Colorado (English)

Where does "Colorado" come from?

The name Colorado originates from the Latin 'coloratus,' meaning 'colored,' which passed into Spanish and Portuguese as a term for something red or ruddy. It was commonly applied to rivers carrying reddish, silt-heavy water, a description that eventually became the namesake for the American state and several other geographical locations across the Americas.

Full etymology tree

• Colorado (English), 'Places in North America:'
  • borrowed colorado (Spanish), 'colored'
    • inherited colorado (Old Galician-Portuguese)
      • inherited colōrātus (Latin), 'coloured'
        • derived color (Latin), 'color (US), colour (UK); shade, hue, tint'
        • suffix -ō (Latin), 'Used to form masculine nouns with various meanings:'

Direct ancestors

• colorado (Spanish)
• colorado (Portuguese)

Updated July 2026

Etymology data from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0 · About Miraris