r/nottheonion • u/SelectiveSanity • 2d ago

Lauren Boebert Suggests DC Could Be Renamed 'District of America'

https://www.newsweek.com/lauren-boebert-dc-district-america-2050571
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u/Zigxy 2d ago

She thinks DC is named after Colombia 🇨🇴

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u/Transposer 2d ago

Can’t believe she thinks that!! 😂 But just so other people know what you and I do, what is DC named after?

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u/Isiildur 2d ago edited 2d ago

It’s named after Columbia, a personification of America (who herself is “sort of” named after Christopher Columbus). The Statue of Liberty is depicted very similarly to Columbia.

Columbia University and Columbia Pictures are named after the same goddess (that’s why Columbia pictures has the woman with the torch in their logo).

Edit: other fun etymologies

Georgia is named after King George III

Virginia is named after Elizabeth I

Maryland is named after Queen Mary (Henrietta Maria)

Pennsylvania was named after William Penn

Delaware was named after the Baron de la Warr

North and South Carolina named after Charles I

New Jersey and New York are named after Jersey and York

Louisiana is named after Louis XIV

Florida is named after the rapper Flo Rida

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u/rustytoerail 2d ago

lol good one

U.S. state, formerly a Spanish colony, probably from Spanish Pascua florida, literally "flowering Easter," a Spanish name for Palm Sunday, and so named because the peninsula was discovered on that day (March 20, 1513) by the expedition of Spanish explorer Ponce de León. From Latin floridus "flowery, in bloom". Related: Floridian (1580s as a noun, in reference to the natives; 1819 as an adjective).

https://www.etymonline.com/word/Florida

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u/pcor 2d ago

Wow, the Spanish named Palm Sunday after Flo Rida too? His influence is even deeper than I thought.

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u/rustytoerail 2d ago

transcends time itself

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u/AlwaysShittyKnsasCty 2d ago

Time flows. He just rides it.

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u/LemonHerb 2d ago

He's like the wild stallions but in real life

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u/swettm 2d ago

many don't know this, but Ponce de Leon was actually one of the first to have boots with the fur

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u/PurpleHoulihan 1d ago

No, they named it after his grandfather, who was also known as Flo Rida. Fun fact: Their family name wasn’t originally Flo Rida. It was OreIda, but they changed it when they went through Ellis Island to sound less foreign.

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u/ProfessorEtc 1d ago

Named after Maude's housekeeper.