US States with most name recognition around the world?

[masssachoicetts]

California
New York (Mostly just the city)
Texas
Florida
Alabama
Massachusetts (Just because Harvard, MIT)
West Virginia (so many people sing country roads.. all my Indian friends here love that song/associate it with USA)
New Jersey
Hawaii

[prospectheightsresident]

Folks bringing up (myself included) the fact that most who know of New York probably just know of the city and not the state got me thinking. I'm curious how many fully understand the concept of a US state in this context. Like when people hear California, I'm curious to know what they think California is. I'm sure most do, but still very curious.

[Fabio SBA]

Originally Posted by cmptrwlt

Many do not know that Washington is a state located in the Pacific Northwest.

And I'd like to know why this state was named in this so unoriginal way, since the capital has already this name. No indigenous name available?

[KathrynAragon]

All I can tell you is that once I sat beside a European girl on a transatlantic flight. She was so excited about her trip to the US - her first trip here. She was going to be here for 14 days which included her two travel days. I said "What are you going to see?" and she said "Washington DC, Boston, NYC, Niagara Falls, Maine, Chicago, New Orleans, San Antonio, San Francisco, gonna try to fit in LA, and Fort Worth too!" I said "I sure hope you plan on a lot of flying between those destinations - that's a lot to try to see in less than two weeks!" and she said "Well, I plan on flying some and driving some." Goodness.

I've lived in the US nearly my whole life and I still haven't seen a few of those places!

[BillyH]

Originally Posted by GeoffD

People know New York as a city, not as a state. It’s Paris. Nobody knows Ile de France. People know Frankfurt, not Hesse.

Of the lower 48, I’ll go with Florida, California, and Texas.

Now I’m embarrassed, I try to know the major cities and or capitals of most countries and it never occurred to me to know what providence/region those cities are in. My great- great Grandparents are from Schomberg, Baden-Württemberg, Germany, I heard of the word Baden and that’s it. I looked it up on a map and it was somewhat near Stuttgart I had heard of that city. I now know Baden-Württemberg is the region. A neighbor who is from Germany said that is the Black Forest area, I heard of that but had no idea where that was at Germany.

Do European countries have signs posted for the different regions? In the US especially on the interstates signs are posted at state lines, example Welcome to Texas the Lone Star State or Illinois Land of Lincoln. Do these regions have different laws. I was in Oregon with my daughter who attends Oregon State and was attempting to put gas in the rental, my daughter said you can’t pump gas here yourself it’s state law.

[rranger]

Originally Posted by ABQConvict

Sometimes, when we have had a Texan president, some people have the uneasy notion that a foreigner is leading the country. :-)

Believe me, nothing would make me happier than having a "foreigner" like LBJ as President. It's those other "foreigners," like Ted Cruz, that are the problem.

Signed,

A New Englander

[rranger]

Originally Posted by Summerwhale

Florida.

Oh my god I seen like 10 classmates there this summer

Oh lawd, I "seen" them too! Has the US grammar pandemic crossed the Atlantic now?

[MeesterJ]

In The Netherlands, a respectable amount of people also know about Oklahoma because of the tornado's. Although Oklahoma didn't get the really nasty ones since 2013, if you ask about tornado's around here, the most named state would be Oklahoma .