# Can you name all 50 U.S. states in ten minutes or less? **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [July 6, 2011, 2:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-you-name-all-50-u-s-states-in-ten-minutes-or-less/587984 "2011-07-06T02:50:23Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 5
**Author:** ![Chefguy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chefguy/32/138_2.png) [@Chefguy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chefguy)\ **Post date:** [July 6, 2011, 9:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-you-name-all-50-u-s-states-in-ten-minutes-or-less/587984/81 "2011-07-06T21:28:51Z")
48/50. But Connecticut isn’t really a state. Or is that Delaware? I really embarrassed myself with the state capitals. ---
**Author:** ![matt\_mcl](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/7ab992/32.png) [@matt\_mcl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/matt_mcl)\ **Post date:** [July 6, 2011, 10:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-you-name-all-50-u-s-states-in-ten-minutes-or-less/587984/82 "2011-07-06T22:52:12Z")
> [@Giles](#): > > I suspect most non-Canadians would have trouble with them, just as most non-Australians would have trouble with the 8 states and internal territories of Australia. > > Shouldn’t there be just 3 ridings? Ridings are electoral districts. We have 308, each of which elects one member to the House of Commons. ---
**Author:** ![user\_hostile](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/user_hostile/32/474_2.png) [@user\_hostile](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/user_hostile)\ **Post date:** [July 6, 2011, 11:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-you-name-all-50-u-s-states-in-ten-minutes-or-less/587984/83 "2011-07-06T23:16:55Z")
> [@Siam\_Sam](#): > > I saw that one coming. :smack: > > “Time Remaining” for me: 06:53, meaning I did all 50 in 3 minutes and 7 seconds, held back only by my poor typing skills. Pfft! “Time Remaining” for me: 05:38. I knew the names of all 50 states by the time I was 12. But I would trade New Jersey for your “poor typing skills”. 😃 How about the four commonwealths? That would slow some of you down. ---
**Author:** ![interface2x](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/c0e974/32.png) [@interface2x](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/interface2x)\ **Post date:** [July 6, 2011, 11:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-you-name-all-50-u-s-states-in-ten-minutes-or-less/587984/84 "2011-07-06T23:55:48Z")
All 50 in 3:12. Also interesting - according to their stats, the two most forgotten states are Missouri and Minnesota. I would have thought the Northeast would be tougher but maybe a higher proportion of people who take the test live there so it’s natural for them to remember. ---
**Author:** ![Desert\_Nomad](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/desert_nomad/32/177_2.png) [@Desert\_Nomad](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Desert_Nomad)\ **Post date:** [July 7, 2011, 12:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-you-name-all-50-u-s-states-in-ten-minutes-or-less/587984/85 "2011-07-07T00:04:07Z")
Got them all in 2min 41sec. I just went west to east and filled them all in. ---
**Author:** ![Moonlitherial](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/4bbf92/32.png) [@Moonlitherial](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Moonlitherial)\ **Post date:** [July 7, 2011, 1:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-you-name-all-50-u-s-states-in-ten-minutes-or-less/587984/86 "2011-07-07T01:42:42Z")
I missed Oklahoma and Georgia and wasted a ton of time trying to figure out why my spelling of Indiana wasn’t being accepted (hint I already had it) ---
**Author:** ![opmike](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/9d8465/32.png) [@opmike](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/opmike)\ **Post date:** [July 7, 2011, 1:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-you-name-all-50-u-s-states-in-ten-minutes-or-less/587984/87 "2011-07-07T01:58:32Z")
Wyoming isn’t a state, dammit! 49/50 ---
**Author:** ![lilbug](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/b487fb/32.png) [@lilbug](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lilbug)\ **Post date:** [July 7, 2011, 2:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-you-name-all-50-u-s-states-in-ten-minutes-or-less/587984/88 "2011-07-07T02:19:09Z")
Well, I feel stupid!! I know, without the test, I can’t name them all! 😛 ---
**Author:** ![matt\_mcl](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/7ab992/32.png) [@matt\_mcl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/matt_mcl)\ **Post date:** [July 7, 2011, 5:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-you-name-all-50-u-s-states-in-ten-minutes-or-less/587984/89 "2011-07-07T05:08:31Z")
I just did the mapless one in 2 minutes 6 seconds. ---
**Author:** ![aceplace57](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/aceplace57/32/3500_2.png) [@aceplace57](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/aceplace57)\ **Post date:** [July 7, 2011, 5:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-you-name-all-50-u-s-states-in-ten-minutes-or-less/587984/90 "2011-07-07T05:36:17Z")
Not without Googles help I couldn’t. I doubt that I could even list 15 without looking them up. We memorized all the state capitals in the 5th grade. **42 years ago**. Oddly enough, I no longer remember them. 😉 ---
**Author:** ![MrDibble](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mrdibble/32/114_2.png) [@MrDibble](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MrDibble)\ **Post date:** [July 7, 2011, 10:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-you-name-all-50-u-s-states-in-ten-minutes-or-less/587984/91 "2011-07-07T10:43:26Z")
> [@chaoticbear](#): > > I got 49 out of 50 in around 2 minutes, then stared very intently at the monitor. > > Several minutes later, I gave up and realized it was Maryland. I always blame my ignorance of New England on losing a study guide for a test back in 4th grade for that region. Me, foreigner that I am, I always remember Maryland because of the trivia fact I leaned (from the World Book Encyclopaedia, remember those?) that their State Sport is Jousting. How cool is that state? Jousting! ---
**Author:** ![phantom\_lamb](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/5f9b8f/32.png) [@phantom\_lamb](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/phantom_lamb)\ **Post date:** [July 7, 2011, 11:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-you-name-all-50-u-s-states-in-ten-minutes-or-less/587984/92 "2011-07-07T11:50:59Z")
All 50 in 2 minutes 54 seconds. … and I’m not even American 😃 ---
**Author:** ![An\_Gadai](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/d6d6ee/32.png) [@An\_Gadai](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/An_Gadai)\ **Post date:** [July 7, 2011, 12:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-you-name-all-50-u-s-states-in-ten-minutes-or-less/587984/93 "2011-07-07T12:44:03Z")
It took me only 40 minutes to name all the provinces, states and territories in Canada and Australia. 😃 ---
**Author:** ![robardin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/43a26b/32.png) [@robardin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/robardin)\ **Post date:** [July 7, 2011, 2:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-you-name-all-50-u-s-states-in-ten-minutes-or-less/587984/94 "2011-07-07T14:09:59Z")
> [@Silver\_Fire](#): > > All 50 in about 2.5 minutes. I noticed the map after… :smack: Not knowing any mnemonic songs or having made any especial study of the topic, but having looked at maps of the US any hundreds of times in my life… I still left one out. Got no excuse, either. The map was distracting, in a way. I think I’d have done better just writing down the two letter state abbreviations because I could always simply write out all the easy ones (at least 45-47), then just cycle through two letter combos until the other 3-5 shook out. But with the map there I felt compelled to recognize actual states by location, and to go through the map from east to west (since I’m from NY and the eastern seaboard states, especially the Northeast, are all first-hand familiar to me). As it was, I did 48 in about 4 minutes, then took 90 more minutes to remember the state west of Missouri was Kansas (because I remembered Kansas City was in Missouri and a border city)… And spent 2 minutes NOT remembering the state west of Wisconsin was Minnesota, despite having been to a wedding in Minneapolis and there being a MLB team there too. Arrgh! Yet had I done a blank piece of paper version, I’m sure I’d have remembered that one and left out something like Oklahoma, which was easy because of the panhandle, but without which visual cue I’d have great difficulty recalling its existence. ---
**Author:** ![Candyman74](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/ad7895/32.png) [@Candyman74](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Candyman74)\ **Post date:** [July 7, 2011, 2:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-you-name-all-50-u-s-states-in-ten-minutes-or-less/587984/95 "2011-07-07T14:17:49Z")
Huh. 21. I thought I’d do better than that. ---
**Author:** ![Baal\_Houtham](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/baal_houtham/32/13604_2.png) [@Baal\_Houtham](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Baal_Houtham)\ **Post date:** [July 7, 2011, 2:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-you-name-all-50-u-s-states-in-ten-minutes-or-less/587984/96 "2011-07-07T14:42:06Z")
Tried it by memory and couldn’t think of Wisconsin, Massachusetts, Connecticut or New Jersey in 10 minutes. Then I opened the thread and saw that there was a map to look at. Hah! It took about five minutes, and I blanked out on Wisconsin again for about 20 seconds. ---
**Author:** ![panache45](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/panache45/32/64_2.png) [@panache45](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/panache45)\ **Post date:** [July 7, 2011, 3:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-you-name-all-50-u-s-states-in-ten-minutes-or-less/587984/97 "2011-07-07T15:11:38Z")
I got all 50, but didn’t time myself (way less than 10 minutes). ---
**Author:** ![born\_too\_late](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/ba9def/32.png) [@born\_too\_late](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/born_too_late)\ **Post date:** [July 7, 2011, 3:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-you-name-all-50-u-s-states-in-ten-minutes-or-less/587984/98 "2011-07-07T15:24:13Z")
Sad to hear that my home state of Wisconsin is so forgettable. ☹ Cheese? Beer?! The Super Bowl Packers? Paul Ryan? Got 'em all in just over 4 minutes, but my typing sucks and I had trouble spelling Massachusetts. I knew all the state capitals too at one point many years ago, but there’s probably no way I’d remember them all now. ---
**Author:** ![Darryl\_Lict](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/7cd45c/32.png) [@Darryl\_Lict](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Darryl_Lict)\ **Post date:** [July 7, 2011, 3:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-you-name-all-50-u-s-states-in-ten-minutes-or-less/587984/99 "2011-07-07T15:38:16Z")
3:46, but I didn’t optimize my posture for typing and made about a billion typos. I’m sure I could have cut 30 seconds off, and yes, Massachusetts is a bitch to spell. ---
**Author:** ![crewface](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/59ef9b/32.png) [@crewface](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/crewface)\ **Post date:** [July 7, 2011, 7:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-you-name-all-50-u-s-states-in-ten-minutes-or-less/587984/100 "2011-07-07T19:48:29Z")
Unless u r a travel agent or map maker, why take up space in ur head? If want to go to a state, get a map, find one with a pretty name, WRITE IT DOWN, and now u r good to go. Ok, smarties, now tell me the names of all government workers in all 50 states and Washington DC. I think there are about 22,000,000. When the number of gov. workers equals the population, we will no longer be serfs but self employed. There was a Japanese businessman that recited the value of pi (3.141…) to 100,000 digits. Beat that in 14 hours. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-you-name-all-50-u-s-states-in-ten-minutes-or-less/587984.md?page=4) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-you-name-all-50-u-s-states-in-ten-minutes-or-less/587984.md?page=6)