German names for US states west of the Mississippi

In the timeline I am working on, the War of 1812 is a lot worse, leading to an extreme decline of British immigration to the US. German immigration becomes much more prevalent. I was wondering what might be some German-American names might be for states like Utah, Montana, etc.
 
I don't see why they wouldn't also borrow from Spanish and American Indian languages (albeit with German orthography, compare German placenames in Africa to later French and English ones) like the Americans did. Although they could always use different Indian languages or different words for the same toponyms that became state names.
 
Montana could become Bergland for one. (berg means mountain in German). Washington state could perhaps be named after German colonist. This is jut some of the ideas I have so far.
 
Colorado Could just simply be Felsig (Rocky) I named Denver Rocheux in a timeline where Colorado spoke French because Napoleon
 
Westerreich: I had a Victoria II mod where I came up with the following backstory: war of spanish succession happened earlier and one difference was that the Habsburgs still lost Spain but retained Mexico (the spanish colonial Empire lost other bits as well). A bit of german immigration happened - first only catholics but later Austria was forced by a war gone badly to also allow protestant immigrants of the HRE as as well (30 years war was much milder which left Europe with a lot of additional germans - a big part went to Mexico). The german immigration - especially the protestant one later triggered revolts by the latin populace. They were beaten first by the army and later by the german settlers - they were a majority by the time they gained independence around 1800. Independence was a peaceful divorce. The European entanglement of Austria left it completly unable to do anything when another latin revolt happened. It was beaten by the german settlers. After that an agreement was reached: A new Habsburg branch family was set up as the Emperors of the independent Westerreich. Because of the anmity of the spanish and the emerging nationalism they decided to rename everything to german. I had a lot of neu "insert german city or staate name", capital being Neue Wien (Mexico City), in the Westmark. Because of the large hostile population the country was heavily militarized. The coutnry was more technically advanced - german level on game terms and had a much higher literacy rate. This left it in a much better position against the USA. The natives were mostly neutral during the revolts so that left them in a better place toward the state.
 
This is related, but if you're looking for city names, the main place endings are "stadt" (town), "t(h)al" (valley), feld (field), dorf (village), berg (hill), burg (fort), heim (home), au (meadow), hof (farm), ort (place), and wald (forest). These were used by German colonists in Eastern Europe (and to a lesser extent, Africa) in the naming of their settlements. The first element is often something like glück (luck, happiness), frau (woman), reich (rich), neu (new), alt (old), fried (peace), freud (joy), various colors (i.e. rosen - red), names of rulers, and of course first names and surnames. Like all European settlers, Germans also named many places from towns and cities in Germany or elsewhere in the German-speaking world, with or without "Neu-" before them.

Montana could become Bergland for one. (berg means mountain in German). Washington state could perhaps be named after German colonist. This is jut some of the ideas I have so far.

Problem is the majority of Montana isn't particularly mountainous compared to Wyoming or Colorado where the Continental Divide cuts right through there. Although a more sane division of the US West (like what Russia/Soviets did in Siberia or basically just avoid lines of longitude as much as possible) would probably assign Western Colorado to Utah or make it its own state.

I will say it's one of my AH pet peeves that people tend to avoid using indigenous toponymy and resort to much less creative toponymy (basic words in whatever language or "new X") when historically the languages of indigenous people lent us a huge amount of place names throughout the places colonised by Europeans.

Westerreich: I had a Victoria II mod where I came up with the following backstory: war of spanish succession happened earlier and one difference was that the Habsburgs still lost Spain but retained Mexico (the spanish colonial Empire lost other bits as well). A bit of german immigration happened - first only catholics but later Austria was forced by a war gone badly to also allow protestant immigrants of the HRE as as well (30 years war was much milder which left Europe with a lot of additional germans - a big part went to Mexico). The german immigration - especially the protestant one later triggered revolts by the latin populace. They were beaten first by the army and later by the german settlers - they were a majority by the time they gained independence around 1800. Independence was a peaceful divorce. The European entanglement of Austria left it completly unable to do anything when another latin revolt happened. It was beaten by the german settlers. After that an agreement was reached: A new Habsburg branch family was set up as the Emperors of the independent Westerreich. Because of the anmity of the spanish and the emerging nationalism they decided to rename everything to german. I had a lot of neu "insert german city or staate name", capital being Neue Wien (Mexico City), in the Westmark. Because of the large hostile population the country was heavily militarized. The coutnry was more technically advanced - german level on game terms and had a much higher literacy rate. This left it in a much better position against the USA. The natives were mostly neutral during the revolts so that left them in a better place toward the state.

Mexico with German-level literacy, even if you keep the population the same, would be almost game breaking in Vicky 2.
 
I don't expect much difference to OTL. Many of the more influential German immigrants were classically schooled just like their English counterparts and had the same liking for Latinizing names. Also most of the places were already named by locals, of which at least in Texas the German immigrant seems to have better relationships then their Anglo counterparts. Finally many of the German immigrants shared the same admiration for Washington and Lincoln as the rest of the population did. So don't expect Seattle, Missouri or Dakota to have different names except for may be details (Lakotaland?) Also expect there to be a Lincoln. Nebraska around and a Washington City in every other state.

The biggest change wold be in the suburbs or neighborhoods that will eventay get named or nicknamed after their main population. I can see a lot of places starting with Neu (new) like Neuköln (new Colone) or Neubayern (new Bavaria) as an analogy to Little Italy. Or neighborhoods named after a prominent family like Braunsmühle for Brown's Mill. (eventually the latter could become anything between Braunsmill or Brownsmules.)
 
This is related, but if you're looking for city names, the main place endings are "stadt" (town), "t(h)al" (valley), feld (field), dorf (village), berg (hill), burg (fort), heim (home), au (meadow), hof (farm), ort (place), and wald (forest). These were used by German colonists in Eastern Europe (and to a lesser extent, Africa) in the naming of their settlements. The first element is often something like glück (luck, happiness), frau (woman), reich (rich), neu (new), alt (old), fried (peace), freud (joy), various colors (i.e. rosen - red), names of rulers, and of course first names and surnames. Like all European settlers, Germans also named many places from towns and cities in Germany or elsewhere in the German-speaking world, with or without "Neu-" before them.



Problem is the majority of Montana isn't particularly mountainous compared to Wyoming or Colorado where the Continental Divide cuts right through there. Although a more sane division of the US West (like what Russia/Soviets did in Siberia or basically just avoid lines of longitude as much as possible) would probably assign Western Colorado to Utah or make it its own state.

I will say it's one of my AH pet peeves that people tend to avoid using indigenous toponymy and resort to much less creative toponymy (basic words in whatever language or "new X") when historically the languages of indigenous people lent us a huge amount of place names throughout the places colonised by Europeans.



Mexico with German-level literacy, even if you keep the population the same, would be almost game breaking in Vicky 2.

Technology was Germany level. Literacy about 50%. Population was a bit higher - much less mexicans but a lot additional germans - natives the same.
 
I don't expect much difference to OTL. Many of the more influential German immigrants were classically schooled just like their English counterparts and had the same liking for Latinizing names. Also most of the places were already named by locals, of which at least in Texas the German immigrant seems to have better relationships then their Anglo counterparts. Finally many of the German immigrants shared the same admiration for Washington and Lincoln as the rest of the population did. So don't expect Seattle, Missouri or Dakota to have different names except for may be details (Lakotaland?) Also expect there to be a Lincoln. Nebraska around and a Washington City in every other state.

The biggest change wold be in the suburbs or neighborhoods that will eventay get named or nicknamed after their main population. I can see a lot of places starting with Neu (new) like Neuköln (new Colone) or Neubayern (new Bavaria) as an analogy to Little Italy. Or neighborhoods named after a prominent family like Braunsmühle for Brown's Mill. (eventually the latter could become anything between Braunsmill or Brownsmules.)

Latinising? There's far too few Latinised names in the West. The Romans named many of their provinces after peoples they conquered (Africa, Germania, Gallia, etc.). The Americans slacked on that front. It would be very nice to combine American Indian toponymy with Latinisation to produce more pleasing names than just borrowing the English name of some Amerindian group or Amerindian toponymy (or in many cases like that of Seattle, an Amerindian chief, although naming Amerindian ethnic groups and places after their leaders dates back to de Soto). So for instance, perhaps we have a state named for the Shoshone (which could be anywhere in the West) named "Shoshonia". Or for Latinised toponymy, we take the Wasatch Range of Utah (around where the majority of people live) and call the entire state "Vasachia" after it. We could have the High Plains be called Comanch(er)ia after the dominant people, or even Numunia after what the Comanche actually called themselves.

Neighbourhoods would have similar names as in German cities. There's oftentimes a Neustadt, as well as an Altstadt. Innenstadt would be the downtown area in many cases.
 
Even in OTL, some delegates to the Nevada Constitutional Convention wanted to name the new state "Humboldt":

"The local people knew, as Congress probably did not, that the Sierra Nevada lay almost entirely in California, where a town and county already were called Nevada. They felt also that “snowed-upon” had too much Arctic suggestion, and was far from accurate, their sage-brush country being chiefly notable for lack of either rain or snow. Some delegates preferred Humboldt..." https://archive.org/stream/in.ernet.dli.2015.111746/2015.111746.Names-On-The-Land#page/n333/mode/2up
 
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