Strictly speaking, there are only two states in the USA that share the name with their capitals. These are Oklahoma and Indiana.
Oklahoma
So the capital of the State of Oklahoma is Oklahoma City that was founded in 1889. It became the capital of the state in 1910. This was by a decision, before that the capital was in Guthrie.
The name seems to follow from the Choctaw words okla which means people and humma which could be translated as red. Note that this city is also in my list of US capitals with names from Native American languages.
It is interesting that the state itself was formed just a few years before the mentioned decision. This was in 1907 when the so-called Oklahoma Territory and Indian Territory were merged into the State of Oklahoma.
More about the city you can see in this video:
Indiana
The capital of the State of Indiana is Indianapolis. The part ‘polis’ in the name of the city is of Greek origin and it means simply city.
The State of Indiana became a member of the United States in 1816. Indianapolis is the largest city in the state. Its area was inhabited by indigenous people since 10000 BC. The present city was founded as a planned city for the State.
More about the city in this video, please have a look:
One could possibly add one more city to the list, and this would be Providence, the capital of the State of Rhode Island and Providence Plantations.
But the story is a bit complicated because of the following. In 2020 an amendment was approved for dropping ‘and Providence Plantations’ from the official name of the State.
In any case, all three cities are shown in the interactive map below. So zoom in to see details of the cities.
How about the rest of the world?
Well, there are around 11 countries throughout the globe with the names shared with their capitals, you can see them all in my separate text.
But did you know that there are countries with multiple capitals? Just follow the link to see them all.
Thank you for reading. This site is all about capitals so bookmark it and keep as a reference. Let me know if you have questions or comments, there is a comment box below.