Tuesday, October 27, 2026

Question: Pennsylvania means “Penn’s Woods,” but which Penn was the colony actually named for?

Answer: William Penn’s father, Admiral Sir William Penn, because King Charles II insisted on honoring the admiral when he granted the land in 1681 to settle a debt the crown owed him. The younger Penn, a Quaker uneasy about naming it after himself, had suggested simply “Sylvania,” Latin for woods.