Indiana State Names (Etymology of Names)
Indiana Name Origin and State Nicknames
Indiana is a U.S. state located in the midwestern and Great Lakes regions of North America. Indiana is the 38th largest by area and the 16th most populous of the 50 United States. Indiana is the least extensive state in the contiguous United States west of the Appalachian Mountains. Indiana is bordered on the north by Michigan, on the east by Ohio, and on the west by Illinois, while Lake Michigan borders Indiana on the northwest and the Ohio River separates Indiana from Kentucky on the south.
The state's name means "Land of the Indians", or simply "Indian Land".
Indiana Nicknames
- Hoosier State (Official January 8, 1833)
- Crossroads of America
- Hospitality State
Origin of Indiana State Name
The state's name means "Land of the Indians", or simply "Indian Land". It also stems from Indiana's territorial history. On May 7, 1800, the United States Congress passed legislation to divide the Northwest Territory into two areas and named the western section the Indiana Territory. In 1816, when Congress passed an Enabling Act to begin the process of establishing statehood for Indiana, a part of this territorial land became the geographic area for the new state.
Indiana Nicknames
On January 8, 1833 is when it was officially became the Hoosier State.
Indiana is one of the few states that has had only one nickname - The Hoosier State - a name it has had since the 1830s. At one time, a "hoosier" was any rough person in the Wild West, but it eventually came to be applied contemptuously (like "Yankee") to anyone from Indiana. Nobody quite knows where "Hoosier" comes from, but it seems to have first appeared in 1826. Indiana license plates display the motto, The Hospitality State
Hoosier State
For well over a century and a half the people of Indiana have been called Hoosiers. It is one of the oldest of state nicknames and has had a wider acceptance than most. True, there are Buckeyes of Ohio, the Suckers of Illinois and the Tarheels of North Carolina - but none of these has had the popular usage accorded Hoosier.
The only comparable term in American experience is Yankee. And that started out
as a synonym for New Englander. In the Civil War era Southerners applied it indiscriminately
to all Northerners. In the world wars, many a boy from Dixie doubtless felt a
sense of shock when he discovered that in the eyes of our British (Limey) allies
that all Americans were Yanks!
But where did Hoosier come from? What is its origin? We know that it came into
general usage in the 1830s. John Finley of Richmond wrote a poem, "The Hoosier's
Nest," which was used as the "Carrier's Address" of the Indianapolis Journal,
Jan. 1, 1833. It was widely copied throughout the country and even abroad. Finley
originally wrote Hoosier as "Hoosher." Apparently the poet felt that it was sufficiently
familiar to be understandable to his readers. A few days later, on January 8,
1833, at the Jackson Day dinner at Indianapolis, John W. Davis offered "The Hoosher
State of Indiana" as a toast. And in August, former Indiana governor James B.
Ray announced that he intended to publish a newspaper, The Hoosier, at Greencastle,
Indiana.
A few instances of the earlier written use of Hoosier have been found. The word
appears in the "Carrier's Address" of the Indiana Democrat on January 3, 1832.
G. L. Murdock wrote on February 11, 1831, in a letter to General John Tipton,
"Our Boat will [be] named the Indiana Hoosier." In a publication printed in 1860,
Recollections . . . of the Wabash Valley, Sandford Cox quotes a diary which he
dates July 14, 1827, "There is a Yankee trick for you - done up by a Hoosier."
One can only wonder how long before this Hoosier was used orally.
As soon as our nickname came into general use, speculation began as to its origin.
The speculation and argument have gone on ever since. On October 26, 1833, the
Indiana Democrat reprinted an article published earlier in the Cincinnati Republican:
"The appellation of Hooshier has been used in many of the Western States, for
several years, to designate . . . an inhabitant of our sister state of Indiana."
The Ohio editor then reviews three explanations of the nickname and concludes:
Whatever may have been the original acceptation of Hooshier this we know, that
the people to whom it is now applied, are amongst the bravest, most intelligent,
most enterprising, most magnanimous, and most democratic of the Great West, and
should we ever feel disposed to quit the state in which we are now sojourning,
our own noble Ohio, it will be to enroll ourselves as adopted citizens in the
land of the "Hooshier."
Among the more popular theories:
When a visitor hailed a pioneer cabin in Indiana or knocked upon its door, the settler would respond, "Who's yere?" And from this frequent response Indiana became the "Who's yere" or Hoosier state. No one ever explained why this was more typical of Indiana than of Illinois or Ohio.
That Indiana river men were so spectacularly successful in trouncing or "hushing" their adversaries in the brawling that was then common that they became known as "hushers," and eventually Hoosiers.
There was once a contractor named Hoosier employed on the Louisville and Portland Canal who preferred to hire laborers from Indiana. They were called "Hoosier's men" and eventually all Indianans were called Hoosiers.
A theory attributed to Gov. Joseph Wright derived Hoosier from an Indian word for corn, "hoosa." Indiana flat boatmen taking corn or maize to New Orleans came to be known as "hoosa men" or Hoosiers. Unfortunately for this theory, a search of Indian vocabularies by a careful student of linguistics failed to reveal any such word for corn.
Quite as plausible as these was the facetious explanation offered by "The Hoosier Poet," James Whitcomb Riley. He claimed that Hoosier originated in the pugnacious habits of our early settlers. They were enthusiastic and vicious fighters who gouged, scratched and bit off noses and ears. This was so common an occurrence that a settler coming into a tavern the morning after a fight and seeing an ear on the floor would touch it with his toe and casually ask, "Whose ear?"
The distinguished Hoosier writer, Meredith Nicholson (The Hoosiers) and many
others have inquired into the origin of Hoosier. But by all odds the most serious
student of the matter was Jacob Piatt Dunn, Jr., Indiana historian and longtime
secretary of the Indiana Historical Society. Dunn noted that "hoosier" was frequently
used in many parts of the South in the 19th century for woodsmen or rough hill
people. He traced the word back to "hoozer," in the Cumberland dialect of England.
This derives from the Anglo-Saxon word "hoo" meaning high or hill. In the Cumberland
dialect, the word "hoozer" meant anything unusually large, presumably like a
hill. It is not hard to see how this word was attached to a hill dweller or highlander.
Immigrants from Cumberland, England, settled in the southern mountains (Cumberland
Mountains, Cumberland River, Cumberland Gap, etc.). Their descendents brought
the name with them when they settled in the hills of southern Indiana.
As Meredith Nicholson observed: "The origin of the term 'Hoosier' is not known
with certainty." But certain it is that . . . Hoosiers bear their nickname proudly.
Many generations of Hoosier achievement have endowed the term with connotations
that are strong and friendly . . . .
Crossroads of America
Declared the official motto or slogan, but is more commonly known as the Hoosier State
The Hospitality State
Indiana license plates display the motto, The Hospitality State
Indiana Slogans
- ((formerly) Enjoy Indiana
- (formerly) Restart Your Engines (Apr 19, 2006)
- Honest To Goodness Indiana (2014)
Indiana Postal Code
- IN
Indiana Resident's Name
- Indianian - Official (recommended by US GPO)
- Indianan - Official, unofficial or informal alternates
- Hoosier - Official, unofficial or informal alternates
A resident of Indiana is known as a Hoosier. The etymology of this word is disputed, but the leading theory, as advanced by the Indiana Historical Bureau and the Indiana Historical Society, has "Hoosier" originating from Virginia, the Carolinas, and Tennessee (a part of the upland South region of the United States) as a term for a backwoodsman, a rough countryman, or a country bumpkin.
The Etymologies of US State Names
