The renaming of Maryland

The map that petike submitted groups several denominations together, so I wouldn't know if Catholicism is a plurality the way they define the groups.

Anyway, some names
Cecilia
Calvertia
Cavertland
Baltimore
Georgia (after the King, or after Cecil Calvert's father)
Annland (for a more Protestant friendly renaming around the time that Ann Arundel Town was renamed to Annapolis)

Cecilia would probably work. Maybe Calvertsylvania. Or Queensland?
 
Latinized to Mariana.

Mariana was also originally proposed as a name.
However, Maryland's founder, Lord Baltimore, believed in the divine right of kings and turned the name down.
Mariana reminded him of the Spanish Jesuit and historian Juan de Mariana, who taught that the will of the people was higher than the law of tyrants.
 
Pennsylvania and Virginia, in my fantasy (hopefully one day TL to write) where Cresap's War blows wide open and Maryland is partitioned along the Susquehanna, gifting everything west to Virginia, and everything east to Pennsylvania. (Including Delaware, which was PA-administered anyway.) :D
 
Pennsylvania and Virginia, in my fantasy (hopefully one day TL to write) where Cresap's War blows wide open and Maryland is partitioned along the Susquehanna, gifting everything west to Virginia, and everything east to Pennsylvania. (Including Delaware, which was PA-administered anyway.) :D
Good idea. And do something about Michigan and there won't be any weird-looking states in the country. Except Florida of course. But we just have to live with that.
 
Maryland was founded as an opportunity to grant religious freedom to the Catholics who remained in Anglican England. Queen Henrietta Maria was a Catholic. I hate to burst the bubble of you anti-papist but Maryland has a long association with Catholicism.

This was only true in the colony's first few decades. Protestants became a majority very early on and in the Protestant Revolution, successfully overthrew the Catholic proprietary government and submitted to royal rule, which led to Catholicism being outlawed in 1689.

At that point it would be plausible for the colony to be renamed, if people thought "Maryland" had too much of a Catholic overtone, but it seems that this wasn't an issue.


Yep. Immigration from Latin America has really driven the rise of the Catholic population. It's the largest individual denomination. Baptists are a distant second.

Actually the Catholic population has been very stable at 20-25% of the total for a few decades. While there has been substantial Latin American Catholic immigration, it has been offset by American-born people leaving the church.
 
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