Which is the only US state name with one syllable?

Maine, and where the name comes from is not settled. The competing explanations are the French province of Maine, a nautical distinction between the mainland and the islands off the coast, and the village of Broadmayne in Dorset. The state legislature settled it by decree in 2001, adopting the French province - which resolves the ceremony rather than the etymology.

It is a state of superlatives at the corner of the country. It has more coastline than California once the inlets are counted, produces the overwhelming majority of American lobster, and is the easternmost state - so the first sunrise in the United States lands on it, which several towns compete over depending on the season.

It also exists because of slavery. Maine was part of Massachusetts until 1820, when it was admitted as a free state under the Missouri Compromise, paired with Missouri as a slave state so the balance in the Senate would not shift. Its statehood was a bargaining chip in the argument that eventually produced the Civil War.