North Carolina

Named for a king

Carolina is built on Carolus, the Latin form of the name Charles. In 1629 King Charles I granted the region to his attorney general, Sir Robert Heath, under the name Carolina, and in 1663 Charles II issued a fresh charter for the territory to eight Lords Proprietors. The “North” dates from 1710, when the Proprietors gave the northern settlements their own governor, Edward Hyde, separate from the government of South Carolina. That split is also the source of the nickname “the Old North State.”

Independence, twice dated

North Carolina’s flag and seal carry two dates from the road to independence. May 20, 1775, is the traditional date of the Mecklenburg Declaration of Independence, although historians dispute its authenticity. April 12, 1776, is the date of the Halifax Resolves, in which North Carolina’s Provincial Congress authorized its delegates to vote for independence.

The reluctant 12th state

North Carolina took its time over the US Constitution. A convention at Hillsborough in 1788 declined to ratify it. A second convention, at Fayetteville, ratified on November 21, 1789, making North Carolina the 12th state.

A capital built from scratch

For most of the colonial era the seat of government followed the governor, and the Assembly met in several towns, until New Bern became the permanent colonial capital in 1766. After the Revolution the legislature moved from town to town again. In 1788 a convention directed that a permanent capital be placed within ten miles of Isaac Hunter’s plantation in Wake County, near the middle of the state. Commissioners bought 1,000 acres from Joel Lane, and the new city, named for Sir Walter Raleigh, was laid out in 1792. The General Assembly first met there in 1794. The capital page tells the story, including the Greek Revival State Capitol of 1840.

Tar Heels

North Carolina’s best-known nickname was born in the Civil War. “Tar heel” began as a jibe at North Carolina soldiers and soon became a badge of pride, recalling the colony’s long trade in tar, pitch and turpentine from its pine forests, which supplied most of the American market until the 1860s. The motto, adopted in 1893, is Esse quam videri, “To be, rather than to seem.” The state song, “The Old North State,” was written in 1835 and adopted in 1927.

Cardinals, dogwoods and pines

North Carolina has 43 official state symbols. The northern cardinal has been the state bird since 1943 and the dogwood the state flower since 1941. The pine is the state tree, and since 2023 the longleaf pine has been named the emblem of the state’s trees. The list also includes the Fraser fir as the official Christmas tree, the eastern box turtle, the scuppernong grape, the sweet potato, stock car racing, clogging and shagging, and the whirligigs of Vollis Simpson. The red-and-blue state flag has been in use since 1885. See every symbol on the North Carolina symbols page.

Land and people

North Carolina covers 53,819 square miles, 28th among the states, and had about 11.2 million residents in 2025, 9th in the country and up more than 7 percent from 2020. It stretches from the mountains in the west through the Piedmont to the coastal plain and the Atlantic coast, and borders Virginia, Tennessee, Georgia and South Carolina. Charlotte, with about 965,000 people, is the largest city, followed by Raleigh with about 506,000, Greensboro, Durham and Winston-Salem.