North America encompasses all of the United States' lower 48 states and Alaska, as well as Canada and - depending on whether you ask someone with a geographical or political background - Mexico and other Central American nations (though for the purposes of this quiz, we're going to stay north of the Rio Grande). It is bounded by the Pacific, Atlantic and Arctic Oceans. It's not one of the biggest continents, as continents go, but that doesn't mean it's easy to remember all of its details. After all, we're talking about a land area that is 94.5 million miles squared, large enough to contain over half a billion people!
Part of what makes North American names reasonably hard to remember is the rich cultural history of the continent. North America has been populated for a really long time by multiple groups with different languages, and while invasion and displacement have resulted in many place names changing, there is still a huge mix of sources for names. For example, some U.S. states, towns and rivers, are named for (or by) the Native American tribe who first lived there. Other places are named for Spanish or French or British conquerors. Others are Anglicized versions of native names, and transliteration is a notoriously imprecise science when it comes to agreeing on the correct spelling.
Can you keep track of all of it? Let's find out!
