Connecticut State Names

Connecticut Name Etymology and State Nicknames

Northeast

• Constitution State

• Nutmeg State

• Provisions State

• The Blue Law State

• Land of Steady Habits

• The Freestone State

• Arsenal of the Nation

Origin of Connecticut State Name

From an Indian word (Quinnehtukqut) meaning "beside the long tidal river"

Connecticut was an established name early in the 1600's in particular reference to the Connecticut River. The word itself was translated from the Indian name "Quinnehtukqut" and means "beside the long tidal river."

Nicknames

Connecticut was designated the Constitution State by the General Assembly in 1959.

Constitution State:

Connecticut was designated the Constitution State by the General Assembly in 1959. As early as the 19th Century, John Fiske, a popular historian from Connecticut, made the claim that the Fundamental Orders of 1638/39 were the first written constitution in history. Some contemporary historians dispute Fiske's analysis. However, Simeon E. Baldwin, a former Chief Justice of the Connecticut Supreme Court, defended Fiske's view of the Fundamental Orders in Osborn's History of Connecticut in Monographic Form by stating that "never had a company of men deliberately met to frame a social compact for immediate use, constituting a new and independent commonwealth, with definite officers, executive and legislative, and prescribed rules and modes of government, until the first planters of Connecticut came together for their great work on January 14th, 1638-9." The text of the Fundamental Orders is reproduced in Section I of this volume and the original is on permanent display at the Museum of Connecticut History at the State Library.

Nutmeg State

Early citizens were skilled and industrious that they could make and sell wooden nutmegs.

First known as Land of Wooden Nutmegs (after a scam commonly perpetrated there of selling useless nutmegs made of wood), the state quickly became known as The Wooden Nutmeg State, and then just The Nutmeg State.

The Provisions State and The Blue Law State

It was also given the Provisions State and The Blue Law State, from some of its "Blue Laws" in colonial times.

The Freestone State

In 1843, the only nickname recorded for the state was The Freestone State

Slogans

Full of Surprises

Connecticut Postal Code

CT

Connecticut Resident's Name

Nutmegger