From “Do Penguins Have Knees?” by David Feldman (One of his “Imponderables” books)

 

 

Why is Rhode Island called an island when it obviously isn’t an island?

 

Let's get the island problem licked first. No, technically, the whole state isn't an island, but historians are confident that orig­inally "Rhode Island" referred not to the whole territory but to what we now call Aquidneck Island, where Newport is located. Christine Lamar, an archivist for the Rhode Island State Ar­chives, endorses this view.

 

Why "Rhode"? Lame theories abound. One is that the state was named after a person named Rhodes (although any meaning­ful details about this person are obscure). Another supposition is that "Rhode Island" was an Anglicization of "Roode Eyelandt," Dutch for "red island." The Dutch explorer Adriaen Block noted the appearance of a reddish island in the area, and maps of the mid-seventeenth century often refer to the area as "Roode Eye­landt."

 

But all evidence points to the fact that Block was referring not to the landlocked mass of Rhode Island, nor even to the island of Aquidneck, but to an island farther west in the bay. And besides, written references to "Rhode Island" abound long before "Roode Eyelandt."

 

Most likely, "Rhode Island" was coined by explorer Gio­vanni da Verrazano, who referred in his diary of his 1524 voyage to an island "about the bigness of the Island of Rhodes," a ref­erence to its Greek counterpart. A century later, Roger Williams referred to "Aqueneck, called by us Rhode Island. . ."

 

We do know that in 1644, the Court of Providence Plantation officially changed the name of Aquidneck (variously spelled "Aquedneck" and "Aquetheck" -spelling was far from uniform in those days) to "The Isle of Rhodes, or Rhode Island." The entire colony, originally settled in 1636, was known as "Rhode Island and Providence Plantations."

 

When Rhode Island attained statehood, its name was short­ened to Rhode Island, befitting its diminutive size.

 

Submitted by Tony Alessandrini of Brooklyn, New York. Thanks also to Troy Diggs of Jonesboro, Arkansas.