About Delaware

Delaware takes its name not from an indigenous word but from an English nobleman: Thomas West, 3rd Baron De La Warr, who served as the first governor of the Virginia Colony beginning in 1610. The bay at the mouth of the Delaware River was named Delaware Bay in his honor, followed by the river, and then the region. Lord De La Warr himself never visited the territory that bears his name. The Lenape people, who had lived in the Delaware River valley for thousands of years, were displaced as European settlement expanded and are now known in historical records as the Delaware, a name imposed on them by the colonizers who named the land after a governor most of them had never met.

Delaware is the second smallest state in the country, but few states have had an outsized influence on American history, law, and commerce. It was the first to ratify the U.S. Constitution on December 7, 1787, unanimously, in just five days, setting the new nation in motion and earning a nickname it carries to this day.

Despite its size, Delaware is home to more than 1.9 million registered businesses, including the majority of Fortune 500 companies and most of the major U.S. banks. These businesses exist in Delaware on paper, drawn by a legal system and court of chancery that is the gold standard for corporate governance, even if their actual operations are thousands of miles away. Franchise fees from these incorporations fund a significant share of the state's budget.

On the ground, Delaware is a study in contrasts: the dense, corporate corridors of Wilmington in the north; the agricultural quiet of Dover and central Kent County; and the sunny resort beaches of Sussex County's "Slower Lower" south. Each region has its own economy, culture, and identity, remarkably distinct for a state you can cross in under two hours.