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Virginia is known as the Old Dominion due to its status as the first British colony in America and its dominion status bestowed by Charles II. It was a direct crown colony and was run by the British government through a governor. The state’s nickname was formed when Virginians added “old” to denote its status as the oldest in the Americas.
The US state of Virginia is called the Old Dominion due to its status as the first American colony of the British Empire and the dominion status bestowed upon it by Charles II. Old Dominion is one of seven nicknames for the state; others include the Mother of Presidents or Statesmen, the Mother of States, the Cavalier State, and Down Where the South Begins. An alternative to Old Dominion is Ancient Dominion, but it has the same meaning.
Virginia has the right to call itself Ancient or Old Dominion because it was England’s first colony in the Americas. Queen Elizabeth I asked Sir Walter Raleigh to explore and settle land north of Spanish Florida in 1583. He named the territory after her, the virgin queen, but in those days the territory of Virginia ranged from the Carolinas to Maine. In 1607, Virginia became the first colony to have a permanent city, called Jamestown.
England, and then Great Britain as it came to be known in the early 16th century, established its American and Caribbean colonies as private financial enterprises. This meant that one or more trading companies formed and founded the colony and were not directly run by the Crown or the government of Great Britain. Virginia was unique among these colonies in that it was a direct crown colony and was run by the British government through a governor.
This point is crucial for the formation of Virginia’s nickname. During the English Civil War, Virginia Governor Sir William Berkeley adhered to the religious policies of King Charles I, but remained neutral in everything else. The Civil War greatly affected commerce, and Virginia’s neutrality was designed to maximize commerce.
All this changed when Charles I lost the war and was executed. Instead of recognizing the legitimate claim to rule of the democratic government of the British Parliament, Virginia instead recognized Charles’s son Charles II as King of Virginia. The state was forced to back down in 1552, but Charles II never forgot Virginia’s loyalty.
In 1660, the newly crowned King Charles II received silk from Virginia. The king acknowledged that this gift came from the “Dominion of Virginia”. In 1663, he gave Virginia the new motto of “en dat Virginia Quintum” which means “Behold, Virginia gives the fifth”. This means that alongside the original four dominions of England, Scotland, Ireland and France, Charles II now recognized Virginia as a fifth dominion. He also did this by placing the arms of Virginia on his shield as one of the four quarters alongside France, Ireland and Scotland.
Virginians added the term “old” to denote the state’s status as the oldest in the Americas, to the new “domain” title to form its nickname. Old Dominion was from the reign of Charles II onwards regarded as equal to the other dominions and of superior rank to the mere colonies which surrounded it.
