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U.S. States by Nickname

For each selected nickname, name the U.S. state! You can type either the full name or the two letter abbreviation.
According to Wikipedia
Quiz by Quizmaster
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Last updated: September 7, 2018
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First submittedSeptember 3, 2012
Times taken59,496
Average score46.0%
Rating4.47
3:00
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Nickname
State
Golden State
California
Empire State
New York
Grand Canyon State
Arizona
Lone Star State
Texas
Natural State
Arkansas
Garden State
New Jersey
Aloha State
Hawaii
Last Frontier
Alaska
Centennial State
Colorado
Constitution State
Connecticut
First State
Delaware
Land of
Enchantment
New Mexico
Sunshine State
Florida
Ocean State
Rhode Island
Peach State
Georgia
Show-Me State
Missouri
Gem State
Idaho
Nickname
State
Hoosier State
Indiana
Equality State
Wyoming
Hawkeye State
Iowa
Sunflower State
Kansas
Bluegrass State
Kentucky
Old Line State
Maryland
Silver State
Nevada
Tar Heel State
North Carolina
Peace Garden
State
North Dakota
Buckeye State
Ohio
Pelican State
Louisiana
Sooner State
Oklahoma
Keystone State
Pennsylvania
Palmetto State
South Carolina
Evergreen State
Washington
Green Mountain
State
Vermont
Treasure State
Montana
Nickname
State
North Star State
Minnesota
Prairie State
Illinois
Volunteer State
Tennessee
Great Lakes State
Michigan
Bay State
Massachusetts
Beaver State
Oregon
Magnolia State
Mississippi
Granite State
New Hampshire
Badger State
Wisconsin
Cornhusker State
Nebraska
Pine Tree State /
Vacationland
Maine
Beehive State
Utah
Old Dominion
Virginia
Mountain State
West Virginia
Yellowhammer State
Alabama
Mount Rushmore
State
South Dakota
+8
Level 92
Dec 31, 2012
I was hoping to see "Taxation without Representation" on the list... though I suppose "The District" as the official nickname would be a dead giveaway.
+11
Level 26
Dec 31, 2012
Just a recommendation, include a chart along the side of the quiz that highlights the states that were guessed correctly and leaves those that were yet to be guessed blank.
+2
Level 84
Jun 27, 2014
Yes please! This would be very helpful when you get down to the last few!
+2
Level 55
Oct 24, 2015
Agree! Although, yes, it's harder this way.
+7
Level 45
Aug 26, 2014
Man, I forgot how nonsensical some of these are.

Well, one of them in particular... the "Show-Me State"? What?

+2
Level 37
Sep 17, 2014
I like Show Me. It's like the "Prove It" State. Put your money where your mouth is. Practice what you preach. etc etc, whether that's what they originally meant or not.
+5
Level 88
Jul 25, 2018
I think Missouri wants to play doctor with the other states.
+2
Level 67
Nov 29, 2023
Criiiiiinge
+1
Level 55
Oct 24, 2015
I live right next to Missouri, and people have varied interpretations of their motto. It mostly seems to be taken as "Missouri has so much to show, that someone can say 'Show me what's great about your state', and they won't be disappointed." The scenery in some parts is beautiful, I won't deny.
+2
Level 60
Jul 7, 2016
Although I'm sure we'd all like to believe that (and that's what Missouri's tourism board no doubt tries to get people to believe), the truth comes from the old stereotype, dating back to Missouri's territorial days, that people from the state are so stubborn that they won't believe anything unless they can see it.
+1
Level 88
Sep 22, 2018
I have no problem with Show-Me state for Missouri. The ones that make me giggle are Garden State for New Jersey and Equality State for Wyoming... :)
+4
Level 76
Mar 24, 2023
Ah, so you're not very familiar with Jeresy? When people think of New Jersey, they usually think of the areas right outside the big cities it's sandwiched between, like Jersey City, Newark, and Hoboken outside of NYC, or Camden right outside Philly. Once you get further away from either of them, though, it's very different than what most people think. Once you get away from them, there's a surprising amount of forest and farmland. Most of the southern half of the state is covered by the Pinelands, and the state is one of the country's top ten producers of blueberries, cranberries, peaches, tomatoes, bell peppers, eggplant, cucumbers, apples, spinach, squash, and asparagus.
+1
Level 88
Nov 29, 2023
Yeah, but it's the #1 state in the country for population density ;)
+2
Level 65
Nov 29, 2023
Wyoming was the first place in America where women could vote.
+2
Level 79
Feb 20, 2021
The most widely known legend attributes the phrase to Missouri's U.S. Congressman Willard Duncan Vandiver, who served in the United States House of Representatives from 1897 to 1903. While a member of the U.S. House Committee on Naval Affairs, Vandiver attended an 1899 naval banquet in Philadelphia. In a speech there, he declared, "I come from a state that raises corn and cotton and cockleburs and Democrats, and frothy eloquence neither convinces nor satisfies me. I am from Missouri. You have got to show me." Regardless of whether Vandiver coined the phrase, it is certain that his speech helped to popularize the saying.
+2
Level 79
Feb 20, 2021
Other versions of the "Show-Me" legend place the slogan's origin in the mining town of Leadville, Colorado. There, the phrase was first employed as a term of ridicule and reproach. A miner's strike had been in progress for some time in the mid-1890s, and a number of miners from the lead districts of southwest Missouri had been imported to take the places of the strikers. The Joplin miners were unfamiliar with Colorado mining methods and required frequent instructions. Pit bosses began saying, "That man is from Missouri. You'll have to show him."
+5
Level 47
Apr 19, 2017
Oklahoma is ok on their license plate didn't boom of self confidence
+1
Level 68
May 23, 2017
lol
+1
Level 66
Nov 21, 2021
it is "OK," though.
+1
Level 68
May 23, 2017
Awesome! 49/49. License plates and guessing help a lot.
+2
Level 73
Jun 15, 2018
Same here...a lot of these I knew from license plates and the way some journalists use alternate nicknames for states just to avoid saying the same word over and over and over.
+2
Level 66
Jul 17, 2018
And colleges.
+2
Level 66
Sep 28, 2017
Why isn't Nevada the Sagebrush State too?

Also, why isn't Arkansas the Land of Opportunity?

+1
Level 66
Nov 21, 2021
I don't know, it should be a second option like with "Pine Tree State/Vacationland."

At least Arkansas didn't keep the old nickname of "Toothpick State!"

+5
Level 86
Jul 14, 2018
It's a shame that the Mountain State isn't Montana, given that the state's name means "mountainous."
+1
Level 66
Nov 21, 2021
I think it just means "mountain"
+4
Level 88
Jul 25, 2018
Maine got kinda greedy on the slogan thing.
+1
Level 58
Sep 21, 2018
CoughSportsmans'ParadiseCough
+2
Level 67
Sep 21, 2018
No offense but this is kind of the same thing I uploaded a few days before
+1
Level 67
Sep 21, 2018
Like the only thing that is different is the order
+3
Level ∞
Sep 21, 2018
This quiz was first created in 2012.
+1
Level 67
Sep 25, 2018
Sorry I just thought that the update was the release
+1
Level 63
Sep 24, 2018
Got everything but Illinois. What on Earth is a Peace Garden, btw? Why is Arkansas called the Natural State?
+2
Level 86
Nov 9, 2018
There is a "Peace Garden" split between Canada and the US along the North Dakota border. I suppose it's North Dakota's answer to South Dakota being the Mount Rushmore state.

"Natural state" refers to the fact that Arkansas existed in nature and wasn't artificially claimed from the sea, which is the most interesting Arkansas fact I can think of.

+1
Level 66
Nov 21, 2021
Arkansas has so many natural resources, that it could totally exist independently if the rest of the nation (or world) excommunicated it, or sunk in the sea, or what have you. It doesn't need to trade outside or inside to support its inhabitants.
+2
Level 43
Jul 7, 2019
Missouri is the show me state because you get there and say "show me the way out"
+1
Level 66
Nov 21, 2021
rude
+1
Level 72
Sep 10, 2019
I was pretty sure that Illinois was the Land of Lincoln.
+1
Level 59
Sep 17, 2020
I like how Wyoming is the "equality" state but also the most conservative
+2
Level 60
Feb 20, 2021
I'm pretty sure that it's because it gave all women the right to vote before any other state. However, it is weird that Wyoming is now really conservative. 100+ years is a lot in politics, though...
+1
Level 66
Nov 21, 2021
I also like that. It is a nice nickname. And it's conservative. Two things about Wyoming that are fine to like, I guess.
+1
Level ∞
Sep 25, 2023
The nickname seems to fit.

In addition to being the first state to grant women the right to vote, Wyoming has the 3rd highest income equality of any state, trailing only Idaho and Utah.

The most unequal? New York.

+1
Level 79
Feb 20, 2021
I knew about 28, but managed to guess all the others in time!!
+3
Level 67
Nov 29, 2023
Three minutes for fifty answers is way too short.
+1
Level 55
Nov 30, 2023
particularly for non-americans. I thought the bluegrass state must be Boise.
+2
Level 39
Dec 1, 2023
Boise? First off, that isn't even a state. The Bluegrass region, is an area of central Kentucky, the first area to be settled. It became known for its abundant bluegrass and became famous for breeding fine horses; the calcium-rich soil imparts its minerals to the grass and thence into the horses’ bones. (Britannica). The origin of bluegrass music can be traced to the people who came to America in the 1600s from Ireland, Scotland, and England and settled into North and South Carolina, Tennessee, Kentucky, Virginia, and West Virginia. Boise wouldn't be established for another 200 years. Kentucky is quite well-established, both in region and culture, as the Bluegrass State.
+1
Level 49
Dec 2, 2023
Crazy how you can type HI for the Aloha state, which is literally what Aloha means! Also, before you come at me for spoiling the quiz, there is literally ONE state in the grand ol' US of A where the majority speaks that language