Quote Originally Posted by Wonderland
Just finished watching The Notebook with my girlfriend... *tear* I'm feeling a little verklempt... talk amongst yoursleves... here's a topic; Rhode Island is neither a road nor an island... discuss....

Ehem... oh, right right, girls and EB. Well, she doesn't really play EB so much as enjoys when I tell her of my conquests and such. She even bought me a sword : )

The state's common name, Rhode Island, actually refers to the largest island in Narragansett Bay, also known as Aquidneck Island, on which the city of Newport is located. The origin of the name is unclear. Some historians think that Italian explorer Giovanni da Verrazzano, upon discovering Block Island, just southwest in the Atlantic Ocean, named it Rhode Island because of its similarity in shape to the Greek island of Rhodes. Later settlers, mistaking which island Verrazzano was referring to, gave the name to Aquidneck Island instead. Other historians believe that the name is derived from Roodt Eylandt, Dutch for "red island," given to the island by Dutch explorer Adriaen Block due to the red clay on the island's shore.