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Geography Quiz / U.S. Capitals by Name Origin

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Can you name the U.S. state capital by the origin of its name?

by CDB1986
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Origin StoryCity
Named for a nearby body of water
Named in honor of a town in Scott County, Minnesota which emphasizes the second syllable which is unlike an Arkansas town of the same spelling that emphasizes the first syllable
Simply the name of the state plus a Greek suffix meaning 'city'
Named after the Spanish discoverer of the 'New World'
Named after Colonel George Clendenin's father and later shortened from two words to one
Probably named by trustee David Leslie who hailed from a famous witch-trial town of the same name
Because it was built upon Hohokam ruins, the founders named this city after a mythological creature that was also born from destruction
Roger Williams, a religious exile from the Massachusetts Bay Colony, named this city for a term meaning God's activity on earth
French explorer Sieur d'Iberville called this place 'the red stick' when he saw an Indian tribal boundary marker: a cypress pole covered with dead animals
Early Spanish settlers named this city 'Holy Faith'
Colonel Jacob Davis named this city after a French city with an almost identical spelling (there's an extra 'L' in the French version)
Spaniards named the valley and river of the same name when they claimed that the natural beauty was like the 'Holy Sacrament' of the Eucharist
Named by William Penn for the city of the same name in Kent, England
Named after the daughter of the 5th United States Secretary of War Henry Dearborn.
William Byrd II named this city after an English town which is presently a part of London
A shortened version of 'Western and Atlantic Railroad' which ran through the city
Named for Stephen Frank, a pioneer in the 1870s who was killed by Indians while fording a river
Named in honor of America's 4th president
This city and its fort of the same name are named after an American fur trader of French-Canadian origins
Named after a German chancellor in effort to attract German investment
Two brothers went to a New York town of the same name to sell nonexistant plots in this floodplain and the swindled buyers named the marsh after their hometown
Accounts differ but one story credits French-Canadian fur trappers who named the local river--which the city is named after--'the wooded river'
Named in honor of America's 7th president (even though he was only a general at the time of naming)
A Native American word meaning 'to dig good potatoes'
Formerly 'Rumford,' this city was renamed to reflect newfound harmony with the neighboring city of 'Bow'
Origin StoryCity
A Muskogean Indian word usually translated as 'old fields'
Colonel Isaac N. Ebey suggested this name because of the towns view of the nearby, similarly-named mountain range
Named after its state's name which is derived from a Choctaw word meaning 'red people'
Formerly 'Lancaster,' this city was renamed after the assassination of America's 16th president
Named after a small town in Lincolnshire, England
Originally named 'Calhoun' after South Carolina Senator John C. Calhoun, this city changed its name to its current, more generic moniker in 1832 when the senator fell out of favor
Named after a local Native American tribe
Named in 1782 to honor the sponsor of the Colony of Roanoke
A variation on the name of the Spanish discoverer of the 'New World'
Named after a local gold prospector
Named for one of the area's largest landowners, William Trent
Named for a stone formation located on the south bank of the local river
In 1841, Father Lucien Galtier, minister to Catholic French Canadians, named his chapel after his favorite saint; the city was named after this chapel
Named in 1719 after an English trader who settled in the area and secured grants of 800 acres
Named after a Kansas Territorial Governor by a land speculator trying to gain the favor of said governor
One of the first settlers, Samuel Stone, named the city after his hometown in England which is only one letter different
Named after the wife of Lord Baltimore plus a Greek suffix meaning 'city'
John C. Fremont named the river the city owes its name to after famous mountain scout Christopher 'Kit' ____________
Named for an American Revolutionary War general killed in 1775 while attempting to capture Quebec City, Canada
Named in honor of America's 3rd president
Named after Stephen F. ____________, the so-called father of the state
In the native language, it means 'sheltered bay'
Named in honor of King James II of England whose former title was the Duke of ____________
French for 'of the monks' in reference to the French Trappist monks who settled there
Named after the American Revolutionary War hero, Francis Nash
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