Quiz: How Did States Get Their Names?

When Spanish explorer Juan Ponce de Leon landed on the dangling portion of America in 1513, he dubbed it "Florida," or the "land of flowers" — not because there were daisies and lilies everywhere, but because it was the Easter season (Pascua Florida in Spanish).

The word "Massachusetts" is an Algonquin word that basically means "large hill place." Other sources tweak the meaning a bit, but it always comes back to the fact that Massachusetts is, topographically speaking, one lumpy place.

As with so many geographical names in the U.S., Idaho has vague origins. Although there are claims that it is a Native American word, this has never been proven. Some historians now believe it is a made-up word.

This should've been easy. Montana was admitted to the Union as a state in 1889. The western half of the state boasts the jagged Rocky Mountains, the feature that inspired the name Montana, which springs from the Latin word "montanea" which means "mountain."

In 1682, French explorer René-Robert Cavelier decided to claim all the area drained by the Mississippi River, from what's now Mobile Bay, Alabama, all the way to the Canadian-U.S. border, for King Louis XIV of France. Part of these lands eventually became known as Louisiana.

In 1863, many citizens in the western part of Virginia didn't want to be part of the Confederacy. So they broke off and formed their own state, which was admitted to the Union side.

Michigan is the 10th most populous state in America. Its name comes from "mishigamaa," a word from the Ojibwe tribe that means "large lake" or "large water."

Cook was probably the first European explorer ever to see Hawaii. He named the area "Sandwich Islands," after the Earl of Sandwich, and not because of a favorite lunchtime meal.

Compared to most other states, Texas has a very complicated history, in part because of its location. For a while, it was Coahuila y Texas, part of Mexico. Then it became a sovereign republic for a decade, until finally it became a U.S. state in 1845.

While all of these answers have some truth to them, historians think the primary reason for the split in Dakota territory was to help the Republican President Benjamin Harrison. Adding two new states (as opposed to one) gave the House a Republican majority.