# Why is RHODE an ISLAND? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [June 1, 2004, 4:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-is-rhode-an-island/248018 "2004-06-01T04:11:34Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![pkbites](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pkbites/32/204_2.png) [@pkbites](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pkbites)\ **Post date:** [June 1, 2004, 4:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-is-rhode-an-island/248018/1 "2004-06-01T04:11:34Z")
My wife and I just returned from spending almost 3 weeks bumming around the New England area. We visited 8 states in 20 days. But we spent very little time (about 2 hours) in Rhode Island. So we never found out why exactly it’s named Rhode _Island_. Did the definition of “Island” change since the colonial times? I must of skipped out the day they taught this in grade school. ---
**Author:** ![hajario](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hajario/32/171_2.png) [@hajario](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/hajario)\ **Post date:** [June 1, 2004, 4:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-is-rhode-an-island/248018/2 "2004-06-01T04:15:06Z")
The actual full name of the State is “Rhode Island and Providence Plantations” or Rhode Island for short. The island is only part of the State. It is also the answer to the trivia question, which US State has the longest name? Haj ---
**Author:** ![Polycarp](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/82dd89/32.png) [@Polycarp](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Polycarp)\ **Post date:** [June 1, 2004, 4:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-is-rhode-an-island/248018/3 "2004-06-01T04:46:34Z")
If you’ll examine a map of New England, you’ll note that that peculiar little trapezoid that is a separate state has a **big** bay in the middle of it. Looking a bit closer, you’ll note that much of the land on the east side of the bay is actually an island. That is Rhode Island. There are a couple of smaller islands adjacent to it as well. And from what **hajario** said, you can pretty well guess what they called the mainland adjacent to Rhode Island (the island) during colonial times. ---
**Author:** ![pkbites](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pkbites/32/204_2.png) [@pkbites](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pkbites)\ **Post date:** [June 1, 2004, 5:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-is-rhode-an-island/248018/4 "2004-06-01T05:36:45Z")
The largest mass of land of the state isn’t an island. I wasn’t aware of the full name of the state. That explains it. ---
**Author:** ![Spectre\_of\_Pithecanthropus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/spectre_of_pithecanthropus/32/12343_2.png) [@Spectre\_of\_Pithecanthropus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spectre_of_Pithecanthropus)\ **Post date:** [June 1, 2004, 7:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-is-rhode-an-island/248018/5 "2004-06-01T19:17:45Z")
> [@Polycarp](#): > > That is Rhode Island. . I think they now call the island Acquidneck, or something like that. But that did use to be called Rhode Island. ---
**Author:** ![mangeorge](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/d78d45/32.png) [@mangeorge](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mangeorge)\ **Post date:** [June 1, 2004, 7:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-is-rhode-an-island/248018/6 "2004-06-01T19:29:37Z")
Was it ever Rhode’s Island? Peace, mangeorge ---
**Author:** ![Phlosphr](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/c68b51/32.png) [@Phlosphr](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Phlosphr)\ **Post date:** [June 1, 2004, 7:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-is-rhode-an-island/248018/7 "2004-06-01T19:33:49Z")
I live right next door in CT, and I do not believe it was ever Rhodes Island 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![alimarx](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/e274bd/32.png) [@alimarx](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/alimarx)\ **Post date:** [June 1, 2004, 8:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-is-rhode-an-island/248018/8 "2004-06-01T20:19:20Z")
No cite, but I read a while back that the island was so named due to a passing resemblance, or at least out of homesickness, to the Isle of Rhodes. ---
**Author:** ![mangeorge](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/d78d45/32.png) [@mangeorge](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mangeorge)\ **Post date:** [June 1, 2004, 8:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-is-rhode-an-island/248018/9 "2004-06-01T20:33:56Z")
Just wondering. I knew a family named Rhodes. I thought maybe they could go back and stake a claim. But that would be Rhodes’, wouldn’t it? I’ve been there, BTW. Lovely place. The people there do talk kinda funny, though. ---
**Author:** ![robby](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/robby/32/11048_2.png) [@robby](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/robby)\ **Post date:** [June 1, 2004, 8:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-is-rhode-an-island/248018/10 "2004-06-01T20:49:28Z")
I lived in the city of Newport on Aquidneck Island (the large island in question) for seven years before moving to Connecticut. This island was originally named Aquidneck Island by the Native Americans who lived there. In 1643, it was renamed “Rhode Island,” which ultimately became the “Rhode Island” part of the current “State of Rhode Island and Providence Plantations.” The name of the island later reverted back to the original name. The source of all this confusion arose from a mixup between Aquidneck Island and Block Island, which lies to the south. From [this website](http://www.rilin.state.ri.us/studteaguide/RhodeIslandHistory/chapt1.html): “…the 1524 voyage of Italian navigator Giovanni Verrazzano stands as the first verifiable visit to Rhode Island by a European adventurer.” “…according to his own account, he sailed in an easterly direction until he ‘discovered an island in the form of a triangle, distant from the mainland ten leagues, about the bigness of the Island of Rhodes,’ which he named Luisa after the Queen Mother of France. This was Block Island, but Roger Williams and other early settlers mistakenly thought that Verrazzano had been referring to Aquidneck Island. Thus they changed that Indian name to Rhode Island, and Verrazzano inadvertently and indirectly gave the state its name.” When Aquidneck Island was renamed in 1643-44, according to [this website](http://www.rootsweb.com/~rigenweb/history.html), it was renamed “the Isle of Rhodes, or Rhode Island.” Just to confuse things even further, [this website](http://www.statehousegirls.net/ri/symbols/names/) states that the island was named by Dutch explorer Adrian Block. “He named it ‘Roodt Eylandt’ meaning ‘red island’ in reference to the red clay that lined the shore.” This same website, however, also states that the name comes from “Greek Island of Rhodes.” [This website](http://ask.yahoo.com/ask/20000802.html) summarizes the issue. Apparently, most historians go with Verrazzano’s comparison of Block Island to the Greek island of Rhodes, and discredit the “Roodt Eylandt” theory. ---
**Author:** ![SPOOFE](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/c5a1d2/32.png) [@SPOOFE](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SPOOFE)\ **Post date:** [June 1, 2004, 10:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-is-rhode-an-island/248018/11 "2004-06-01T22:37:31Z")
Screw Rhode Island, I wanna know… why is Cali a Fornia? ---
**Author:** ![mangeorge](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/d78d45/32.png) [@mangeorge](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mangeorge)\ **Post date:** [June 1, 2004, 10:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-is-rhode-an-island/248018/12 "2004-06-01T22:47:30Z")
Okay then; Why is the Greek Island of Rhodes an island? Ignore silly **SPOOFE** and his/her inane questions. ---
**Author:** ![mangeorge](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/d78d45/32.png) [@mangeorge](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mangeorge)\ **Post date:** [June 1, 2004, 11:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-is-rhode-an-island/248018/13 "2004-06-01T23:03:19Z")
I just looked at a map. It ain’t no island. Freakin’ lyin’ pioneers. I used to live on [Bethel Island](http://mapserver.maptech.com/bp/mapserver/index.cfm?lat=38.023001&lon=-121.652091&scale=100000&zoom=100&type=1&latlontype=DMS&CFID=2601850&CFTOKEN=12316969). It ain’t much, but at least it’s an island. You know, surrounded by water. 😉 ---
**Author:** ![SPOOFE](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/c5a1d2/32.png) [@SPOOFE](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SPOOFE)\ **Post date:** [June 2, 2004, 2:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-is-rhode-an-island/248018/14 "2004-06-02T02:30:08Z")
> [@](#): > > Ignore silly SPOOFE and his/her inane questions. _Rhetorical_. _Rhetorical_ questions, if you please. If you must use “inane”, follow it with “babble”, if you please. (Actually, I was obscurely answering the OP’s query with “It’s just a name. Names don’t need to mean anything.”) ---
**Author:** ![Bob\_Scene](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/e19adc/32.png) [@Bob\_Scene](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bob_Scene)\ **Post date:** [June 2, 2004, 2:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-is-rhode-an-island/248018/15 "2004-06-02T02:59:18Z")
> [@hajario](#): > > The actual full name of the State is “Rhode Island and Providence Plantations” or Rhode Island for short. The island is only part of the State. It is also the answer to the trivia question, which US State has the longest name? Okay, then, can someone explain why it is that the smallest state has the biggest name? Maybe Alaska should be renamed “Alaska and the Aleutian Islands and a lot of Snow and Polar Bears and Eskimos and Such.” ---
**Author:** ![hajario](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hajario/32/171_2.png) [@hajario](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/hajario)\ **Post date:** [June 2, 2004, 3:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-is-rhode-an-island/248018/16 "2004-06-02T03:54:20Z")
> [@Bob Scene](#): > > Okay, then, can someone explain why it is that the smallest state has the biggest name? For the same reason certain men drive Hummers. Haj ---
**Author:** ![mangeorge](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/d78d45/32.png) [@mangeorge](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mangeorge)\ **Post date:** [June 2, 2004, 4:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-is-rhode-an-island/248018/17 "2004-06-02T04:46:53Z")
> [@hajario](#): > > For the same reason certain men drive Hummers. > > Haj The Guvernator denies having a tiny penis. Let’s knock off the inane babble, OK? ---
**Author:** ![bienville](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/4bbf92/32.png) [@bienville](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bienville)\ **Post date:** [June 2, 2004, 8:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-is-rhode-an-island/248018/18 "2004-06-02T08:27:39Z")
When did the name go \*back to \* Aquidneck Island _from_ Rhode Island? ---
**Author:** ![KCB615](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/ea666f/32.png) [@KCB615](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/KCB615)\ **Post date:** [June 2, 2004, 9:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-is-rhode-an-island/248018/19 "2004-06-02T09:58:59Z")
> [@](#): > > When did the name go back to Aquidneck Island from Rhode Island? It never did. One great thing about being a Rohdylandah is that you never call anything by its real name. Officially, it is still Rhode Island (the island). Everyone calls it Aquidneck Island because they already _live_ in Rhode Island (the state). As for the longest name: Providence Plantations are the area(s) around Providence, East Providence, Warwick, Cranston, and Johnston that Roger Williams settled back in 1636. Aquidneck Island (namely Portsmouth) was settled a few years later by Anne Hutchinson and her gang. When the two combined, it was effectively joining two colonies into one. [shameless plug] Its a great place to visit (and I even lived there for a year)…come fly out and stay for a while! [/shameless plug] ---
**Author:** ![Already\_in\_Use](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/a9adbd/32.png) [@Already\_in\_Use](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Already_in_Use)\ **Post date:** [June 2, 2004, 1:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-is-rhode-an-island/248018/20 "2004-06-02T13:15:57Z")
> [@KCB615](#): > > It never did. One great thing about being a Rohdylandah is that you never call anything by its real name Yeah, like how nobody calls the Newport Bridge the “Pell Bridge.” Or how all directions given by Rhode Islanders have to include at least two or three references to institutions that no longer exist (“OK, you know where the old Almac’s used to be?”). [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-is-rhode-an-island/248018.md?page=2)