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Dose of History
Home›Dose of History›How did Arizona get its Name?

How did Arizona get its Name?

By Andrea Aker
May 31, 2009
18759
30

Excerpt from Arizona Adventure by Marshall Trimble, the state’s official historian.

Arizona State MapThe name Arizona comes from the Papago “ali-shonak” meaning “small spring.” The name became popular following the discovery of rich lodes of silver “so pure you could cut it with a knife,” some 25 miles southwest of present-day Nogales in 1736.

The word was ultimately corrupted into “Arizona.” The silver didn’t last long, but the world now knew of the fabulous planchas de plata (sheets of silver) and Arizona. Still, the area was known officially as New Mexico or yet “Terra Incognita” during the years of Spanish and later Mexican control. New Mexico became a part of the United States following the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo in 1848 and Arizona remained a part of New Mexico.

The compromise of 1850 brought New Mexico into the union as a territory. Shortly after the citizens in the western part of New Mexico began clamoring for separate status. Several names were suggested including “Arizona” and “Gadsonia,” the latter to honor James Gadsden, the man who had negotiated the purchase of land south of the Gila River in 1853. The name “Arizona” won out and in 1863 there was, at last, a real Arizona.

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Tagsearly arizonahistoryplace names

30 comments

  1. Peter Jones 19 July, 2009 at 03:51 Reply

    Gee, I always thought it was from some native language or even Spanish for “Arid Zone”.

    • Bonnie Hayes 22 August, 2012 at 17:28 Reply

      I was thinking the SAME thing today,lol. I was looking at a bottle of Arizona tea and the thought occurred to me “Arizona…arid zona/zone” I live in AZ so I thought it may be beneficial to learn the true meaning.

      • mr.derp 4 May, 2016 at 12:04 Reply

        you are wrong! hahahahahahahahahahahahahahaha!

    • Mardi VanEgdom 1 July, 2016 at 01:46 Reply

      I thought it was from “arid zone”, too! Sometimes I even call it Arid-zona. So dry!

    • Ignacio 5 October, 2017 at 02:15 Reply

      I think this article is wrong, the name of “Arizona” may come from this http://www.arizon.es/the-1733-galleon-fleet/

      The noblemen and merchant Jacinto Salvador de Arizón began to trade the supplies of the new world in 1709. That land owned to the spanish imperium, and King Charles III, as a recognition of the merchant labour of this man, otorges him in 1748 the noble tittle and his surname was used to name the state of Arizona.

      https://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Casa_de_Ariz%C3%B3n#Historia_familiar

      It seems legit to me.

  2. Marshall Trimble 17 August, 2009 at 14:03 Reply

    THE ORIGIN OF THE NAME “ARIZONA.” In recent years there has been another theory on the origin of the name, “Arizona”. Don Garate, Chief of Historical Interpretation for Tumacacori National Historical Park, makes a strong case for the Basque origin of the word. Arizona is a combination of the words aritz (oak) ona (good), or “Good Oak.” There were large numbers of Basque living in the area, including Colonel Juan Bautista de Anza, the most famous soldier, statesman and trailblazer of his time. And there is an abundance of oak trees.

    The most overwhelming argument for Garate’s theory is the number of other locations in South America bearing the name Arizona. He notes at least a dozen other places in the New World with the name Arizona. There were large numbers of Basque living in all those areas, and an abundance of oak trees giving credence to the theory that the word Arizona was Basque, rather than Tohono Oodham.

    Since he wrote the article, several people have contacted him with new reasons to support his thesis. The most overwhelming being the number of other locations with this name:

    Two towns in Argentina, 6 in Brazil, 3 in Columbia, 2 in Honduras. Spanish and Basque are in all those areas, but Tohono Oodham did not travel that much.

    In 1973 Bill Douglas head of Basque Studies at U of Nevada in Reno wrote on this but Dr. Charles Polzer editor of the Journal of Arizona History refused to publish it. In 1999, Bruce Dinges felt confident enough in Garate to publish another article in an article of the Journal of Arizona History, Summer 2005, entitled “Arizonac, Twentieth Century Myth.” Again in this article, he makes an excellent case for the Basque origin, pointing out that Kino listed hundreds of Tohono Oodham names in his maps of the area, but the word Arizona never shows up until after the silver discovery in 1736.
    I have been to the site of the ranch house where the many letters were first addressed with that name, and can attest that it is indeed a very wet area, drainage from the mountains, 18 miles southwest of Nogales, in Old Mexico.
    Myy colleague, Jim Turner, says “In his recent article, Garate notes at least a dozen other places in the New World with the name Arizona.
    Never has there been this much disagreement about the name of a state, I am sure. Another irony is that the location never was, and is not now, included in the area we now call Arizona!”
    Don also has a book in which he explains the origin of the word Arizona. Juan Bautista de Anza: Basque Explorer in the New World. By Donald T. Garate. (Reno: University of Nevada Press, 2003.
    Journal of Arizona History, Summer 2005, entitled “Arizonac, Twentieth Century Myth.”
    More and more historians are beginning to accept this as the real origin of the name.

    “The only thing we know for certain is nothing is for certain” Patrick Murphy, Irish philosopher

  3. kayla 14 April, 2010 at 21:00 Reply

    im doing a state report about arizona thank you for helping me with your website byyyyyy=)

    • maddie 22 September, 2014 at 08:22 Reply

      i am to

    • Lauren 24 April, 2017 at 19:56 Reply

      Me too!

  4. john stevens 3 June, 2010 at 09:16 Reply

    Now it can change its name to land of the racist home of the whites only!!!

    • joslynn alvarez 14 May, 2014 at 22:19 Reply

      youre an idiot we have all races here. i dont know where your talking about ..not arizona ,no body is treated wrong because of their nationality. im mexican and white so no wrong ,half the people here are not even american their mexican.

  5. aaron 24 June, 2010 at 15:28 Reply

    Open your eyes fool. Arizona is now racist because we decided for local law enforcement to enforce fed laws? Do you see any kkk rallies in az? Its the most diverse state in the west homeboy

  6. young christina 18 May, 2011 at 08:55 Reply

    thank for the help

  7. Joanne Burch 9 October, 2011 at 18:08 Reply

    I do not understand john stevens and aaron. How does the change in origin of the name Arizona reflect racism?
    Or did it get posted to the wrong information?

    • Lauren 24 April, 2017 at 20:03 Reply

      I am thinking exactly what you are. What does the racism have to do with the name?

  8. Arizona Oddities’ Top 10 Posts of 2011 | 31 December, 2011 at 15:37 Reply

    […] newcomers.We were going to laugh at her until we remembered she is much higher up the food chain.How Did Arizona Get its Name? – The name Arizona comes from the Papago “ali-shonak” meaning “small spring.” The […]

  9. jasmine 25 March, 2014 at 15:43 Reply

    I don’t get it I need to know how Arizona got it’s name I don’t know if it is Papago

    • jasmine 25 March, 2014 at 15:45 Reply

      I am doing a state report

    • Devrrick 18 May, 2017 at 10:49 Reply

      it means small spring

  10. joslynn alvarez 14 May, 2014 at 22:24 Reply

    tbh i dont even uderstand why race is even a problem anymore .

  11. Justin 10 February, 2015 at 09:01 Reply

    Thanks for the help im doing a report on arizona

    • Grace 25 February, 2016 at 15:24 Reply

      Doing state report too

      • Lauren 24 April, 2017 at 20:04 Reply

        Is it just me, or do many people do state reports on Arizona?

  12. gabriel 15 April, 2015 at 18:50 Reply

    doing a state report

    • adan perez 23 April, 2015 at 09:45 Reply

      me to

  13. Andrew Weathers 4 August, 2015 at 13:54 Reply

    Arizona is Spanish for Arid Zone. I go there all the time, I am positive this is the truth.

  14. Eva 8 February, 2016 at 07:29 Reply

    So the truth is… ??
    –

  15. How Did Arizona Get its Name? - Arizona Real Estate News 23 March, 2017 at 07:55 Reply

    […] Source: https://arizonaoddities.com/2009/05/how-did-arizona-get-its-name/ […]

  16. Devrrick 18 May, 2017 at 10:04 Reply

    why was it on presents day

  17. Ralphcr 29 December, 2018 at 16:07 Reply

    I’ve seen in a book an old Spanish map on which this area was clearly marked “Arid Zona”. I imagine explorers and prospectors long ago had access to this map. I’m still trying to find the map (that was back in high school when I saw it).

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