Half of New Yorkers Don’t Know What the State Motto Is – Do You?

If you have no idea what the New York state motto is, you're in good company. Only one in three New Yorkers were able to give the correct New York state motto.

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On July 30, 1952, President Eisenhower signed into law a bill declaring that “In God We Trust” would become the official motto of the United States of America and Congress then mandated that the phrase should be printed on every single domination of paper currency which is why you see the nation's motto on your money.

The United States, as a whole, has a special motto but did you know that each of the 50 states also has its own special motto? Unfortunately for New Yorkers, half have no idea what their state motto actually is.

In a survey conducted by SolitaireBliss, only one in three New Yorkers were able to correctly give the New York state motto. The majority of the people who gave the wrong answer, 52 percent, thought that the New York motto was 'Empire, State Of Mind." That answer is a bit comical considering not only is that not the motto of New York, but it happens to be a Jay-Z and Alicia Keys song.

While 52 percent of surveyed New Yorkers believed the state motto to be 'Empire, State of Mind,' another ten percent believed the state motto to be 'Prosperity and Peace' and seven percent said they thought the motto was 'Ever Onwards.' That tiniest sliver of people were the ones with the closest actual answer.

The official motto of the state of New York is 'Ever Upwards'. You've heard people say that New York is the Excelsior state, right? Well, the word Excelsior is a Latin word that when translated into English means "Ever Upward." Another fun fact is that New York adopted its motto well before the United States adopted its motto - 174 years before, as a matter of fact.

And now you know!