Person
Raleigh
North Carolina (NC)est. 1792pop. 482,295/RAW-lee/
The meaning
“Roe deer clearing”
How it got the name
North Carolina built a capital from scratch in 1792 and named it for the Elizabethan courtier who had sponsored the doomed Roanoke colony two centuries earlier — a founder who never set foot in the state he is now the capital of. His surname derives from an English place-name meaning 'roe deer clearing.'