How New Jersey Got Its Name: A Tribute to the Isle of Jersey

Sir George Carteret, a Royalist loyal to Charles II during the English Civil War, was granted the land between the Hudson and Delaware Rivers in 1664. He named it New Jersey after his birthplace: the Isle of Jersey in the Channel Islands.

The name "Jersey" likely derives from Old Norse Geirr's ey ("Geirr's island") or a similar Viking-age personal name + ey (island).

Carteret became the colony's first governor. The name stuck—even after the colony was divided into East and West Jersey, and later reunified.