Vermont Symbols, State Names

This name is said to have been adopted upon the recommendation of Dr. Thomas Young. The following account of the christening of the Green Mountains, is given by the Rev. Samuel Peters in his life Of the Rev. Samuel Peters, published at New York in 1807,

"Verd Mont was a name given to the Green Mountains in October, 176l, by the Rev. Dr. Peters, the first clergyman who paid a visit to the 30,000 settlers in that country, in the presence of Col. Taplin, Col. Willes, Col. Peters, Judge Peters and many others, who were proprietors of a Large number of townships in that colony. The ceremony was performed on the top of a rock standing on a high mountain, then named Mount Pisgah because it provided to the company a clear sight of lake Champlain at the west, and of Connecticut river at the east, and overlooked all the trees and hills in the vast wilderness at the north and south. The baptism was performed in the following manner: Priest Peters stood on the pinnacle of the rock, when he received a bottle of spirits from Col. Taplin; then haranguing the company with a short history of the infant settlement, and the prospect of its becoming an impregnable barrier between the British colonies on the south and the late colonies of the French on the north, which might be returned to their late owners for the sake of governing America by the different powers of Europe, he continued, "We have here met upon the rock Etam, standing on Mount Pisgah , which makes a part ofthe everlasting hill , the spine of Asia, Africa and America , holding together the terrestrial ball, and dividing the Atlantic from the Pacific ocean - to dedicate and consecrate this extensive wilderness to God manifested in the flesh, and to give it a new name worthy of the Athenians and ancient Spartans,- which new name is Verd Mont, in token that her mountains and hills shall be ever green and shall never die."

He then poured out the spirits and cast the bottle upon the rock Etam."

There is no doubt that the name Verd Mont had been applied to this range of mountains long previous to the above translation, (if, indeed, it ever took place;) but we do not find that the name Verd Mont, or Vermont, was ever applied to the territory generally known as the New Hampshire Grants, previous to the declaration of the independence of the territory in January, 1777.

Origin of Name

From the French “vert mont,” meaning “green mountain”

Vermont is an English form of the name that French explorer Samuel de Champlain gave to Vermont's Green Mountains on his 1647 map. He called them "Verd Mont" meaning green mountain.

Postal Code

VT

Resident's Name

Vermonter