In 1627, a group of settlers looked for a place to dock. But their rowboat was the smallest ship in the fleet, and they knew they'd never find it again in one of those megastates.
So instead they landed in present-day Rhode Island, where those big SUS's couldn't fit. And they built a capital and named it after their captain, John Providence.
The rest of the state was named after his fellow crewmembers: Samuel Newport, Rene Cranston, John Kingston, Bill Westerly, Peter Pawtucket, Lester Woonsocket, ...
