thumb|right|340px|Map of the United States showing the state nicknames as hogs. Lithograph by Mackwitz, St. Louis, 1884.

The following is a table of U.S. state, federal district and territory nicknames, including officially adopted nicknames and other traditional nicknames for the 50 U.S. states, the U.S. federal district, as well as five U.S. territories.

State, federal district, and territory nicknames

Official state, federal district, and territory nicknames are highlighted in bold. A state nickname is not to be confused with an official state motto.

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! State,<br />federal district,<br />or territory !! Nickname(s)

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  • Alabama the Beautiful
  • Cotton Plantation State
  • Heart of Dixie (used on license plates)
  • Lizard State
  • Sweet Home Alabama
  • Seward's Folly (after U.S. Secretary of State William H. Seward) (used on American Samoa license plates)
  • Football Island[s]

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  • Apache State
  • Italy of America
  • Razorback State
  • Wonder State
  • The Golden State (previously used on license plates)

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  • Buffalo Plains State (no longer used)
  • Centennial State (previously used on license plates; Colorado was admitted to the Union one hundred years after the signing of the Declaration of Independence)
  • Colorful Colorado
  • Highest State
  • Rocky Mountain Empire (no longer used)
  • Rocky Mountain State (no longer used)
  • Silver State
  • Switzerland of America

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  • Constitution State (used on license plates)
  • Nutmeg State
  • Blue Law State
  • Blue Hen State or Blue Hen Chicken State
  • The First State (Delaware was the first state to ratify the Constitution; used on license plates)
  • Peach State (no longer used; see Georgia)
  • Small Wonder
  • DMV (nickname for the broader metropolitan area of the District of Columbia, Maryland, and Virginia)
  • End Taxation Without Representation (used on license plates)

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  • Alligator State
  • Flower State
  • Orange State
  • Sunshine State (used on license plates)

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  • Peach State (used on license plates)

<!-- * Buzzard State (from laws Georgia introduced to protect buzzards) -->

  • Cracker State (Along with Florida, Georgia had been called "The Cracker State" in earlier times, perhaps a derogatory term that referred to immigrants, called "crackers", from the mountains of Virginia and North Carolina) (See also Atlanta Crackers: Origin of the name)
  • Empire State of the South (Georgia is the largest Southern state in land area east of the Mississippi and was the leading industrial state of the Old South)
  • Goober State (Refers to peanuts, the official state crop)
  • State of Adventure

<!-- Deleted image removed: thumbnail|right|Welcome sign Georgia State -->

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  • Tano y Chamorro (Land of the Chamorro) (used on Guam license plates)
  • Hub of the Pacific used on license plates)
  • Paradise of the Pacific
  • Youngest State

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  • Gem State
  • Gem of the Mountains
  • Little Ida

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  • Land of Lincoln
  • Garden of the West
  • Crossroads of America (used at various times on license plates; used on highway welcome signs)

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  • Hawkeye State

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  • America's Heartland (previously used on license plates)
  • Central State
  • Bleeding Kansas
  • Jayhawk State
  • Breadbasket of the World
  • Corn-cracker State (reported in 1881) (corn-cracker – the nickname of a Kentucky man; pejorative)
  • The Dark and Bloody Ground State (an allusion to battles between the Creek, Shawnee, Chickasaw, and Cherokee tribes) (co-official with Vacationland)
  • Vacationland (used on license plates)
  • Lumber State
  • Chesapeake State
  • Monumental State
  • Queen State

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  • Baked Bean State
  • Old Colony State
  • Pilgrim State

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  • The Great Lakes State (previously used on license plates)
  • Water Wonderland and Water-Winter Wonderland (previously used on license plates)
  • The Wolverine State
  • The Mitten State

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  • Gopher State
  • State of Hockey
  • "Minne(snow)ta"
  • Bread and Butter State

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  • Big Sky Country (previously used on license plates)
  • The Last Best Place
  • Treasure State (used on license plates)
  • Land of the Shining Mountains

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  • Antelope State
  • Tree Planters State (formerly the official state nickname)
  • The Live Free or Die State (official motto; "Live Free or Die" used on license plates)
  • Mother of Rivers
  • Garden State (used on license plates)
  • The Crossroads of the Revolution (previously used on license plates)
  • The Cornerstone State (used colloquially, especially with reference to Pennsylvania when it is called the Keystone State)
  • The Suburban State

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  • Land of Enchantment (used on license plates)
  • Land of Sunshine (predates "Land of Enchantment"; this earlier nickname highlighted the large percentage of sunshine received statewide)

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  • Empire State (previously used on license plates) (used on license plates; the Wright Flyer made the first ever aircraft flight near Kitty Hawk, North Carolina)
  • First in Freedom
  • Tar Heel State
  • Variety Vacationland

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  • Flickertail State
  • Peace Garden State (used on license plates; not to be confused with New Jersey's "Garden State" slogan)
  • Rough Rider State
  • Sioux State
  • Heaven on Earth

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  • Håfa Adai (a Chamorro phrase; in English, it is "Hello") (used on Northern Mariana Islands license plates)
  • America's Best Kept Secret

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  • Buckeye State
  • Birthplace of Aviation (used on license plates; the Wright brothers were originally from Ohio)
  • The Heart of It All (formerly used on license plates)

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  • Native America (used on license plates)
  • Land of the Red Man
  • Sooner State <!-- though "official" is the wrong word in this case --><!-- though "official" is the wrong word in this case -->

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  • Beaver State
  • Pacific Wonderland (previously used on license plates and available on an extra cost plate)
  • Webfoot State
  • Quaker State
  • Coal State
  • Railroad State
  • Elk State

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  • Isla del Encanto ("Island of Enchantment") (used on license plates)
  • Borinquen (name given by indigenous people, the Tainos)

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  • Little Rhody
  • Ocean State (used on license plates)
  • Rogues Island
  • The Licentious Republic
  • Iodine Products State (no longer used) (previously used on license plates)

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  • Artesian State
  • Land of Infinite Variety
  • The Mount Rushmore State (officially adopted in 1980 in place of the former nickname of Coyote State)
  • Butternut State (refers to the tan color of the uniforms worn by Tennessee soldiers in the American Civil War) (used on license plates)

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  • America's Caribbean (used on U.S. Virgin Islands license plates until 2015)
  • American Paradise

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  • Beehive State
  • Crossroads of the West – Location the Golden Spike was driven into the railroad, the joining point of the First transcontinental railroad.
  • Mormon State

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  • Green Mountain State (used on license plates)
  • The Maple State
  • The Brave Little State of Vermont

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  • Mother of Presidents

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  • Evergreen State (used on license plates)

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  • Mountain State (previously used on license plates)
  • Panhandle State
  • Almost Heaven

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  • Badger State
  • America's Dairyland (used on license plates)
  • Traitor State (historical World War I)
  • The Dairy State
  • The Cheese State

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  • Cowboy State
  • Equality State
  • Forever West (on highway welcome signs)

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See also

  • List of U.S. state and territory mottos
  • List of demonyms for U.S. states
  • List of city nicknames in the United States
  • List of provincial and territorial nicknames in Canada
  • Lists of nicknames: nickname list articles on Wikipedia

Notes

References

  • Information about U.S. State Nicknames