“Idaho” Is a Made Up Word Created After a Fib

Idaho is the 43^rd state to join on July 3^rd, 1890. It sounds like it could be a Native American name like some of our neighboring states but no, Idaho is a made up word. It was created by George M. Willing, a mining lobbyist, who insisted that it WAS a Native American Shoshone expression the means “gem of the mountains” named for the area around Pikes Peak.

After the name had already become popular and regularly used they figured out the name was made up and didn’t have any meaning at all, but it stuck anyway.
The state was also made quite famous in the B-52s song “Private Idaho”: