Better Name for the U.S. and her states?

SuperFrog

Something that bothers me is that most of us Americans have to resort to calling ourselves Americans, stealing the name from the whole two continents. So what would be a better name for the U.S.?

I personally like "Federal Republic of Columbia" :p

Also, while we're on the topic, better names for states? As someone who lives in Idaho I HATE THE NAME SO MUCH. Seriously, what does it even mean. Nobody knows. Great.

I've seen Idaho as Shoshone in lots of TLs, what other names could we have?

Any other state names that bother you guys? How should they be changed?

Is this the right forum for this. Well I guess the name of the U.S. could be changed before 1900.
 

zoomar

SuperFrog said:
Something that bothers me is that most of us Americans have to resort to calling ourselves Americans, stealing the name from the whole two continents. So what would be a better name for the U.S.?

I personally like "Federal Republic of Columbia" :p

Also, while we're on the topic, better names for states? As someone who lives in Idaho I HATE THE NAME SO MUCH. Seriously, what does it even mean. Nobody knows. Great.

I've seen Idaho as Shoshone in lots of TLs, what other names could we have?

Any other state names that bother you guys? How should they be changed?
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Then we'd be "Columbians" which but for one letter is the name of another nation! Frankly, "Americans" is what the British, French, and all other Europeans called the colonials who revolted against the crown and started the USA, so the name is completely OK. We didn't steal it...it was also given to us by all the other independent nations on the globe at the time. When a citizen of the USA say's he/she is an "American" nobody anywhere is confused about what country is meant.

As for states, The only name I don't particularly like are those with North, South, or West attached to them. I don't care which Carolina or Dakota needs to get more creative, but one of them should adopt an entirely new name. As for West Virginia, rejoin Virginia. The Civil War is over.
 

SuperFrog

So...any suggestions for better Carolina/Dakota names? Personally I also think West Virginia should rejoin Virginia too (although then Virginia might vote republican again....woops,politics), or Change the name to Vandalia :p
 

Fabius Maximus

Westland, maybe? Or Hesperia if you want to get all classical.

Or they could just decide to really troll everybody and call themselves King-George-The-Third-ia. :p
 

Iserlohn

fjihr said:
I would love to see a state named Lincoln.
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There was the idea of either 1) splitting Texas into two states in 1869, with a State of Lincoln taking over everything south-west of Texas's Colorado River and 2) to name either of the Dakotas Lincoln, but I sadly can't find any sources right now to tell me which one it was XD
 

SuperFrog

I know there was a South Texas proposed state to be named Lincoln. There is also a proposed East Washington + North Idaho state named that.
 

Socrates

Of course, Colombia did not exist at American independence, and was not used as a term for any area, so there would be no problems on those grounds. However, I find it ridiculous that Columbia is venerated in the US, since he spent most of his time in Caribbean and I don't think he ever set food on what is now US territory. If you want to name it after a person, it would make more sense to call it Cabotia, as John Cabot focused on the mainland. Or you could go further back and use Eriksonia.

I personally dislike naming places after people. It ends up with unnecessary and exaggerated veneration of imperfect people, and results in us turning a blind eye to their cruelties. I like native names, or names like Argentina, which emphasise the geography of a place. For North America, that could be the scale of the place, with a name like Magnatia or Titania. You could maybe use a mythological name, something like Atlantis or Elysium. Or something religious like New Jerusalem.

In terms of state names, nothing bugs me quite as much as Washington, when there's an existing city territory with that name.
 

Luminous

Fredd114 said:
I'd say that for a country name the United States of Central North America.
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Well, wouldn't originally the name be United States of Eastern North America? Seems a little overly specific, as there are no other nations with names that might be similar.

Is there any other nation in the world that has America as part of its name, though?
 
Umbric Man

Umbric Man

zoomar said:
Then we'd be "Columbians" which but for one letter is the name of another nation! Frankly, "Americans" is what the British, French, and all other Europeans called the colonials who revolted against the crown and started the USA, so the name is completely OK. We didn't steal it...it was also given to us by all the other independent nations on the globe at the time. When a citizen of the USA say's he/she is an "American" nobody anywhere is confused about what country is meant.

As for states, The only name I don't particularly like are those with North, South, or West attached to them. I don't care which Carolina or Dakota needs to get more creative, but one of them should adopt an entirely new name. As for West Virginia, rejoin Virginia. The Civil War is over.
Click to expand...

First paragraph: thank you. If the rest of the hemisphere gets angry, they can blame Europe or recognize 'Americans' was the name for 'English-speaking/descended people in the New World' for nearly a century and a half by the time of the American Revolution.

Second paragraph: North Carolina was originally to be named 'Albemarle' and South Carolina 'Clarendon' with Carolina being the regional name. But they got referred to simply as North/South and boom. If you can keep the original names somehow - maybe as simple as just a butterfly stating the north/south bit never caught on - you're good.

Finally, West Virginia was proposed to be Kanawha, and the USA in 1803 was proposed by Samuel Mitchell to become Fredon, with Fredish as the adjective (a la Swedish/English), and Fredonia/Fredonian to be its Latinate names (a la Columbia/Columbian).
 
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