----------------------------Original message----------------------------
Charley,
 
The following comes from "State Names, Seals, Flags and Symbols: A Historical
Guide" by Benjamin Shearer and Barbara Shearer (Greenwood, 1987):
 
"The name Wyoming comes from two Delaware words 'mecheweami-ing' meaning at
the big flats.  A popular interpretation translates the Delaware words as
'large plains.' Legh Richmond Freeman, publisher of The Frontier Index in
Kearney, Nebraska, claimed to have been the first to suggest the name Wyoming
for the southwest half of the Dakota territory."
 
"The state of Nebraska is actually named after the Platte River, a French
name meaning 'broad river.' The Omaha Indians called the river Niboapka, or
'broad river.' When Freemont was in Nebraska i 1842, he first used the word
Nebraska in reference to the Platte River, and this name was applied to the
territory created in 1854."
 
Steve Rogers
Map Room
Ohio State Univ. Libs.
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p.s.  ...the state of Ohio is named after the Ohio River...