Have you ever wondered why Rhode Island is named that when it isn’t, in fact, an island? Despite its name, most of Rhode Island is on the U.S. mainland, and from 1636 until 2020, its official name was State of Rhode Island and Providence Plantations. The state gets its name from the largest island in Narragansett Bay, Aquidneck Island, which is also known as Rhode Island. That island has three towns: Portsmouth, Middletown, and Newport. It’s unclear how the island came to be known as Rhode Island, but there are 2 historical possibilities. Explorer Giovanni da Verrazzano noted the presence of an island in Narragansett Bay in 1524, which he compared to the island of Rhodes off the coast of Greece. In the 1610s, Dutch explorer Adriaen Block passed the same island during his expeditions in the area. He described it as “an island of reddish appearance”, which was “roldich eylande” in 17th-century Dutch. That phrase supposedly evolved and was anglicized into Rhode Island. Rhode Island is the smallest U.S. state by area, only about 48 miles long and 37 miles wide. It was a center of the Gilded Age between 1890 and 1914, a time when many wealthy families and prominent industrialists built huge, opulent mansions and created a summer haven to socialize away from New York City. Learn more here.