Why is the US State of Rhode Island called so?

I lived next door in Massachusetts and have family living in "Rhode Island". I often wondered the same thing as Bretick. Somehow, I never bought the story it was named after a tiny, uninhabited island.
 

Bretrick said:
It is not an island.
Sure, there is a small island called Rhode Island in the bay, but why is the mainland connected state called so?
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Many named land masses are based on several things, maybe how it reminds a person of something. Rhode Island is part of the 6 States called New England. The European settlers landing in the Colonies to start a new life from OLD England, named it the NEW England.
 
That reminds me, the Sargasso Sea in the Atlantic Ocean is really not a Sea, as surrounded by a land mass, but because of its characteristics.
 
Bretrick said:
Why is the US State of Rhode Island called so?
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Here is what the State's official website says:

"This state was named by Dutch explorer Adrian Block. He named it "Roodt Eylandt" meaning "red island" in reference to the red clay that lined the shore. The name was later anglicized when the region came under British rule."
https://www.ri.gov/facts/history.php

Wikipedia says:

"It takes its name from the eponymous island, though most of its land area is on the mainland."
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rhode_Island

No idea what eponymous means. Wikipedia also says the island is called "Aquidneck Island, also known as Rhode Island" https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aquidneck_Island. And that the state was once known as "the State of Rhode Island and Providence Plantations" Guess it got shortened to Rhode Island.

Rhode Island is the smallest US state, smaller than the county I live in.
 
Alligatorob said:
Here is what the State's official website says:

"This state was named by Dutch explorer Adrian Block. He named it "Roodt Eylandt" meaning "red island" in reference to the red clay that lined the shore. The name was later anglicized when the region came under British rule."
https://www.ri.gov/facts/history.php

Wikipedia says:

"It takes its name from the eponymous island, though most of its land area is on the mainland."
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rhode_Island

No idea what eponymous means. Wikipedia also says the island is called "Aquidneck Island, also known as Rhode Island" https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aquidneck_Island. And that the state was once known as "the State of Rhode Island and Providence Plantations" Guess it got shortened to Rhode Island.

Rhode Island is the smallest US state, smaller than the county I live in.
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Eponymous means taken from something or somewhere else.
Explorer Giovanni da Verrazzano noted the presence of an island near the mouth of Narragansett Bay in 1524 which he likened to the island of Rhodes off the coast of Greece.
Subsequent European explorers were unable to precisely identify the island Verrazzano described, but the colonists who settled the mainland area assumed it was this island
 
Manatee said:
I read that it was originally called "Rhode Island and the Providence Plantations".
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That was the official name right up to Nov 5 2020.
Another referendum was held to drop the "the Providence Plantations".
The motion was passed with 52.9% of voters agreeing.
 

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