State Name Generator

Real American state names come from a handful of sources, and a believable fictional state should borrow from the same ones. About half the states carry Indigenous words, usually filtered through French or Spanish spelling: Michigan, Ohio, Mississippi, Dakota, Connecticut. A second group honors people (Georgia, Virginia, Pennsylvania, Washington, Louisiana) and a third describes land or direction (Vermont, Montana, Nevada, the Carolinas and Dakotas split north and south). Spanish gave the Southwest Colorado, Florida, Nevada and Montana, which is why Spanish coinages like Sierra or Rio Verde fit so naturally.

The names that almost made it are just as useful. Franklin, Deseret, Sequoyah, Absaroka, Jefferson, Lincoln and Superior were all seriously proposed states, and Thomas Jefferson once suggested carving the Midwest into Metropotamia, Assenisipia and Polypotamia. River and mountain names such as Shenandoah, Allegheny, Cumberland, Klamath and Wabash already work like state names in everyday speech, which is why so much fiction uses them.

Use this page three ways: draw a random real state for a quiz, trip or writing prompt; grab a proposed or regional name for alternate history; or pick an invented state for a novel, game or fictional country. A short list at the end covers non-US patterns, including proposed Indian, Australian and Brazilian-style states.