Could there be more states named after presidents.

So could there be any more states named after presidents? I think the proposals for Lincoln and Jefferson could happen, but are there any other presidents that could get a state named after them? I’ve seen a couple alt maps with a state of Adams and even one with a state of Reagan.
 
So could there be any more states named after presidents? I think the proposals for Lincoln and Jefferson could happen, but are there any other presidents that could get a state named after them? I’ve seen a couple alt maps with a state of Adams and even one with a state of Reagan.

At this point state borders are pretty much set in stone, so this is unlikely. The best chance for a state of Jefferson was on the West Coast in 1941 but WWII killed whatever political momentum that might have had.
 
At this point state borders are pretty much set in stone, so this is unlikely. The best chance for a state of Jefferson was on the West Coast in 1941 but WWII killed whatever political momentum that might have had.
Well what if Pearl Harbor happened in 42? Also are there any possiblilities of alternate state names? Like North Dakota being named after a president and not North Dakota?
 
Obviously, the first American lunar territory will be named Kennedy, for obvious reasons :p

Thing is, OTL, having even one state named after a President is a bit of a fluke; the one historical case, Washington, was a case of the Senate overriding the locals (who wanted Columbia to be the name of the state). Jefferson, as mentioned, was the second attempt, but for others it'd be a bit more difficult (especially as presidential names tend to be applied a very long time after their death, after partisan acrimony has faded).

If you desire lots of state names, then you would need a proposal such as Jefferson's to subdivide the west into smaller states, as it were (that's where the state of Adams comes from, if I recall correctly). This way, you would end up with a lot of states, and with more that don't have quite as good names.

If you look at future history examples, you could have American space colonies being named after presidents as well... or undersea/floating metropolises, etc. But that's a lot more futuristic than not.
 
Last edited:
I actually thought of this, what if there was a tradition to re-name a state after a President when he died, Soviet style. In cases where a state that could plausibly be called the President's home state could not be renamed, a large city associated with him would be renamed.

You could restrict the tradition to just the state capitols, that would be slightly less insane.

Assuming this doesn't butterfly away the historical administrations:

VA -Washington
MA -Adams
MO -Jefferson (Virginia is taken and the state is associated with the Louisiana purchase, plus IOTL the capitol was named after Jefferson)
WI -Madison (similar logic, Wisconsin was admitted about the time Madison died and the capitol was named after him, otherwise a city in Virginia)
(no state for Monroe but Richmond is renamed after Monroe)
(no state for Adams since the family name is already associated with a state)
TN -Jackson
NY -Van Buren
IN or OH -Harrison (IN would be more convenient since it would cover the grandson as well)
(Tyler gets a small city near where he grew up, maybe Newport News)
KY -Taylor
(Fillmore gets a city in upstate New York)
NH -Pierce
PA -Buchanan
IL -Lincoln
(Andrew Johnson gets a small city in eastern Tennessee)
OH -Grant
(Hayes gets a city in Ohio)
(Garfield gets a city in Ohio, probably Cleveland or Lorain)
(Arthur gets a small city near New York City)
NJ -Cleveland
(McKinley gets a city in Ohio, probably Canton)
(Roosevelt probably gets Oyster Bay or Hempstead in New York)
(Taft gets Cincinnati renamed after him)
(Wilson gets Princeton or Trenton in New Jersey)
(Harding gets another Ohio city)
Coolidge -Vermont
Hoover -Iowa
(probably Hyde Park, NY for FD Roosevelt)
(Kansas City or Independence are renamed for Truman assuming Missouri is taken)
KS -Eisenhower
(Boston is renamed for Kennedy)
TX -Johnson
(given the resignation, Nixon is stuck with a city in southern California)
(Ford probably gets just a city, likely Grand Rapids, Michigan though Nebraska is a possibility)
CA -Reagan
The others are not dead yet, but Arkansas, Georgia, and Hawaii and two cities in Texas would be renamed
 
I mean Idaho's name is made up. Had anybody actually done any research at the time they would have figured out it didn't mean anything. Since they named the territory in 1863, I doubt they would of named it after a Southerner, so that rules out most of the obvious options like Jefferson, Madison, Jackson, Monroe and Polk. The only Northern President significant enough at the time would be Adams, but he's had a bit of a mixed legacy so I'm not sure if they would go with him at that point. Still that's my pick, 'Adams' instead of 'Idaho'.
 
I actually thought of this, what if there was a tradition to re-name a state after a President when he died, Soviet style. In cases where a state that could plausibly be called the President's home state could not be renamed, a large city associated with him would be renamed.

You could restrict the tradition to just the state capitols, that would be slightly less insane.

Assuming this doesn't butterfly away the historical administrations:

VA -Washington
MA -Adams
MO -Jefferson (Virginia is taken and the state is associated with the Louisiana purchase, plus IOTL the capitol was named after Jefferson)
WI -Madison (similar logic, Wisconsin was admitted about the time Madison died and the capitol was named after him, otherwise a city in Virginia)
(no state for Monroe but Richmond is renamed after Monroe)
(no state for Adams since the family name is already associated with a state)
TN -Jackson
NY -Van Buren
IN or OH -Harrison (IN would be more convenient since it would cover the grandson as well)
(Tyler gets a small city near where he grew up, maybe Newport News)
KY -Taylor
(Fillmore gets a city in upstate New York)
NH -Pierce
PA -Buchanan
IL -Lincoln
(Andrew Johnson gets a small city in eastern Tennessee)
OH -Grant
(Hayes gets a city in Ohio)
(Garfield gets a city in Ohio, probably Cleveland or Lorain)
(Arthur gets a small city near New York City)
NJ -Cleveland
(McKinley gets a city in Ohio, probably Canton)
(Roosevelt probably gets Oyster Bay or Hempstead in New York)
(Taft gets Cincinnati renamed after him)
(Wilson gets Princeton or Trenton in New Jersey)
(Harding gets another Ohio city)
Coolidge -Vermont
Hoover -Iowa
(probably Hyde Park, NY for FD Roosevelt)
(Kansas City or Independence are renamed for Truman assuming Missouri is taken)
KS -Eisenhower
(Boston is renamed for Kennedy)
TX -Johnson
(given the resignation, Nixon is stuck with a city in southern California)
(Ford probably gets just a city, likely Grand Rapids, Michigan though Nebraska is a possibility)
CA -Reagan
The others are not dead yet, but Arkansas, Georgia, and Hawaii and two cities in Texas would be renamed
Creative but probably ASB.
 
Washington really should be named after the Columbia River. Calling it Washington causes too much unnecessary confusion with the national capital. Wouldn't it be nice to not have to reference Washington State viz a vis Washington D.C.?

And other potential states, I could get behind renaming something out west. Idaho, for example, was literally made up by a con man named George M. Willing who falsely claimed it was Shoshone word. The fact that it caught on is a historical fluke. It could easily have been named after Lincoln or Jefferson in absence of something more authentically native.
 
Washington really should be named after the Columbia River. Calling it Washington causes too much unnecessary confusion with the national capital. Wouldn't it be nice to not have to reference Washington State viz a vis Washington D.C.?

And other potential states, I could get behind renaming something out west. Idaho, for example, was literally made up by a con man named George M. Willing who falsely claimed it was Shoshone word. The fact that it caught on is a historical fluke. It could easily have been named after Lincoln or Jefferson in absence of something more authentically native.
Wasn’t Washington named that way because people didn’t want any confusion between a state of Colombia and the District of Colombia?
 
Wasn’t Washington named that way because people didn’t want any confusion between a state of Colombia and the District of Colombia?

Washington was named that way because the Senate overrode the representatives of the territory that became Washington in order to honor the first president, even though it would cause confusion between Washington and Washington, D.C.. The actual territorial representatives wanted the name to be Columbia, while Congress originally considered one of the "noble Indian names" as I believe they referred to, before realizing that most of the native names were mostly unpronounceable by the majority of the members (though Sitka might have worked).

The confusion that you were referring to was the potential confusion between American Columbia and British Columbia, but that was confusion on part of the representatives, not on the actual territorial government.
 
Washington was named that way because the Senate overrode the representatives of the territory that became Washington in order to honor the first president, even though it would cause confusion between Washington and Washington, D.C.. The actual territorial representatives wanted the name to be Columbia, while Congress originally considered one of the "noble Indian names" as I believe they referred to, before realizing that most of the native names were mostly unpronounceable by the majority of the members (though Sitka might have worked).

The confusion that you were referring to was the potential confusion between American Columbia and British Columbia, but that was confusion on part of the representatives, not on the actual territorial government.
Ok. So you’re correct, but that’s only because congress wanted a state named after Washington. If you want modern day Washington state to be named Colombia get Jefferson to get his wish and have Ohio instead be named Washington. Heck if you butterfly some things you could have Washington be alive for the statehood of a Washington state in Ohio. :D
 
Ok. So you’re correct, but that’s only because congress wanted a state named after Washington. If you want modern day Washington state to be named Colombia get Jefferson to get his wish and have Ohio instead be named Washington. Heck if you butterfly some things you could have Washington be alive for the statehood of a Washington state in Ohio. :D

I mean, it could have changed earlier with other butterflies as well; I forget the exact cause for the name, but it was one person's idea that kinda spread.

Jefferson's statehoood plans are likely the best bet for lots of territories named after states, simply because it increases the sheer number of potential states by a lot, so you have more chances they could end up named after presidents.

One other thing that might be interesting is, in the event of the US creating mulitple federal districts (either in a multiple capital scenario, a home for federal courts and to allow for better management of various regions, etc), then seeing a Jefferson, D.C., an Adams, D.C., etc would not be unrealistic.
 
It could be interesting in a world where the pre-independence territorial names for the areas claimed West of the Appalachians became state names - Vandalia was one of those

This would set the precedent for using dominant-culture created names rather than native names

So as the USA expanded West, buying Louisiana/Missouri you could see that vast territory broken up into Jefferson, Adams, etc
 
I mean Idaho's name is made up. Had anybody actually done any research at the time they would have figured out it didn't mean anything. Since they named the territory in 1863, I doubt they would of named it after a Southerner, so that rules out most of the obvious options like Jefferson, Madison, Jackson, Monroe and Polk. The only Northern President significant enough at the time would be Adams, but he's had a bit of a mixed legacy so I'm not sure if they would go with him at that point. Still that's my pick, 'Adams' instead of 'Idaho'.

Yet the name was popular in Congress. Colorado nearly got called Idaho instead. Had this happened , OTL's Idaho would probably have been called Montana, and another name would be needed for OTL's Montana - Jefferson maybe? - instead.

Also, had the proposed separation of Southern California gone ahead in 1859, it might have been called Jefferson. If instead it was named after the Colorado River, then CO might have been Jefferson - or Idaho
 
Last edited:
Top