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Oregon (toponym)
Encyclopedia
The origin of the name of the U.S. state
of Oregon
is unknown, and a subject of some dispute.
to the Kingdom of Great Britain
. The petition referred to Ouragon and asked for money to finance an expedition in search of the Northwest Passage. In 1766, Rogers commissioned Jonathan Carver
to lead such an expedition and in 1778, Carver used Oregon to label the Great River of the West in his book Travels Through the Interior Parts of North America. The poet William Cullen Bryant
took the name from Carver's book and used it in his poem Thanatopsis
, published in 1817, to refer to the recent discoveries of the Lewis and Clark Expedition, which helped establish the name in modern use.
The theory that it comes from oregano was dismissed years ago by Harvey W. Scott
, an early editor of The Oregonian
. He wrote that it was "a mere conjecture absolutely without support. More than this, it is completely disproved by all that is known of the name." Others have speculated that the name is related to the kingdom of Aragon
: the major part of the Spanish soldiers who conquered the West Coast from California to Vancouver Island
in the 18th century were, in fact, from Catalonia
, a principality
of the ancient Crown of Aragon
in Spain
. The name might also be derived from the Spanish last name Obregón
, which in turn is related to the Spanish Moorish
king of Aragon.
U.S. state
A U.S. state is any one of the 50 federated states of the United States of America that share sovereignty with the federal government. Because of this shared sovereignty, an American is a citizen both of the federal entity and of his or her state of domicile. Four states use the official title of...
of Oregon
Oregon
Oregon is a state in the Pacific Northwest region of the United States. It is located on the Pacific coast, with Washington to the north, California to the south, Nevada on the southeast and Idaho to the east. The Columbia and Snake rivers delineate much of Oregon's northern and eastern...
is unknown, and a subject of some dispute.
Historical usage of the name
The earliest known use of the name "Oregon" was in a 1765 petition by Major Robert RogersRobert Rogers (soldier)
Robert Rogers was an American colonial frontiersman. Rogers served in the British army during both the French and Indian War and the American Revolution...
to the Kingdom of Great Britain
Kingdom of Great Britain
The former Kingdom of Great Britain, sometimes described as the 'United Kingdom of Great Britain', That the Two Kingdoms of Scotland and England, shall upon the 1st May next ensuing the date hereof, and forever after, be United into One Kingdom by the Name of GREAT BRITAIN. was a sovereign...
. The petition referred to Ouragon and asked for money to finance an expedition in search of the Northwest Passage. In 1766, Rogers commissioned Jonathan Carver
Jonathan Carver
Jonathan Carver was an American explorer and writer. He was born in Weymouth, Massachusetts and then moved with his family to Canterbury, Connecticut. He later married Abigail Robbins and became a shoemaker. He is believed to have had seven children.In 1755 Carver joined the colonial militia at...
to lead such an expedition and in 1778, Carver used Oregon to label the Great River of the West in his book Travels Through the Interior Parts of North America. The poet William Cullen Bryant
William Cullen Bryant
William Cullen Bryant was an American romantic poet, journalist, and long-time editor of the New York Evening Post.-Youth and education:...
took the name from Carver's book and used it in his poem Thanatopsis
Thanatopsis
"Thanatopsis" is a poem by the American poet William Cullen Bryant.-Overview:The title is from the Greek thanatos and -opsis ; it has often been translated as "Meditation upon Death"...
, published in 1817, to refer to the recent discoveries of the Lewis and Clark Expedition, which helped establish the name in modern use.
Possible origins
Why Rogers used the name has led to many theories, which include:- George R. StewartGeorge R. StewartGeorge Rippey Stewart was an American toponymist, a novelist, and a professor of English at the University of California, Berkeley...
argued in a 1944 article in American Speech that the name came from an engraver's error in a French map published in the early 18th century, on which the Ouisiconsink (Wisconsin RiverWisconsin River-External links:* * * , Wisconsin Historical Society* * * *...
) was spelled "Ouaricon-sint", broken on two lines with the -sint below, so that there appeared to be a river flowing to the west named "Ouaricon". This theory was endorsed in Oregon Geographic NamesOregon Geographic NamesOregon Geographic Names is an authoritative compilation of the origin and meaning of place names in the U.S. state of Oregon. , the book is in its seventh edition and is compiled and edited by Lewis L. McArthur, who took over from his father, Lewis A. McArthur, as of the fourth edition...
as "the most plausible explanation". - In a 2004 article for the Oregon Historical Quarterly, Professor Thomas Love and SmithsonianSmithsonian InstitutionThe Smithsonian Institution is an educational and research institute and associated museum complex, administered and funded by the government of the United States and by funds from its endowment, contributions, and profits from its retail operations, concessions, licensing activities, and magazines...
linguist Ives Goddard argue that Rogers chose the word based on exposure to either of the AlgonquianAlgonquian languagesThe Algonquian languages also Algonkian) are a subfamily of Native American languages which includes most of the languages in the Algic language family. The name of the Algonquian language family is distinguished from the orthographically similar Algonquin dialect of the Ojibwe language, which is a...
words wauregan and olighin, both meaning "good and beautiful (river)," but in Rogers' day referring to the Ohio RiverOhio RiverThe Ohio River is the largest tributary, by volume, of the Mississippi River. At the confluence, the Ohio is even bigger than the Mississippi and, thus, is hydrologically the main stream of the whole river system, including the Allegheny River further upstream...
. According to their theory, Rogers was inspired by a reference to a "Belle Rivière," or "Beautiful River" (which could have arguably stood for the river in question) in Antoine-Simon Le Page du PratzAntoine-Simon Le Page du PratzAntoine-Simon Le Page du Pratz was an ethnographer, historian, and naturalist who is best known for his Histoire de la Louisiane. It was first published in installments from 1751-1753 in the Journal Economique, then completely in three volumes in Paris in 1758. After their victory in the Seven...
's Histoire de la Louisiane, published in 1758. Le Page du Pratz also referred to an alleged Indian origin for this name, but did not supply an Indian word for it. Goddard and Love then surmise that Rogers substituted his bastardization of the MoheganMoheganThe Mohegan tribe is an Algonquian-speaking tribe that lives in the eastern upper Thames River valley of Connecticut. Mohegan translates to "People of the Wolf". At the time of European contact, the Mohegan and Pequot were one people, historically living in the lower Connecticut region...
pidginPidginA pidgin , or pidgin language, is a simplified language that develops as a means of communication between two or more groups that do not have a language in common. It is most commonly employed in situations such as trade, or where both groups speak languages different from the language of the...
word wauregan for Le Page du Pratz's "translation" Belle Rivière. - John E. Rees in a 1920 article for the Oregon Historical Quarterly also ascribed the first use to Jonathan Carver, but hypothesized that the word derived from two ShoshoneShoshoneThe Shoshone or Shoshoni are a Native American tribe in the United States with three large divisions: the Northern, the Western and the Eastern....
words, Ogwa (river) and Pe-On (west) which Carver had heard on his visits to SiouxSiouxThe Sioux are Native American and First Nations people in North America. The term can refer to any ethnic group within the Great Sioux Nation or any of the nation's many language dialects...
Indians (where the Sioux pronounced gwa as an r). In other words, the word "Oregon" would mean something like "River of the West" in Shoshone. He does not trace the word back to Col. Rogers - T.C. Elliott described the theory that the name was a corruption of the FrenchFrench languageFrench is a Romance language spoken as a first language in France, the Romandy region in Switzerland, Wallonia and Brussels in Belgium, Monaco, the regions of Quebec and Acadia in Canada, and by various communities elsewhere. Second-language speakers of French are distributed throughout many parts...
word ouragan (hurricane, windstorm, or tornado). - a corruption of the French Origan (OreganoOreganoOregano – scientifically named Origanum vulgare by Carolus Linnaeus – is a common species of Origanum, a genus of the mint family . It is native to warm-temperate western and southwestern Eurasia and the Mediterranean region.Oregano is a perennial herb, growing from 20–80 cm tall,...
), a theory dismissed by the historian Harvey W. ScottHarvey W. ScottHarvey Whitefield Scott was an American pioneer, newspaper editor, and historian.Scott was born in on a farm in Illinois and migrated to Oregon with his family in 1852, settling in Yamhill County. He and his family moved near Olympia, Washington in 1853. At age 18, he fought in the American Indian...
.
- In 2001, archaeologist Scott Byram and David G. Lewis published an article in the Oregon Historical Quarterly arguing that the name Oregon came from the word oolighan (see eulachonEulachonThe eulachon, also oolichan, hooligan, ooligan, or candlefish, is a small anadromous ocean fish, Thaleichthys pacificus, a smelt found along the Pacific coast of North America from northern California to Alaska....
), referring to grease made from fish, which was and is a highly prized food source for Native Americans of the region. Allegedly, those trade routes brought the term eastward. - In 1863, Archbishop Blanchet advanced the theory that the name derives from early Spanish settlers, who referred to the big, ornamented ears of the region's native people by the name "Orejon."
The theory that it comes from oregano was dismissed years ago by Harvey W. Scott
Harvey W. Scott
Harvey Whitefield Scott was an American pioneer, newspaper editor, and historian.Scott was born in on a farm in Illinois and migrated to Oregon with his family in 1852, settling in Yamhill County. He and his family moved near Olympia, Washington in 1853. At age 18, he fought in the American Indian...
, an early editor of The Oregonian
The Oregonian
The Oregonian is the major daily newspaper in Portland, Oregon, owned by Advance Publications. It is the oldest continuously published newspaper on the U.S. west coast, founded as a weekly by Thomas J. Dryer on December 4, 1850...
. He wrote that it was "a mere conjecture absolutely without support. More than this, it is completely disproved by all that is known of the name." Others have speculated that the name is related to the kingdom of Aragon
Aragon
Aragon is a modern autonomous community in Spain, coextensive with the medieval Kingdom of Aragon. Located in northeastern Spain, the Aragonese autonomous community comprises three provinces : Huesca, Zaragoza, and Teruel. Its capital is Zaragoza...
: the major part of the Spanish soldiers who conquered the West Coast from California to Vancouver Island
Vancouver Island
Vancouver Island is a large island in British Columbia, Canada. It is one of several North American locations named after George Vancouver, the British Royal Navy officer who explored the Pacific Northwest coast of North America between 1791 and 1794...
in the 18th century were, in fact, from Catalonia
Catalonia
Catalonia is an autonomous community in northeastern Spain, with the official status of a "nationality" of Spain. Catalonia comprises four provinces: Barcelona, Girona, Lleida, and Tarragona. Its capital and largest city is Barcelona. Catalonia covers an area of 32,114 km² and has an...
, a principality
Principality
A principality is a monarchical feudatory or sovereign state, ruled or reigned over by a monarch with the title of prince or princess, or by a monarch with another title within the generic use of the term prince....
of the ancient Crown of Aragon
Crown of Aragon
The Crown of Aragon Corona d'Aragón Corona d'Aragó Corona Aragonum controlling a large portion of the present-day eastern Spain and southeastern France, as well as some of the major islands and mainland possessions stretching across the Mediterranean as far as Greece...
in Spain
Spain
Spain , officially the Kingdom of Spain languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Spain's official name is as follows:;;;;;;), is a country and member state of the European Union located in southwestern Europe on the Iberian Peninsula...
. The name might also be derived from the Spanish last name Obregón
Obregón
-Places:*Obregon, California, in Imperial County*Álvaro Obregón, D.F., in the Mexican Federal District*Ciudad Obregón, in the Mexican state of Sonora*Progreso de Álvaro Obregón, in the state of Hidalgo*Cañadas de Obregón, in the state of Jalisco...
, which in turn is related to the Spanish Moorish
Moors
The description Moors has referred to several historic and modern populations of the Maghreb region who are predominately of Berber and Arab descent. They came to conquer and rule the Iberian Peninsula for nearly 800 years. At that time they were Muslim, although earlier the people had followed...
king of Aragon.
External links
- (2004) "Oregon, the Beautiful," in: Oregon Historical Quarterly, Vol. 195, No. 2
- "Oregon - Meaning, Origin and Application", in Oregon Historical Quarterly, vol. XXI, No. 4 (Dec. 1920), pp. 317-331
- http://www.nwcouncil.org/history/Ourigan.asp
- http://www.iinet.com/~englishriver/LewisClarkColumbiaRiver/Regions/Places/columbia_river.html