Wyoming’s Surprisingly Rare Demonym Is Used By 3 States

Calling residents of Wyoming, Wyomingites, puts us in rare company. There are only 2 other states that use 'ite' as their Demonym.

Ok, I'll back up and start from the top.

A Demonym is:

a noun used to denote the natives or inhabitants of a particular country, state, city, etc.

So, when we're generally talking about the people that live in Wyoming, we use the demonym, Wyomingites.

When you look at this map, you can see that there are only 3 states, Wyoming included, that use 'ite' as the main demonym to describe the people that live in those states.

1. Wyoming - Wyomingite
2. Wisconsin - Wisconsinite
3. New Hampshire - New Hampshirite

Its really interesting that there are only 4 main endings, one odd ending, and one state that doesn't use the actual state name for the demonym.

ITE - 3 states

ER - 7 States

IAN - 8 states

AN - 31

The oddball demonym is used in Hawaii. Residents from the 50th state are called...Hawaii Residents. Yep, their demonym is Residents.

People that live in Indiana, aren't called Indianaians, Indianaers, Indianaites or Indianans....NO, they call themselves Hoosiers. Yep, the Indiana Hoosiers. One theory of how they got that name was that Governor Joseph Write created the word Hoosier, after the Native American word "hoosa", which means corn. Indiana known for their corn growth.

I know, history you didn't need to know, BUT now you do.

Here's a list of the demonym from all 50 states

• Alabama - Alabamian
• Alaska - Alaskan
• Arizona - Arizonan
• Arkansas - Arkansan
• California - Californian
• Colorado - Coloradan
• Connecticut - Connecticuter
• Delaware - Delawarean
• Florida - Floridian
• Georgia - Georgian
• Hawaii - Hawaii Resident
• Idaho - Idahoan
• Illinois - Illinoisan
• Indiana - Hoosier
• Iowa - Iowan
• Kansas - Kansan
• Kentucky - Kentuckian
• Louisiana - Louisianian
• Maine - Mainer
• Maryland - Marylander
• Massachusetts - Massachusettsan
• Michigan - Michiganian
• Minnesota - Minnesotan
• Mississippi - Mississippian
• Missouri - Missourian
• Montana - Montanan
• Nebraska - Nebraskan
• Nevada - Nevadan
• New Hampshire - New Hampsirite
• New Jersey - New Jerseyan
• New Mexico - New Mexican
• New York - New Yorker
• North Carolina - North Carolinian
• North Dakota - North Dakotan
• Ohio - Ohioan
• Oklahoma - Oklahoman
• Oregon - Oregonian
• Pennsylvania - Pennsylvanian
• Rhode Island - Rhode Islander
• South Carolina - South Carolinian
• South Dakota - South Dakotan
• Tennessee - Tennessean
• Texas - Texan
• Utah - Utahan
• Vermont - Vermonter
• Virginia - Virginian
• Washington - Washingtonian
• West Virginia - West Virginian
• Wisconsin - Wisconsinite
• Wyoming - Wyomingite

There you go, today's "oh, wow" lesson.