Which state has the worst name?

[Grumpier Than Uncle Joe]

New Mexico......I just don't like Mexico.

[Green Line]

New York... where is Old York?

[hurricanehink]

Massachusetts. It's unnecessarily long for such a small state, and unlike California, isn't phonetic. Make it easier for kids and rename it Plymouth, Mayflower, or Blue Hill. That all being said, I like that it is named after the local indigenous colony Massachusett (thank you Wikipedia), but I still think such an important state could have a simpler name.

Massachusetts is perfectly phonetic. What kind of non-phonetic way do you pronounce it?

More talking about the spelling being difficult, even to most adults. Namely, the sets of double letters (s's and t's) and the second vowel (pronounced as soft "i", "eh", or "uh"). State and country names should be like the periodic table and legendary Pokemon: easy to pronounce and spell across languages and dialects. Names with directions or "new" are some of the better place names, IMO.

[LLR]

New York... where is Old York?

In England

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/York

[TDAS04]

Oklahoma and Mississippi

[Shameless Lefty Hack]

Maine, Vermont. The French never even owned them!

Greenmont and Penobscot would be much better names.

[Zioneer]

Washington, since it shares a name with our capital. You always have clarify "Washington State", when talking about it to those outside the state.

I happen to originally be from Washington state, so it's a pain to have to clarify. Should have named it something else (not Columbia, same problem because of the District of Columbia).

[The Arizonan]

I'd say Idaho has the worst name. The name came when George Willing, a mining lobbyist, pulled it out of his ass and said it was the Shoshone word meaning "gem of the mountains". Seriously.

[MaxQue]

Virginia, named after a supposedly virgin Queen of England.

[Mr. Reactionary]

New Mexico or Washington.

[Landslide Lyndon]

Alabama is the most hick-sounding name.

[angus]

I like the euphonic native language names (tallahassee, talladega, alabama, tuscaloosa) better than the cacophonic native language names (nantucket, connecticut, massachusett, pawtucket).  That said, I tend to like all native names better than the ones imported from Europe, so names like Kentucky and Illinois are good ones, at least to me.  The sioux names (Minnesota, Dakota) are intermediate, somewhat more euphonic than the algonquit ones but don't quite roll as much as the ones in the southeast. 

Still, Spanish, English, and French names are okay if they're all Spanish or all English or all French.  Colorado, Nevada (those two get mispronounced by Anglophones, however, but when they're actually pronounced correctly they're very nice names), along with Florida and Arizona are nice.  Texas is a bit weird because it's an English pronunciation of a Spanish transliteration of an Attacapa name, and no one is really sure how the Attacapa peoples might have first pronounced it to the Spaniards. 

Probably the worst is Pennsylvania, because it combines an Englishman's surname with a latin word for forest.  I don't like mixing languages at all.  It's like saying polydentate ligand.  We should either say multidentate (all Latin) or polydontic (all greek).  Mixing doesn't work for me, so I vote for Pennsylvania.

[Virginiá]

Virginia, named after a supposedly virgin Queen of England.

How could you

[Higgs]

Alabama is the most hick-sounding name.

Kentucky?

[skoods]

Wyoming...Why oh Ming?

West Virginia...it's not like there's an East Virginia.

Oregon...mostly because I can't figure out if it's supposed to be pronounced Ore-gan, Ore-gone, Organ, or Ora-gun.

Minnesota...only because it reminds me of ordering a small coke at a restaurant..."Yeah I'll have the mini-soda."

[Stranger in a strange land]

Kentucky

[Heisenberg]

Surprised nobody mentioned West Virginia. They should have named it something original.

[Adam Griffin]

State of Rhode Island and Providence Plantations

[pho]

New Mexico, considering it was taken from Old Mexico by force by non-Mexicans.

[Senator-elect Spark]

Nebraska

[Figueira]

ჯორჯია

[angus]

New Mexico, considering it was taken from Old Mexico by force by non-Mexicans.

The name existed long before the territorial expansion of the US against Mexico, and in fact long before the modern nation-state of Mexico existed.  The phrase "Nuevo México" can be found in the chronicles and journals of Spanish explorers as early as the mid-1500s.  It's true that the land was ceded to the US in the Treaty of Guadelupe Hidalgo in 1850, but Mexico and New Mexico had long developed with independent histories until New Mexico passed into Mexican hands in 1821.  The gringos who applied for admission to the US as a state in 1912 were simply using a name that had been associated with the region for at least four centuries.  If you don't like the name New Mexico, then you should blame the conquistadores who gave it that name, not the gringos who made it a US state.

The name of the country itself is more of a misnomer, since in the Nahuatl language of the Aztec the word Mexico only refers to the central valley (DF and the surrounding states of Mexico and Morelos and a few others), which is the homeland of the Triple Alliance.  In fact, in political speeches, Mexican Presidents usually do not refer to the country as Mexico, but rather as "La Patria."

[DINGO Joe]

Surprised nobody mentioned West Virginia. They should have named it something original.

Yeah, West Virginia seems particularly lazy.  But if WV has the worst name, then they'd have the worst of everything.

[pho]

New Mexico, considering it was taken from Old Mexico by force by non-Mexicans.

The name existed long before the territorial expansion of the US against Mexico, and in fact long before the modern nation-state of Mexico existed.  The phrase "Nuevo México" can be found in the chronicles and journals of Spanish explorers as early as the mid-1500s.  It's true that the land was ceded to the US in the Treaty of Guadelupe Hidalgo in 1850, but Mexico and New Mexico had long developed with independent histories until New Mexico passed into Mexican hands in 1821.  The gringos who applied for admission to the US as a state in 1912 were simply using a name that had been associated with the region for at least four centuries.  If you don't like the name New Mexico, then you should blame the conquistadores who gave it that name, not the gringos who made it a US state.

The name of the country itself is more of a misnomer, since in the Nahuatl language of the Aztec the word Mexico only refers to the central valley (DF and the surrounding states of Mexico and Morelos and a few others), which is the homeland of the Triple Alliance.  In fact, in political speeches, Mexican Presidents usually do not refer to the country as Mexico, but rather as "La Patria."

Touché. I didn't know that.

[President of the great nation of 🏳️‍⚧️]

Surprised nobody mentioned West Virginia. They should have named it something original.

And Virginia itself stretches more westerly than WV does.