How to Memorize the 50 State Capitals: Memory Tricks That Stick
October 27, 2026 ยท 6 min read
Most people know that the capital of Texas is Austin. Far fewer know Pierre, Montpelier or Frankfort. On our state capitals quiz, fewer than half of the answers so far have been right.
The good news is that you do not need to learn 50 separate facts. You need a plan: learn the easy capitals first, fix the traps, and give every hard capital one picture to hang on.
The short version:
- Start with the 17 capitals that are also the biggest city in their state.
- Learn the big-city traps next, where the famous city is not the capital.
- Give each capital that is left a memory hook: a sound, a picture or a story.
- Learn one region a day, and test yourself instead of rereading the list.
Step 1: The 17 you almost know already
In 17 states, the capital is also the largest city. If you know the state's big city, you know its capital.
| State | Capital |
|---|---|
| Arizona | Phoenix |
| Arkansas | Little Rock |
| Colorado | Denver |
| Georgia | Atlanta |
| Hawaii | Honolulu |
| Idaho | Boise |
| Indiana | Indianapolis |
| Iowa | Des Moines |
| Massachusetts | Boston |
| Mississippi | Jackson |
| Ohio | Columbus |
| Oklahoma | Oklahoma City |
| Rhode Island | Providence |
| Tennessee | Nashville |
| Utah | Salt Lake City |
| West Virginia | Charleston |
| Wyoming | Cheyenne |
Two of them have the state's name built in: Oklahoma City and Indianapolis, the "Indiana city". That is two free answers before you start.
Step 2: The big-city traps
The most common mistake is to answer with the famous city. These are the traps that catch the most people:
| State | Famous city, not the capital | Capital |
|---|---|---|
| New York | New York City | Albany |
| California | Los Angeles | Sacramento |
| Illinois | Chicago | Springfield |
| Texas | Houston | Austin |
| Florida | Miami | Tallahassee |
| Pennsylvania | Philadelphia | Harrisburg |
| Nevada | Las Vegas | Carson City |
| Washington | Seattle | Olympia |
| Michigan | Detroit | Lansing |
| Louisiana | New Orleans | Baton Rouge |
| Kentucky | Louisville | Frankfort |
| Maryland | Baltimore | Annapolis |
| Missouri | Kansas City | Jefferson City |
| Minnesota | Minneapolis | Saint Paul |
Say each trap out loud as a pair: "Chicago, but Springfield." Hearing the wrong answer right next to the right one is what stops you from picking it in a quiz.
Saint Paul is the easy one. Minneapolis and Saint Paul are the Twin Cities, side by side on the Mississippi, and the capital is the saint.
Step 3: One hook for each hard capital
For the capitals that are left, give each one a picture. Silly works better than clever, because silly is what you remember.
Four presidents. Four capitals are named after presidents: Lincoln (Nebraska), Jefferson City (Missouri), Madison (Wisconsin) and Jackson (Mississippi). Learn them as a set of four.
Hooks that use the sound:
- Boise, Idaho: boys eat Idaho potatoes.
- Tallahassee, Florida: a tall lassie on a Florida beach.
- Springfield, Illinois: you feel ill in a spring field.
- Olympia, Washington: George Washington running in the Olympics.
- Augusta, Maine: a summer trip to Maine in August.
- Juneau, Alaska: "Do you know (Juneau) Alaska?"
- Austin, Texas: Austin pays his taxes.
- Harrisburg, Pennsylvania: Harry borrows a pen.
- Raleigh, North Carolina: a car rally through North Carolina.
- Richmond, Virginia: Virginia is rich.
- Frankfort, Kentucky: Frank builds a fort in Kentucky.
- Annapolis, Maryland: Mary and Anna live in Maryland.
Hooks that use the meaning:
- Baton Rouge, Louisiana is French for "red stick". Louisiana was once French, so its capital has a French name.
- Helena, Montana: the name Montana comes from the Spanish word for mountain, so picture Helena climbing one.
- Montpelier, Vermont is the smallest state capital by population. Vermont comes from the French for "green mountain": picture a tiny town on a green hill.
- Santa Fe, New Mexico is the oldest state capital, founded as a capital in 1610. A Spanish name for a city with Spanish roots.
The look-alikes. Some capitals get swapped with each other:
- Columbia is South Carolina and Columbus is Ohio. Columbia and Carolina both end in "a".
- Charleston is the capital of West Virginia. The famous Charleston on the coast is in South Carolina, and it is not the capital there.
- Salem, Oregon shares its name with Salem in Massachusetts, the town known for its witch trials. The capital is the one on the West Coast.
- Concord (New Hampshire) and Carson City (Nevada) both start with C. Concord is the old New England town; Carson City is the one in the desert.
Step 4: One region a day
Learning 50 capitals from an alphabetical list is the slow way. Learn them by the five regions taught in US schools instead, so each capital sits next to its neighbors in your head.
Each of our region quizzes has a Capitals round: a capital is named and you click its state on the map. Play it on the day you learn that region.
| Day | Region | States | Practice |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Southwest | 4 | Southwest states and capitals |
| 2 | Northeast | 11 | Northeast states and capitals |
| 3 | Midwest | 12 | Midwest states and capitals |
| 4 | West | 11 | Western states and capitals |
| 5 | Southeast | 12 | Southeast states and capitals |
| 6 | All 50 | 50 | State capitals quiz |
| 7 | Review | 50 | Only the capitals you missed on day 6 |
The Southwest goes first because it has only four states (Arizona, New Mexico, Texas and Oklahoma), and you already know Phoenix and Oklahoma City from Step 1. The Southeast goes last because it is the hardest part of the US map for our players, as our post on the states people can't find shows.
On day 6, play the state capitals quiz in all three of its modes, in this order: pick the capital from a few choices, find it on the map, then type it. Typing a name with no choices to help you is the real test.
Step 5: Test yourself, don't reread
Reading the list again feels like learning, but mostly it just makes the list look familiar. Answering questions is what makes the names stick. Mistakes help too: a capital you got wrong and then corrected is one you are likely to remember next time.
Keep each session short. A round is ten questions and takes a minute or two, so one round a day of a region you already know will keep it fresh while you add the next one.
Know the states first
Capitals are much easier when you can already find each state on the map, because then every capital has a place to live. If the map itself is the problem, start with the 50 states map quiz and come back to the capitals afterwards.
About the numbers
The quiz figure in this post comes from 69 answers on the DodoThinks state capitals quiz between 2 and 26 October 2026, of which 46% were right. It is an early number, and we will update it as more people play. The list of capitals that are also their state's largest city follows the usual city population counts; a few states, such as Tennessee, West Virginia and Wyoming, are close calls depending on how the city is measured.