To me, there’s no scarier Final Jeopardy! category than STATE CAPITALS.

Sure, maybe you memorized them all in third grade, and can list them alphabetically. But more often than any other category, I’m pretty sure, it’s some stupid wordplay clue that has little to do with geography.

Here are a few examples plucked from the J! Archive:

IT’S THE ONLY 3-WORD STATE CAPITAL

1 OF 2 LETTERS THAT BEGINS THE NAMES OF 6 STATE CAPITALS, MORE THAN ANY OTHER

IT’S THE ONLY STATE CAPITAL WHOSE NAME HAS 3 SETS OF DOUBLE LETTERS

Where do you begin with clues like these? Do you start in the northwest with Olympia, work counterclockwise down the Pacific coast, then back up the Rockies? Before you know it, 30 seconds is up – and you haven’t even gotten close to the small states on the eastern seaboard.

It’s far better to know some of this arcane trivia off the top of your head. In that vein, I present some basic facts about the capitals – particularly their names. Many of these facts have been asked on Jeopardy! before, and I have little doubt they will be again.

I also suggest you check out the list of etymologies compiled by Blogspot user Anthony1956 (in two parts: 1 and 2). Be sure to look at the rest of his site, too, as he has a lot of cool info on the names of various countries and other place around the world.

I’ve written this with the correct responses in spoiler tags, so you can test your knowledge before looking at the (pointless but potentially lucrative) answers.

Finally, I intend for this to be a ‘living’ list, so if there’s something you think is important that I haven’t added, please let me know and I’ll do so.

Letters and word lengths

Two words, derived from French (2):

[spoiler]Baton Rouge, Des Moines[/spoiler]

Two words (8):

[spoiler]Baton Rouge, Carson City, Des Moines, Jefferson City, Little Rock, Oklahoma City, Santa Fe, St. Paul[/spoiler]

Three words (1):

[spoiler]Salt Lake City[/spoiler]

Five letters (3):

[spoiler]Boise, Dover, Salem[/spoiler]

One word, twelve letters (1):

[spoiler]Indianapolis[/spoiler]

Contains double letters (8):

[spoiler]Annapolis, Cheyenne, Harrisburg, Jefferson City, Little Rock, Nashville, Pierre, Tallahassee[/spoiler]

Contains the letter ‘u’ twice (4):

[spoiler]Augusta, Columbus, Honolulu, Juneau[/spoiler]

Has no letters in common with its state’s name (1)

[spoiler]Pierre[/spoiler]

Notable beginnings

Starts with the same letter as its state (4):

[spoiler]Dover, Honolulu, Indianapolis, Oklahoma City[/spoiler]

Starts with ‘C’ (6):

[spoiler]Carson City, Charleston, Cheyenne, Columbia, Columbus, Concord[/spoiler]

Starts with ‘S’ (6):

[spoiler]Sacramento, Salem, Salt Lake City, Santa Fe, Springfield, St. Paul[/spoiler]

Starts with ‘S-A’ (5):

[spoiler]Sacramento, Salem, Salt Lake City, Santa Fe, St. Paul[/spoiler]

Starts with three consonants (1):

[spoiler]Springfield[/spoiler]

Starts and ends with same letter (2):

[spoiler]Atlanta, Augusta[/spoiler]

Eponyms

Named for a signer of the Constitution (1):

[spoiler]Madison[/spoiler]

Named for a U.S. president (4):

[spoiler]Jackson, Jefferson City, Lincoln, Madison[/spoiler]

Named for a U.S. vice president (1):

[spoiler]Jefferson City[/spoiler]

Named for the last Stuart monarch:

[spoiler]Annapolis[/spoiler]

Named for the future King James I, then a duke:

[spoiler]Albany[/spoiler]

Originally ‘The Royal City of the Holy Faith of Saint Francis of Assisi’ in Spanish:

[spoiler]Santa Fe[/spoiler]

Geographic extremes

Highest in elevation (7,199 feet):

[spoiler]Santa Fe; Cheyenne is second, Denver third[/spoiler]

Lowest in elevation (18 feet):

[spoiler]Honolulu[/spoiler]

Largest population, city limits:

[spoiler]Phoenix (1,445,632 in the 2010 census)[/spoiler]

Largest population, metropolitan area:

[spoiler]Atlanta (5,268,860 in the 2010 census)[/spoiler]

Smallest population:

[spoiler]Montpelier (7,855 in the 2010 census)[/spoiler]

Largest by land area (2,718 sq mi):

[spoiler]Juneau[/spoiler]

Smallest by land area (6.7 sq mi):

[spoiler]Annapolis[/spoiler]

Farthest north/south/east/west in lower 48:

[spoiler]Northernmost: Olympia (47°2′33″N)
Southernmost: Austin (30°15′0″N)
Easternmost: Augusta (69°46′48″W)
Westernmost: Salem (123°1′44″W)[/spoiler]

Shared borders

Borders the Missouri River (3):

[spoiler]Bismarck, Jefferson City, Pierre[/spoiler]

Borders the Mississippi River (2):

[spoiler]Baton Rouge, St. Paul[/spoiler]

Borders a Canadian province (1):

[spoiler]Juneau (British Columbia)[/spoiler]

Borders another state (2):

[spoiler]Trenton (Pennsylvania), Carson City (California)[/spoiler]

Borders salt water (6, maybe 7):

[spoiler]Annapolis, Boston, Honolulu, Juneau, Olympia, Providence… and maybe Salt Lake City (it’s unclear whether it borders the Great Salt Lake)[/spoiler]

Historical

Earliest named a capital (1610):

[spoiler]Santa Fe[/spoiler]

Most recently named a capital (1910):

[spoiler]Oklahoma City[/spoiler]

Longest continually serving state capital (1781):

[spoiler]Dover[/spoiler]

Confederate capitals not captured by Union forces (2):

[spoiler]Austin, Tallahassee[/spoiler]