A Literal Map of America

Literal Map of America

Today’s #30DayMapChallenge theme is Places and their names. My Literal Map of America reveals the literal meaning behind every U.S. state name (hover over any state on the map and you can reveal its real name).

Many of the states have names that reflect physical landscapes, others describe people or tribes, and several are named for royalty. Wisconsin comes from a Miami word meaning “river running through a red place”, while Florida comes from the Spanish La Florida, meaning “flowery”. Texas is derived from a Caddo word meaning “friends”, and Colorado comes from the Spanish for “colored red”. 

How the Map Works

This map is built using MapLibre GL JS, with a customized OpenFreeMap basemap, with the place-name labels removed. The map overlays two key layers:

1. State Boundaries

The U.S. state polygons are loaded from a GeoJSON file. The boundaries are rendered with a simple line stroke, and an invisible fill layer sits on top to register hover interactions. When you hover over a state:

• the polygon is highlighted in amber

• the cursor switches to a pointer

• the state’s label changes from its literal meaning to its official name

2. State Name Meanings as Labels

Each state also has its own point feature containing:

• its official name

• the literal meaning of the name

By default, only the meanings appear as labels on the map. On hover, the map rewrites just one feature’s label - replacing its meaning with the state name. This dynamic relabelling is handled by updating the underlying GeoJSON source rather than attempting to apply feature-state directly to layout properties (something MapLibre does not allow).