Nicknames are a sentimental affair, often associated with people or places that we feel passionately about, either due to fondness or fondness for ribbing them. For a nickname to become pervasive, it needs to contain an element of authenticity. This is the reason why state and province nicknames often originate from their residents rather than their tourism bureaus!

These endearing monikers encapsulate the history of a region. They reveal what the early inhabitants found appealing or significant about their environs. We embarked on an exploration of the most common or renowned nicknames of every state, province, and territory in the United States and Canada and subsequently produced three maps portraying their alternative monikers. An example being the state nicknames in the U.S.

Kurt Vonnegut humorously engaged with the nickname of his home state, Indiana – ‘the Hoosier State’, commenting, “I don’t know what it is about Hoosiers but wherever you go there is always a Hoosier doing something very important there”. Despite the fun intrigue, the actual origin of the nickname remains unknown. A popular theory, rooted in the pioneer heritage of the state, is that Hoosier could have evolved from the inhabitants’ cautious query “who’s yere?” when someone knocked on their cabin doors. Another intriguing tale pertains to Utah, better known as ‘the Beehive State’. This nickname can be traced back to a biblical misinterpretation.

Utah’s Mormon founders envisioned their state as the biblical ‘land of milk and honey’, leading to the association with honeybees. Contrary to this belief, the Middle East of biblical times did not have honey bees; honey was likely derived from dates. Mark Twain, a renowned figure of American literature, amusingly explained this contradiction, citing: “The Mormon crest was easy, and it was simple, unostentatious, and it fitted like a glove. It was a representation of a Golden Beehive, with all the bees at work.”

The nicknames assigned to provinces and territories in Canada offer further intrigue. Manitoba, once deridingly referred to as ‘The Postage Stamp Province’, due to its compact size, has since grown exponentially. With this growth came a rise in regional pride, earning the province its current nickname ‘the Keystone State’. This moniker suggests its geometric shape or its central location in Canada, the interpretation varies according to who provides it.

In a similar vein, Nunavut Territory, known as “Our Land,” took over twenty years to be established following negotiations. The indigenous populations had lived on that land for around 4,000 years prior to European arrival, which explains why the local population opted for a nickname that mirrored the official name of the province after the Nunavut Land Claims Agreement.

A place’s nickname is capable of capturing far more than its geographical or historical essence. It encapsulates the vitality and emotions of its denizens. Are you aware of the story behind the nickname of your home state?

The research and sources used to develop these maps have been compiled in this Google sheet.

Our method to create these maps involved collecting the three most common nicknames for each state in the U.S. and for each province/territory in Canada. They were then sorted into one of the following categories: History, agriculture, nature, geography, culture/language, animals, or weather/climate. After shortlisting the most popular or widely acclaimed nickname for each location, we used these final selections to create our maps.