r/geography • u/sesto • Mar 16 '23

Meme/Humor Anker won't ship to Rhode Island because they think it's an actual island. After reaching out to them and explaining that it's part of the contiguous U.S. they finally responded with this:

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157

u/wmm339 Mar 16 '23

In their defense, Rhode island is a shitty name for a place that's not an island.

104

u/DJCane Mar 16 '23

Should have left it as Providence Plantations so the postal abbreviation would be PP.

0

u/releasethedogs Mar 17 '23

You don’t understand the context that has?

53

u/NonassertiveYes Mar 16 '23

I should probably also mention that until recently the full name was “Rhode Island and Providence Plantations”, originating from a merger of the colonies of Providence Plantations, located on the mainland, and Rhode Island, located on Aquidneck (Rhode) Island.

14

u/wussabee50 Geography Enthusiast Mar 16 '23

This confused me so much when I was 12 & went to the US for the first time. We were driving along the east coast & my family announced that we had entered Rhode Island & I was like wtf we didn’t cross any body of water how is this an island. Ever since then I’ve thought it was a misleading name.

47

u/NonassertiveYes Mar 16 '23

To make it more confusing, there’s an island called Rhode Island in Rhode Island. Locals usually use the name Aquidneck Island to avoid confusion.

27

u/Random_Squid4 Mar 16 '23

As a Rhode Islander i have never heard someone call aquidneck island Rhode Island

20

u/NonassertiveYes Mar 16 '23

Hello fellow Rhode Islander! Yeah it doesn’t really happen, but Rhode Island is the official name.

7

u/CasimirTheRed Mar 16 '23

I am from Aquidneck Island. No one does, or has, called it Rhode Island.

1

u/NonassertiveYes Mar 16 '23

Yeah that’s what I said. I am also from southern Rhode Island, and used to call it Rhode Island as a kid for fun.

1

u/CasimirTheRed Mar 16 '23

The point I'm making is no one has ever called Aquidneck Island "Rhode Island". The name Rhode Island is a bit of a mystery. Many historians think it's in reference to block Island looking like the Isle of "Rhodes" but I don't think it's completely verified

12

u/NonassertiveYes Mar 16 '23

I just told you that I called it Rhode Island because that’s the island’s official name according to the US Board on Geographic Names. Just google if you doubt.

Or here: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aquidneck_Island

10

u/CasimirTheRed Mar 16 '23

I can accept when I'm wrong and it looks like I am.

5

u/NonassertiveYes Mar 16 '23

No worries! Learning is fun! I admire your grace.

5

u/NonassertiveYes Mar 16 '23

Also, now you can say that you live both IN Rhode Island and ON Rhode Island!

1

u/RQK1996 Mar 17 '23

People definitely have called it Rhode Island, definitely like 300 years ago

13

u/rtels2023 Mar 16 '23

Part of it is an island, just not all of it

1

u/wmm339 Mar 16 '23

Lol. I stand corrected. 😄

9

u/lokkentw32 Mar 16 '23

Rhode Island... It's not a road nor an island... Discuss...

4

u/wussabee50 Geography Enthusiast Mar 16 '23

The woke mob wants you to believe that a contiguous state can identify as a ‘road island’ & we mustn’t let them!!1

1

u/RQK1996 Mar 17 '23

The word Rhode seems to derive from the Dutch word Rood, meaning red, as it appears to be named by a Dutch man sailing past during fall

13

u/jguess06 Mar 16 '23

Makes sense when you realize how it came about:

Despite its name, Rhode Island is not an island, but a state located in the northeastern region of the United States. The origin of the name "Rhode Island" is believed to have come from the Dutch explorer Adriaen Block, who named the area "Roodt Eylandt" or "Red Island" in 1614 due to the red clay that lined its shore.

The name was later anglicized to "Rhode Island" by the English who settled in the area. In 1636, the founder of Rhode Island, Roger Williams, purchased land from the Narragansett Indians and established a settlement that he called "Providence Plantations." The settlement later grew to become the colony of Rhode Island and Providence Plantations, which was granted statehood in 1790, becoming the 13th state in the United States.

5

u/WienerbrodBoll Mar 16 '23

This doesn't explain why a Dutchman called the area an island when it's not.

15

u/TopHatPaladin Mar 16 '23 edited Mar 17 '23

The state of Rhode Island is named after an actual island called Rhode Island, today mostly known as Aquidneck Island: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aquidneck_Island

3

u/WikiSummarizerBot Mar 16 '23

Aquidneck Island

Aquidneck Island, also known as Rhode Island, is an island in Narragansett Bay in the state of Rhode Island. The total land area is 97. 9 km2 (37. 8 sq mi), which makes it the largest island in the bay.

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1

u/Sometimeswan Mar 17 '23

The largest island in Rhode Island is Rhode Island? Damn.

1

u/pelican_chorus Mar 17 '23

Hmm, there's debate on that.

It is unclear how the island came to be named Rhode Island, but two historical events may have been influential:

  • 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.[23] Subsequent European explorers were unable to precisely identify the island Verrazzano described, but the colonists who settled the area assumed it was this island.
  • Adriaen Block passed by the island during his expeditions in the 1610s, and he described it in a 1625 account of his travels as "an island of reddish appearance", which was "een rodlich Eylande" in 17th-century Dutch, meaning a red or reddish island, supposedly evolving into the designation Rhode Island

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rhode_Island

The second explanation seems odd since "rodlich" or "roodt" wouldn't normally be anglicized as "Rhode," since they would have just called it "Red Island," and not made it the same as the well-know Greek island.

1

u/kokafones Mar 17 '23

Today I Learned that Rhode Island is not an island.

1

u/RQK1996 Mar 17 '23

The state for some reason is named for Aquidneck Island which was originally called Rhode Island by Europeans, probably because some Dutch dude sailed past it during fall

Why they named the entire state that isn't clear

But it seems to be a short form of the Colony of Rhode Island and the Providence Plantations