It is rather annoying that in talking or writing about a place called "Washington" one often has to specify "Washington state" or "Washington, DC." (Sometimes context will immediately make it clear which one is meant, but not always.)
To avoid this awkwardness, either the city or the state should have been given another name. But what name? A little historical background on the naming of Washington Territory (later to become Washington state) may be helpful here:
In 1853, the settlers in the northern part of the Oregon Territory memorialized Congress that their area "be organized as a separate territory under the name and style of the 'Territory of Columbia.'" This passed the Committee and seemed about to be approved by the House without debate, but suddenly Mr. Stanton of Kentucky moved to change the name to "Washington"--he said there already was a federal territory of Columbia (i.e., the District of that name) but none named after Washington, and that he desired to see, at some future day, "a sovereign State bearing the name of the Father of his country." (I'm not sure if anyone also raised the point that Columbia might be confused with the South American nation of Colombia.)
Mr. Evans of Maryland favored keeping "Columbia" and said that even if the objections to it were valid (e.g., that there was already a District of Columbia) that did not necessitate the name "Washington", which was bound to cause confusion ("we have perhaps one hundred counties and towns named Washington"). Rather, "I think it far more proper to avoid the difficulties of geographical nomenclature by giving to this Territory some one of the beautiful Indian names which prevail in that part of the country."
(George R. Stewart, in *Names on the Land* pp. 287-8 agrees with Evans on everything except the beauty of Native American names in the Northwest: "They were actually perhaps the worst in the whole country, presenting such mouthfuls as Snohomish, Skagit, Cowlitz, Wahkiakum and Klickitat." To be sure, "Tahoma" or "Tacoma"--which many people prefer to "Mount Rainier"--isn't that ugly. But it probably was not a widely known name at the time. [1])
In any event, "Washington" prevailed in the House. In the Senate, some people did try to avoid the duplication which makes it necessary to talk awkwardly about "Washington state" or "Washington, DC." Senator Stephen Douglas suggested "Washingtonia" and got a recommendation from the Committee on Territories. In the end, though, he did not press the change. (Which apart from its ugliness would not even remove ambiguity: when someone said he was a Washingtonian, did he mean a resident of Washington or of Washingtonia?)
Of course, this confusion could have been avoided if a few decades earlier the planned "Federal City" on the Potomac had not been named after George Washington, but in 1791 when the name was decided on, the desire to honor the Father Of His Country was probably just too overwhelming to be resisted. Though one name that was actually suggested was "Washingtonople"...
[1] AFAIK the first author to use "Tacoma" in print was Theodore Winthrop:
"In August, 1853, Theodore Winthrop journeyed from Port Townsend to Squally in a royal canoe of Clallamdom, paddled by the Duke of York and other aristocratically named retainers. At Nesqually he outfitted for a ride to The Dalles, Ore., via. the Natchez pass, and was furnished as a guide a young Klickitat brave, the son of Owhi, whose annual journeys to Squally from Yakima meadows made it a familiar trail to him. Across the flower-carpeted plains from Nesqually rode Winthrop, the poet, and Owhi's son; into the dark recesses of the Puyallup forest, wading the unbridged waters of Skamish, over logs, up Alpine heights--but always in the shadow of the great white mountain, so full of mystery to the guide.
"The white man was a poet--sensitive, cultured and refined; the Indian, nature's child, superstitious and imaginative; and as they journeyed into this vast solitude, these poetical natures were drawn into close relationship. From Loolowcan, the Klickitat, the son of Owhi, Winthrop heard the name of 'Tachoma,' and to the fortunate choice of this guide we are indebted for the exact word Tacoma, as it appears in Winthrop's book, 'Entered according to act of Congress in the year 1862,' but written nine years previously.
"A few quotations from the first author to use the exact word 'Tacoma' will be peculiarly appropriate at this time, as they hear directly on the subject under discussion. Concerning his journey from Port Townsend to Squally, he writes, on page 43, 'Canoe and Saddle:'
"'We had rounded a point, and opened Puyallup Bay, a breadth of sheltered calmness, when I, lifting sleepy eyelids for a dreamy stare about, was suddenly aware of a vast white shadow in the water. What cloud, piled massive on the horizon, could cast an image so sharp in outline, so full of vigorous detail of surface? No cloud, as my stare, no longer dreaming, presently discovered--no cloud, but a cloud compeller.
'It was a giant mountain dome of snow, swelling and seeming to fill the aerial spheres as its image displaced the blue deep of tranquil water. Kingly and alone stood this majesty, without any visible comrade or consort, though far to the north and south its brethren and sisters dominated their realms, each in isolated sovereignty, rising above the pine-darkened sierra of the Cascade mountains, above the stern chasm where the Columbia, Achilles of rivers, sweeps, short-lived and jubilant, to the sea; above the lovely vales of the Willamette and Umpqua. Of all the peaks from California to Fraser River, this one before me was royalest. Mount Regnier [sic--DT] Christians have dubbed it in stupid nomenclature, perpetuating the name of somebody or nobody. More melodiously the Siwashes call it Tacoma, a generic name, also applied to all snow peaks..." *Is It "Mt. Tacoma" Or "Rainier.": What Do History And Tradition Say?* by James Wickersham, Tacoma Academy of Science, Tacoma, Wash. (1893). http://books.google.com/books?id=Ym6OoIkf9I4C&pg=PA15
But if Winthrop did not publish his book until 1862, that would be too late to prevent the naming of the Territory as "Washington"... ("'Tacoma' didn't receive widespread atention until 1862, when it appeared in *The Canoe and the Saddle,* the popular travelogue of Theodroe Winthrop..." Bruce Barcott, *The Measure of a Mountain: Beauty and Terror on Mount Rainier*. https://books.google.com/books?id=qC9PBAAAQBAJ&pg=PT28)
(There is also the problem of whether you anglicize it as Tacoma, as was done for the city, or Tahoma, as many insist is the right name for the mountain. My understanding is that the c or h stands for a guttural sound resembling the German "ch" or the Russian "X" which is usually transliterated Kh as in Khrushchev. Of course it might be objected that whether you anglicize it as Tacoma or Tahoma, the territory/state would have the same name as the city and mountain--unless you illogicaly choose Tacoma for the city and Tahoma for the territory/state--and hence you would get a new sort of ambiguity: When someone said "I come from Tahoma (or Tacoma)" did she mean the territory/state or specifically the city? But of course the same problem exists for other cities and states, most famously New York...)
To avoid this awkwardness, either the city or the state should have been given another name. But what name? A little historical background on the naming of Washington Territory (later to become Washington state) may be helpful here:
In 1853, the settlers in the northern part of the Oregon Territory memorialized Congress that their area "be organized as a separate territory under the name and style of the 'Territory of Columbia.'" This passed the Committee and seemed about to be approved by the House without debate, but suddenly Mr. Stanton of Kentucky moved to change the name to "Washington"--he said there already was a federal territory of Columbia (i.e., the District of that name) but none named after Washington, and that he desired to see, at some future day, "a sovereign State bearing the name of the Father of his country." (I'm not sure if anyone also raised the point that Columbia might be confused with the South American nation of Colombia.)
Mr. Evans of Maryland favored keeping "Columbia" and said that even if the objections to it were valid (e.g., that there was already a District of Columbia) that did not necessitate the name "Washington", which was bound to cause confusion ("we have perhaps one hundred counties and towns named Washington"). Rather, "I think it far more proper to avoid the difficulties of geographical nomenclature by giving to this Territory some one of the beautiful Indian names which prevail in that part of the country."
(George R. Stewart, in *Names on the Land* pp. 287-8 agrees with Evans on everything except the beauty of Native American names in the Northwest: "They were actually perhaps the worst in the whole country, presenting such mouthfuls as Snohomish, Skagit, Cowlitz, Wahkiakum and Klickitat." To be sure, "Tahoma" or "Tacoma"--which many people prefer to "Mount Rainier"--isn't that ugly. But it probably was not a widely known name at the time. [1])
In any event, "Washington" prevailed in the House. In the Senate, some people did try to avoid the duplication which makes it necessary to talk awkwardly about "Washington state" or "Washington, DC." Senator Stephen Douglas suggested "Washingtonia" and got a recommendation from the Committee on Territories. In the end, though, he did not press the change. (Which apart from its ugliness would not even remove ambiguity: when someone said he was a Washingtonian, did he mean a resident of Washington or of Washingtonia?)
Of course, this confusion could have been avoided if a few decades earlier the planned "Federal City" on the Potomac had not been named after George Washington, but in 1791 when the name was decided on, the desire to honor the Father Of His Country was probably just too overwhelming to be resisted. Though one name that was actually suggested was "Washingtonople"...
[1] AFAIK the first author to use "Tacoma" in print was Theodore Winthrop:
"In August, 1853, Theodore Winthrop journeyed from Port Townsend to Squally in a royal canoe of Clallamdom, paddled by the Duke of York and other aristocratically named retainers. At Nesqually he outfitted for a ride to The Dalles, Ore., via. the Natchez pass, and was furnished as a guide a young Klickitat brave, the son of Owhi, whose annual journeys to Squally from Yakima meadows made it a familiar trail to him. Across the flower-carpeted plains from Nesqually rode Winthrop, the poet, and Owhi's son; into the dark recesses of the Puyallup forest, wading the unbridged waters of Skamish, over logs, up Alpine heights--but always in the shadow of the great white mountain, so full of mystery to the guide.
"The white man was a poet--sensitive, cultured and refined; the Indian, nature's child, superstitious and imaginative; and as they journeyed into this vast solitude, these poetical natures were drawn into close relationship. From Loolowcan, the Klickitat, the son of Owhi, Winthrop heard the name of 'Tachoma,' and to the fortunate choice of this guide we are indebted for the exact word Tacoma, as it appears in Winthrop's book, 'Entered according to act of Congress in the year 1862,' but written nine years previously.
"A few quotations from the first author to use the exact word 'Tacoma' will be peculiarly appropriate at this time, as they hear directly on the subject under discussion. Concerning his journey from Port Townsend to Squally, he writes, on page 43, 'Canoe and Saddle:'
"'We had rounded a point, and opened Puyallup Bay, a breadth of sheltered calmness, when I, lifting sleepy eyelids for a dreamy stare about, was suddenly aware of a vast white shadow in the water. What cloud, piled massive on the horizon, could cast an image so sharp in outline, so full of vigorous detail of surface? No cloud, as my stare, no longer dreaming, presently discovered--no cloud, but a cloud compeller.
'It was a giant mountain dome of snow, swelling and seeming to fill the aerial spheres as its image displaced the blue deep of tranquil water. Kingly and alone stood this majesty, without any visible comrade or consort, though far to the north and south its brethren and sisters dominated their realms, each in isolated sovereignty, rising above the pine-darkened sierra of the Cascade mountains, above the stern chasm where the Columbia, Achilles of rivers, sweeps, short-lived and jubilant, to the sea; above the lovely vales of the Willamette and Umpqua. Of all the peaks from California to Fraser River, this one before me was royalest. Mount Regnier [sic--DT] Christians have dubbed it in stupid nomenclature, perpetuating the name of somebody or nobody. More melodiously the Siwashes call it Tacoma, a generic name, also applied to all snow peaks..." *Is It "Mt. Tacoma" Or "Rainier.": What Do History And Tradition Say?* by James Wickersham, Tacoma Academy of Science, Tacoma, Wash. (1893). http://books.google.com/books?id=Ym6OoIkf9I4C&pg=PA15
But if Winthrop did not publish his book until 1862, that would be too late to prevent the naming of the Territory as "Washington"... ("'Tacoma' didn't receive widespread atention until 1862, when it appeared in *The Canoe and the Saddle,* the popular travelogue of Theodroe Winthrop..." Bruce Barcott, *The Measure of a Mountain: Beauty and Terror on Mount Rainier*. https://books.google.com/books?id=qC9PBAAAQBAJ&pg=PT28)
(There is also the problem of whether you anglicize it as Tacoma, as was done for the city, or Tahoma, as many insist is the right name for the mountain. My understanding is that the c or h stands for a guttural sound resembling the German "ch" or the Russian "X" which is usually transliterated Kh as in Khrushchev. Of course it might be objected that whether you anglicize it as Tacoma or Tahoma, the territory/state would have the same name as the city and mountain--unless you illogicaly choose Tacoma for the city and Tahoma for the territory/state--and hence you would get a new sort of ambiguity: When someone said "I come from Tahoma (or Tacoma)" did she mean the territory/state or specifically the city? But of course the same problem exists for other cities and states, most famously New York...)
