Florida’s official nickname is The Sunshine State, referring to its abundant sunshine and tourism industry. Other unofficial nicknames include The Peninsula State, The Everglades State, The Orange State, The Flower State, The Alligator State, and The Gulf State. The state flag features the motto “In God We Trust” and the state seal includes a drawing of a Seminole Indian woman scattering flowers. South Dakota and New Mexico have also used the nickname The Sunshine State in the past.
Florida has seven nicknames, but the official one, and the one most identified with Florida, is The Sunshine State. A southern state, Florida receives abundant sunshine, enough to support groves of oranges and other produce, as well as throngs of tourists seeking the sun and its warmth on the many beaches. Lawmakers made The Sunshine State the official nickname of the state of Florida in 1970, but the phrase itself was popularized by the state for many years before its official adoption with its inclusion on license plates.
Florida’s state nickname also refers to the following phrases, although they have not been officially adopted by lawmakers: The Peninsula State, The Everglades State, The Orange State, The Flower State, The Alligator State, and The Gulf State. Peninsula state and Gulf state refer to the geography of the state. The state of Orange refers to Florida’s abundant agriculture, especially its citrus crops, and one of the state’s symbols, the official flower, is an orange blossom. Everglades State, a nickname that became popular in the late 1800s, refers to the fact that Florida is home to two million acres of wetlands known as the Everglades. The origin of the nickname The Alligator State is the alligator population in Florida and the Everglades.
The nickname The Flower State comes from the state name, Florida, which is Spanish for flowers. Florida has nearly 4,000 plant species that are either native to the state or have been naturalized. This nickname also refers to the day in 1513, an Easter Sunday, when the explorer who discovered it, Ponce de Leon, first sighted land. He named it after the Catholic holiday, Easter or the Feast of Flowers, which in Spanish is called Pascua Florida.
Two other states have made use of the official state nickname of Florida. South Dakota used to be called The Sunshine State and emblazoned the phrase on its flag until 1992, when lawmakers chose to adopt a unique nickname for their mountainous state, The Mount Rushmore State. New Mexico also called itself the Sunshine State and stamped the phrase on its license plates until the early 1940s.
The state nickname of Florida is not included in the state flag. The flag is rendered with the official state motto, In God We Trust, which forms part of the official government seal. The state seal also includes a drawing of a Seminole Indian woman scattering flowers on the earth.
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