# District of Columbia becomes a state--- what should it be called? **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [April 22, 2021, 5:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/district-of-columbia-becomes-a-state-what-should-it-be-called/940553 "2021-04-22T17:27:58Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 10\ **Page:** 7
**Author:** ![Peter\_Morris](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/peter_morris/32/359_2.png) [@Peter\_Morris](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Peter_Morris)\ **Post date:** [April 25, 2021, 7:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/district-of-columbia-becomes-a-state-what-should-it-be-called/940553/132 "2021-04-25T19:02:31Z")
New New York. ---
**Author:** ![TriPolar](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tripolar/32/3008_2.png) [@TriPolar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TriPolar)\ **Post date:** [April 25, 2021, 7:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/district-of-columbia-becomes-a-state-what-should-it-be-called/940553/133 "2021-04-25T19:21:39Z")
I’m coming down solidly on District of Columbia. The only change is in it’s status. Nothing will stop them from changing the name in the future if they can get a majority of the state’s voters to go along with it. That’s one of the things a state can do. ---
**Author:** ![RTFirefly](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/c77e96/32.png) [@RTFirefly](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RTFirefly)\ **Post date:** [April 25, 2021, 7:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/district-of-columbia-becomes-a-state-what-should-it-be-called/940553/134 "2021-04-25T19:36:01Z")
Why not Area 51? It would be the 51st state. That it would share a name with that other infamous Area 51 would be a bonus. 🙂 Freedonia is still my first choice, for obvious reasons. ---
**Author:** ![RTFirefly](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/c77e96/32.png) [@RTFirefly](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RTFirefly)\ **Post date:** [April 25, 2021, 7:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/district-of-columbia-becomes-a-state-what-should-it-be-called/940553/135 "2021-04-25T19:39:57Z")
> [@Larry\_Borgia](#): > > just call it DC. It’s what the people here call it anyway. Just don’t say it’s part of the DMV. > [@Mirtha](#): > > Douglass then rename all the states that have “new” in their names. New Mexico really shoulda been Montezuma as originally proposed. Would its state capitol become The Halls Of Montezuma? 😃 ---
**Author:** ![MEBuckner](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mebuckner/32/2896_2.png) [@MEBuckner](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MEBuckner)\ **Post date:** [April 25, 2021, 7:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/district-of-columbia-becomes-a-state-what-should-it-be-called/940553/136 "2021-04-25T19:58:01Z")
East Dakota. Truthfully, “the State of Washington, Douglass Commonwealth” seems a little over-complicated to me as the name of a state, but if that’s what the people who live there have decided on, I see no serious reason why the rest of us should particularly object to that name. ---
**Author:** ![Sherrerd](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sherrerd/32/8_2.png) [@Sherrerd](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sherrerd)\ **Post date:** [April 26, 2021, 12:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/district-of-columbia-becomes-a-state-what-should-it-be-called/940553/137 "2021-04-26T00:13:17Z")
> [@TriPolar](#): > > I’m coming down solidly on District of Columbia. The only change is in it’s status. Nothing will stop them from changing the name in the future if they can get a majority of the state’s voters to go along with it. That’s one of the things a state can do. This is all eminently logical, in my view. If a commonwealth is equivalent to a “state,” then why shouldn’t a district also be equivalent to a “state”? But there will be loud cries against “Columbia” even though the Italian guy arousing such objections was born with the name “Columbo”. DC residents could simply _decide_ that Columbia refers to something other than the fifteenth-century explorer. Not a record club, probably, but how about: > **[Columbia (supercontinent)](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Columbia_(supercontinent))** > > Columbia, also known as Nuna or Hudsonland, was one of Earth's ancient supercontinents. It was first proposed by John J.W. Rogers and M. Santosh in 2002 and is thought to have existed approximately 2,500 to 1,500 million years ago, in the Paleoproterozoic Era. The assembly of the supercontinent was likely completed during global-scale collisional events from 2100 to 1800 million years ago. > Columbia consisted of proto-cratons that made up the cores of the continents of Laurentia, Baltica, Ukraini... A supercontinent! Very grand. And symbolic of the way that things that are separate are sometimes, instead, together. ---
**Author:** ![puzzlegal](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/puzzlegal/32/3827_2.png) [@puzzlegal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/puzzlegal)\ **Post date:** [April 26, 2021, 12:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/district-of-columbia-becomes-a-state-what-should-it-be-called/940553/138 "2021-04-26T12:33:39Z")
Since the discussion of whether DC is already represented was clearly going to completely overtake this topic, I moved all the posts about it to the existing topic on whether DC should become a state. > [@Statehood for D.C.?](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/statehood-for-d-c/921442/291): > > Of course, the reason that DC wasn’t made a state in the first place is that it already has much more representation than any state does, and there’s no reason to make that imbalance even greater. I’ve never heard any of the proponents of statehood for DC offer a fix for that. If some GD or P&E mod thinks they deserve their own topic, and don’t belong there, please move them again. ---
**Author:** ![kayaker](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kayaker/32/441_2.png) [@kayaker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kayaker)\ **Post date:** [April 26, 2021, 3:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/district-of-columbia-becomes-a-state-what-should-it-be-called/940553/139 "2021-04-26T15:36:33Z")
Pandemica ---
**Author:** ![RickJay](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/bb73d2/32.png) [@RickJay](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RickJay)\ **Post date:** [April 27, 2021, 12:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/district-of-columbia-becomes-a-state-what-should-it-be-called/940553/140 "2021-04-27T12:51:44Z")
> [@TriPolar](#): > > I’m coming down solidly on District of Columbia. The only change is in it’s status. Nothing will stop them from changing the name in the future if they can get a majority of the state’s voters to go along with it. That’s one of the things a state can do. There’s already a Commonwealth of Kentucky, Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, Commonwealth of Virginia and Commonwealth of Rhode Island etc. etc., and they’re still states, so hey, why not? ---
**Author:** ![TriPolar](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tripolar/32/3008_2.png) [@TriPolar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TriPolar)\ **Post date:** [April 27, 2021, 1:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/district-of-columbia-becomes-a-state-what-should-it-be-called/940553/141 "2021-04-27T13:57:17Z")
Yes, well Massachusetts is a Commonwealth. Rhode Island is a recently named state. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/district-of-columbia-becomes-a-state-what-should-it-be-called/940553.md?page=6)