Which NFL Team's home state has the 'newest' namesake, an analysis.

For too long we have not had a complete picture as to the timeline of the origin of the namesakes of the US States in which NFL teams operate. But no longer!

To be clear, the question is not 'how old are the states' names' but rather 'when did the thing the state is named for first appear on Earth'. Obviously some state namesakes are abstract and yield only approximations, while others are much more concrete. As our goal is to find the most recent namesake, this is fine.

Based primarily on info from Wikipedia [1], I have compiled the following results:

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Team	State	State Namesake	State Namesake Origin Time
Arizona Cardinals	Arizona	Oak trees	45 mya
Los Angeles Rams	California	Fictional Island in Las Sergas de Esplandián	Published 1510
San Francisco 49ers	California	"	"
Los Angeles Chargers	California	"	"
Denver Broncos	Colorado	Redness (of water)	Since forever
Washington Football Team	DC	Christopher Columbus	Born 1451
Miami Dolphins	Florida	Flowers	124-130 mya
Tampa Bay Buccaneers	Florida	"	"
Jacksonville Jaguars	Florida	"	"
Atlanta Falcons	Georgia	George II of Great Britain	Born 1683
Chicago Bears	Illinois	Speaking normally	Since the dawn of civilization
Indianapolis Colts	Indiana	Native Americans	16.5-40 kya
New Orleans Saints	Louisiana	Louis XIV of France	Born 1638
Baltimore Ravens	Maryland	Queen Henrietta Maria of England	Born 1609
New England Patriots	Massachusetts	Great Blue Hill	The ice age, probably
Detroit Lions	Michigan	Large lake (Lake Michigan)	The ice age, probably
Minnesota Vikings	Minnesota	Cloudy river water (Minnesota river)	The ice age, probably
Kansas City Chiefs	Missouri	Dugout canoes	8 kya
Las Vegas Raiders	Nevada	Snow cover	Since forever
New York Giants	New York	James II of England	Born 1633
New York Jets	New York	"	"
Buffalo Bills	New York	"	"
Carolina Panthers	North Carolina	Charles I of England	Born 1600
Cleveland Browns	Ohio	Large creek (Ohio river)	The ice age, probably
Cincinnati Bengals	Ohio	"	"
Philadelphia Eagles	Pennsylvania	William Penn (senior)	Born 1621
Pittsburgh Steelers	Pennsylvania	"	"
Tennessee Titans	Tennessee	The Tanasi villiage	Founded 17th century
Dallas Cowboys	Texas	Friends	Since the dawn of civilization
Houston Texans	Texas	"	"
Seattle Seahawks	Washington	George Washington	Born 1732
Green Bay Packers	Wisconsin	Redness (of stones)	Since forever

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Thus we can see, perhaps without surprise, that the newest namesake is George Washington, born ~1732, for Washington state (SEA Seahawks). Perhaps a more interesting question is second place, which I think goes to George II of Great Britain for Georgia (ATL Falcons). There is quite the pile-up of 17th century personalities represented, though unsurprising as this was the golden era of European imperial expansion in North America.

The oldest? Seems to answer that, we'd need to know which came first on Earth: snow (LV Raiders), red water (DEN Broncos), or red rocks (GB Packers). Seems like a tossup to me.

References:

[1] - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_state_and_territory_name_etymologies_of_the_United_States