#thisweekinpedantry

Remember when you learned the states in middle school? Your teacher might have been different from mine, but mine would always remind us that the State of Rhode Island is not actually an island.

She was technically correct. The entire State of Rhode Island is not an island.

However, "Rhode Island" is not the full name of the state in question. The smallest state in The Union actually has the longest name: State of Rhode Island and Providence Plantations.

This name makes it sound like the state has a couple parts: an island and some mainland bits. That's pretty much what the state is. Yet Google Maps assured me there is no Rhode Island. It does show a rather large island in the state called "Aquidneck Island". Even Wikipedia has an article about Aquidneck.

So, there's a government agency in charge of keeping track of what things are called. The USGS keeps a registry of all the official names of things. Online, it's called GNIS.

GNIS has an entry for "Rhode Island" (link), classed as "Island", aliased "Aquidneck Island", with a note:

A proposal to change the name Rhode Island to Aquidneck Island was submitted in January 2000. In June 2004, the proposal was rejected by the U.S. Board on Geographic Names (USBGN).

Even though the locals don't call it Rhode, that's its official name.

So yes, the State of Rhode Island is not an island. It does, though, take its name from an island called Rhode Island. So the next time someone tells you that Rhode Island is not an island, you can confidently and smuggly contradict them. Perhaps even start your rebuttal with a firm "well, actually".

Rhode Island is highlighted in red.

As an aside, there are rumors that Rhode Island actually refers to Block Island, the southernmost island in RI. These rumors are false.