Power Thesaurus. 1969. elegant thesaurus http://www.powerthesaurus.org/elegant/synonyms (accessed April 12, 2017).
Providence Plantations refers to the mainland portion of the state, which included Williams's Providence Plantation and Samuel Gortonâs Shawomet Purchase (1642), which was renamed Warwick Plantation. Rhode Island referred to Aquidneck Island, on which the settlements of Portsmouth (1638) and Newport (1639) were established.
Its official name is the State of Rhode Island and Providence Plantations. The official name comes from Aquidneck Island, the large island in Narragansett Bay officially named Rhode Island in 1644, and from Providence, the state's first settlement. No one is sure where Rhode Island got its name.