perhaps was the rite performed in a situation so wild and solitary and under circumstances so interesting and peculiar. The stream received the name of 'Bride Brook' on the spot, and is so known today.”


Jonathan Rudd was a worker in leather, a farmer, and a soldier. New Haven County records say that “he kept a dirty gun and drank spirits while on guard duty.” So much for the “happily ever after.” The guard duty may have come in when he acted as a sergeant in the local militia band. He died in 1658, and a Reverend Fitch was appointed guardian of his and Mary’s children.

Jonathan and Mary are ancestors of my husband’s, through his Grandmother Harder’s line. Other surnames in this line include Kingsley and Bingham. If you can connect your family to one of these old New England families, you may also be related to “The Bride of Bride Brook.”

In honor of this couple, I am giving away one copy of the New England Romance Collection, just released from Barbour Publishing. It includes my novel The Prisoner's Wife and four others by different authors. Leave a comment below to enter the
giveaway, and be sure to leave your email address. The winner will be announced Jan. 30.

   Susan Page Davis is the author of more than forty published novels. A history major, she’s always interested in the unusual happenings of the past. She’s a two-time winner of the Inspirational Readers’ Choice Award, and also a winner of the Carol Award and the Will Rogers Medallion, and a finalist in the WILLA Awards and the More Than Magic Contest. Visit her website at: www.susanpagedavis.com .