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Now, the VOA Special English program, WORDS AND THEIR STORIES.
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A nickname is a shortened form of a person's name. A nickname can also be a descriptive name for a person, place or thing.
America's fifty states have some of the most historically interesting nicknames.
Alabama is known as the Heart of Dixie because it is in the very middle of a group of states in the Deep South. "Dixie" itself is a nickname for the American South. It started when Louisiana printed notes with the French word for "ten" on them. "Deece," or "D-I-X," led to "Dixie."
Way up north, Alaska is called the Last Frontier for understandable reasons. Near the Arctic Circle, it was the final part of the nation to be explored and settled.
Arizona is the Grand Canyon State because of the famous winding canyon carved by the Colorado River. The southern state of Arkansas is the Land of Opportunity. The state legislature chose this nickname. Arkansas is rich in natural resources and has become a favorite place for older people to retire.
In a popular Spanish book, a fictional island called "California" was filled with gold. Sure enough, plenty of it was discovered in the real California, in eighteen forty-eight. This started a gold rush unlike any other in American history in the Golden State.
You would think Colorado would be known as the Rocky Mountain State. But its nickname is the Centennial State. That is because it became a state in eighteen seventy-six, exactly one hundred years after the nation declared its independence.
Connecticut is called the Nutmeg State after a spice. Connecticut Yankees, as people in this northeast state are called, are known to be smart in business. So smart that it was said they could sell wooden, meaning false, nutmegs to strangers.
Little Delaware is called the First State because it was the first state -- the first to approve the new United States Constitution. The Southern state of Florida likes to tell about its sunny days and fine beaches. So Florida is the Sunshine State. Florida's neighbor to the north grows some of the sweetest fruit in America. So Georgia is the Peach State.
Hawaii, far out in the Pacific Ocean, is the Aloha State. That is the friendly greeting that means both "hello" and "goodbye" in the native Hawaiian language. So, aloha for now. Next week we will tell you about the nicknames of more American states.
Idaho is known as The Gem State. This is not because it has diamonds but because it believes it is the jewel of the western Rocky Mountains. Illinois is The Land of Lincoln. It is named for Abraham Lincoln, the sixteenth president who led the nation through the Civil War in the eighteen sixties. The midwestern state of Indiana is called the Hoosier State, but nobody is quite sure why.
One story is that the word was used to mean poor farmers or uneducated people. No wonder the state legislature instead calls Indiana The Crossroads of America. Iowa's nickname, the Hawkeye State, is in honor of Black Hawk, an Indian chief who spent most of his life in neighboring Illinois!
Kansas also has a "hawkish" nickname: The Jayhawk State. Jayhawkers were free-state guerrilla fighters opposed to the pro-slavery fighters in the years before the Civil War.
Kentucky is The Bluegrass State. Bluegrass is really bright green but looks bluish from a distance. Louisiana is The Bayou State. A bayou is a slow-moving stream. Hundreds of them flow through this southern state, and many are full of alligators!
Maine, in the nation's northeast, is The Pine Tree State because it is covered in evergreen woods. And directly across the country, on the Pacific Coast, is the state of Washington. It also has lots of evergreen trees so, not surprisingly, it is The Evergreen State.
The eastern state of Massachusetts is the Bay State. This body of water separates most of the state from famous Cape Cod.
Six state nicknames are taken from native animals. Michigan is the Wolverine State. A wolverine is a small, fierce mammal. The badger is a similar and equally fierce creature and Wisconsin is The Badger State.
Neighboring Minnesota, The Gopher State, is named for a much nicer animal that builds hills and tunnels. However, The Land of Ten Thousand Lakes is written on Minnesota's vehicle license plates.
North Dakota gets its nickname, The Flickertail State not from some bird, but from a little squirrel. South Dakota takes its nickname, The Coyote State, from an animal that thinks flickertails are good to eat!
And Oregon, The Beaver State, borrows its nickname from the large, flat-tailed rodent that uses trees to build dams.
The mid-Atlantic state of Maryland is called the Free State. A Baltimore newspaper first called it that during the nineteen twenties when the manufacture and sale of alcohol were banned for a time. Maryland said it wanted to be free from this prohibition.
Mississippi is The Magnolia State. It is named for a tree with big, beautiful white flowers that grows in that hot, southern state.
The midwestern state of Missouri is called The Show Me State. The people of that frontier state were once famous for not believing everything people told them.
If you visit the western mountain and plains state of Montana you will know why it is known as Big Sky Country.
Nebraska is the only state to have a nickname that honors sports teams! The state university's athletic teams are nicknamed Cornhuskers in recognition of one of the area's chief crops. The state borrowed the Cornhusker nickname from the university.
The western desert state of Nevada is called The Silver State. It was once home to many silver mines and towns that grew up around them. Today, most of them are empty “ghost towns.”
New Hampshire, in the northeast area called New England, is The Granite State because of that colorful rock.
New Jersey is between the big cities of New York, New York and Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. It got its nickname, The Garden State, because New Jersey truck farms once provided vegetables to those big cities.
New York, which always thinks big, was called The Empire State because of its natural wealth. The most famous Manhattan skyscraper got its name from the state. It is, of course, the Empire State Building.
If you get a chance to see a red sunset over the Sangre de Cristo Mountains of New Mexico, you will know why that southwestern state is called The Land of Enchantment.
North and South Carolina were one colony until seventeen twenty-nine. South Carolina's nickname is the easier of the two: It is The Palmetto State because of a fan-leafed palm tree that grows there. North Carolina is the Tar Heel State. That is because many of the men who worked to gather substances from trees wore no shoes. They would make turpentine from tar and get the black, sticky tar on the heels of their feet.
The state of Ohio is in the midwest. It is named The Buckeye State after a tree that produces nuts similar to chestnuts.
The Great Plains state of Oklahoma is called the Sooner State. That is because of a sale of land in eighteen eighty-nine. Some people arrived in the territory to claim their land earlier than they were supposed to. They cheated and got there "sooner."
Pennsylvania's nickname is The Keystone State. Just as a keystone holds together a stone arch, Pennsylvania was seen as holding together the young American republic. Pennsylvania is also sometimes called The Quaker State. Its founder, William Penn, and most of his followers, were members of the Protestant Quaker religion.
Rhode Island's nickname is Little Rhody because of its size. The state is smaller than the area around Los Angeles, California.
Tennessee got its nickname -- The Volunteer State -- because of the bravery of its citizens. They volunteered to join Tennessean Andrew Jackson to defend the city of New Orleans, Louisiana, against the British army in the War of Eighteen Twelve.
Texas is called The Lone Star State. It gets its nickname from the single star on its flag. This represents the short time Texas was an independent nation battling Mexico for self-rule.
The Beehive State of Utah has no more beehives than any other state. The nickname is from the Mormon Church's symbol for hard work.
The eastern state of Vermont is proud of its beautiful Green Mountains so it calls itself The Green Mountain State. The southern state of Virginia is called The Old Dominion.
Long ago, King Charles the Second of England added the colony's coat of arms to his shield. It joined his other dominions of England, Ireland, and Scotland.
West Virginia broke away from Virginia in the eighteen sixties. It is called simply The Mountain State for the ancient Appalachian mountains.
And we have saved perhaps the most American nickname for last. The western state of Wyoming was once an area where cattle were transported east. And where there are cattle, there are men -- and now women -- to move them. So Wyoming is The Cowboy State.
