Alternate Names for American States

Hello All! This is hopefully going to be a collaborative thread where we can share alternate state names. I guess I'll start, more submissions are always welcome!

Tennessee
East TN - Franklin, Nickajack, Scott
Middle TN - Jackson, Nashville, Cumberland
West TN - Memphis, Jackson (I guess), Mississippi (a stretch)

Other
Nova Scotia / New Scotland - could go anywhere, really
Montverde / Ver(t)mont / Montenegro / Montalbano - could go somewhere with mountains.
 
Well, any Great Figure could be a state (Franklin, Washington, Hamilton, Madison, Jefferson, Lafayette,...), any amerindian people could also serve as a name basis (Sioux, Algonquin, Chippewa, Dakota, Shoshone, Cheyenne, Arapaho, Assiniboine, Kiowa, Blackfoot,...), probably British counties too, with "New" in front (New Lincolnshire, New Somersetshire, New Caithness, New Anglesey, New Munster,...), local rivers (Yellowstone, Humboldt, Columbia, Potomac,...), mountains (Cascadia, Allegheny,...), deserts (Mohave, Sonora, Chihuahua), lakes (Sabine, Salt Lake, Huron, Erie,...), Colonial names (Durango, Louisiana, Alyeska, Popham, Roanoke, Quebec, Gaspesia,...) or the name of the previous entity (California, Baja, Sonora, Texas, Rio Grande, Oregon, Yucatan, Guatemala, Comayagua, Sulu,...)
 
Well, any Great Figure could be a state (Franklin, Washington, Hamilton, Madison, Jefferson, Lafayette,...), any amerindian people could also serve as a name basis (Sioux, Algonquin, Chippewa, Dakota, Shoshone, Cheyenne, Arapaho, Assiniboine, Kiowa, Blackfoot,...), probably British counties too, with "New" in front (New Lincolnshire, New Somersetshire, New Caithness, New Anglesey, New Munster,...), local rivers (Yellowstone, Humboldt, Columbia, Potomac,...), mountains (Cascadia, Allegheny,...), deserts (Mohave, Sonora, Chihuahua), lakes (Sabine, Salt Lake, Huron, Erie,...), Colonial names (Durango, Louisiana, Alyeska, Popham, Roanoke, Quebec, Gaspesia,...) or the name of the previous entity (California, Baja, Sonora, Texas, Rio Grande, Oregon, Yucatan, Guatemala, Comayagua, Sulu,...)
you've done it, you've got all the state names lol
 

Ficboy

Banned
For the Eastern part of Tennessee: Franklin, Jacksonland or just East Tennessee would serve as suitable names. For Kentucky, Cumberland would be a good alternate name for the state. West Virginia could refer to itself as Kanawha since that was one of the original names for the state and also a county in OTL. East Florida and West Florida for Florida assuming it is divided up rather than one state. Sequoyah for Oklahoma since there was a state proposal for it back in 1905. Marquette for Illinois in reference to the French missionary Jacques Marquette.
 
For the Eastern part of Tennessee: Franklin, Jacksonland or just East Tennessee would serve as suitable names. For Kentucky, Cumberland would be a good alternate name for the state. West Virginia could refer to itself as Kanawha since that was one of the original names for the state and also a county in OTL. East Florida and West Florida for Florida assuming it is divided up rather than one state. Sequoyah for Oklahoma since there was a state proposal for it back in 1905. Marquette for Illinois in reference to the French missionary Jacques Marquette.
Lanier might also be a good name for the Smoky Mountain area.
 
Middle TN - Jackson, Nashville, Cumberland
Although Andrew Jackson was an early settler and popular politician in Middle Tennessee, naming the state after him would've been quite a stretch and rallied detractors on every level. Plus he was wasn't anything more than a (well-connected) state politician in 1796. "Nashville" doesn't really make sense. Cumberland does I guess.
West TN - Memphis, Jackson (I guess), Mississippi (a stretch)
Go full Egypt-themed and just call it New Egypt or Goshen. Memphis is evidence they certainly compared the area to Egypt, although perhaps not as much as the settlers of Southern Illinois which is more associated with the "Little Egypt" name (hence Cairo, Illinois at the southern tip of the state). "Jackson" would also make more sense here.

Goshen would also work for Southern Illinois since who'd ever want to have "Little" in the name of their state?
 
American state names are pretty arbitrary historically, aside from attempts to name them after local Indian tribes, and even that is arbitrary given how low a percentage of the country's population is of Indian descent. Actually, the only one I can think of off hand that is definitely not arbitrary is Hawaii. Even there I guess Sandwich would be an alternative.

For example, if Charles II gave his brother the title of Duke of Clarence instead of Duke of York, then what we now know as New York would be named New Clarence, both the state and city. And while Duke of York has usually been the title for the second son of kings, Clarence could definitely have been alternatively used.
 
Although Andrew Jackson was an early settler and popular politician in Middle Tennessee, naming the state after him would've been quite a stretch and rallied detractors on every level. Plus he was wasn't anything more than a (well-connected) state politician in 1796. "Nashville" doesn't really make sense. Cumberland does I guess.

Go full Egypt-themed and just call it New Egypt or Goshen. Memphis is evidence they certainly compared the area to Egypt, although perhaps not as much as the settlers of Southern Illinois which is more associated with the "Little Egypt" name (hence Cairo, Illinois at the southern tip of the state). "Jackson" would also make more sense here.

Goshen would also work for Southern Illinois since who'd ever want to have "Little" in the name of their state?
That makes a lot of sense, thanks!
 
As a resident of said state, I'm forever lamenting that Washington chose its current name over Columbia for the express purpose of avoiding confusion with the District of Columbia. They clearly thought that one through.........
 
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Apparently the name "Lincoln" was at a few times proposed for what would become North Dakota and Wyoming (the latter state being named after a valley in Pennsylvania, annoyingly nothing to do with local culture). It was also proposed for a new state encompassing the Idaho panhandle and eastern Washington, and another proposed state in the southern half of Texas.
 
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It was also proposed for a new state encompassing the Idaho panhandle and eastern Washington......
Yep, there are still people proposing variations of that to this day (though the name shifts sporadically between Lincoln and Jefferson depending on the year).
 
Northern California could be named Shasta.
Jefferson is also an idea floated around for that area and southern oregon.

There was also a stint a while ago to make eastern Washington a state of "Liberty" but I don't know how serious that is or was outside of some radicals
 
West TN - Memphis, Jackson (I guess), Mississippi (a stretch)

I don't think Mississippi is too much of a stretch. Make it so that the area is the first place along the river to receive significant American settlement (besides New Orleans), and Mississippi is a perfectly plausible name.

Apparently the name "Lincoln" was at a few times proposed for what would become North Dakota and Wyoming (the latter state being named after a valley in Pennsylvania, annoyingly nothing to do with local culture). It was also proposed for a new state encompassing the Idaho panhandle and eastern Washington, and another proposed state in the southern half of Texas.

Even worse, the congressman who named it had no connection to the Wyoming Valley either. It's widely thought that he encountered the name in a poem. If I read something like this in an ATL, I'd call it out for not being believable, but here we are.
 
Northern California could be named Shasta.

It would have to be the far, far north; north of Grass Valley at least. When 19th-century emigrants were "off to California", Northern California (and part of Central California) was where they were headed. Thus, if there's any state called "California", IMO it's bound to be the one that includes the Mother Lode, Sacramento, and the Bay Area.

As long as we're on the subject, Colorado is a good name for the southern portions of California. In fact, it almost happened OTL: Andres Pico authored a bill in 1859 that would've created a "Territory of Colorado" out of SoCal and southern Central California, and it passed. However, by the time it was sent to Congress for federal approval, the feds had a secession crisis to deal with, and "Colorado" was shelved indefinitely.
 
As a resident of said state, I'm forever lamenting that Washington chose its current name over Columbia for the express purpose of avoiding confusion with the District of Columbia. They clearly thought that one through.........
Keep in mind these were people from Washington. They probably chose it sarcastically.

And NorCalifornio, the proposal was to split California into 3 states. The southern end would have been Colorado, the northern end from the elbow up would have been Shasta, and the rest would have stayed California.
 
And NorCalifornio, the proposal was to split California into 3 states. The southern end would have been Colorado, the northern end from the elbow up would have been Shasta, and the rest would have stayed California.

There was a proposal in 1855 roughly matching what you described (the southern limit of Shasta wasn't quite that far south), but it never made it out of committee in the State Assembly. The 1859 Pico Bill was just for Colorado.

This page is a really useful source of info on California split proposals. In particular, the fifth link under "Maps" has a good summary of historic proposals (along with, of course, maps).
 
Guess I will move my reply over to this thread too.
Wisconsin: Winnebago, Neenah, Wiskonsin or Wiskansin, Madison, Plumbum? (The latin word for Lead), Ouisconsing. Note: none of those names were ever proposed as alternate names with the exception of the different spellings. They just could have been different names that could have been thought of. Winnebago is from the Native American tribe and Lake. Neenah is the old name of the Fox River and means water. Wiskonsin and Wiskansin are both different spellings that were proposed in the 1830's. Madison for the president who died around when Wisconsin became a territory. And Plumbum for the Lead that drove Wisconsin's economy in the early days. and Ouiscosning is the orginal spelling of Wisconsin
 
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