1819年作为美国领土成立，1836年被接纳为州。它的名字来源于Arkansas河，这条河则是以一个西乌鸦语部落命名的。
The spelling of the term represents a French plural, Arcansas, of a name applied to the Quapaw people who lived on the Arkansas River; their name was also written in early times as Akancea, Acansea, Acansa (Dickinson, 1995). This was not the name used by the Quapaws themselves, however. The term /akansa/ was applied to them by Algonquian speakers; this consists of /a-/, an Algonquian prefix found in the names of ethnic groups, plus /kká:ze, a Siouan term referring to members of the Dhegiha branch of the Siouan family. This stem is also the origin for the name of the Kansa tribe and of the state of Kansas; thus the placenames Arkansas and Kansas indirectly have the same origin. [William Bright, "Native American Placenames of the United States," 2004]
这个词的拼写反映了法语复数形式Arcansas，最初是用来指住在阿肯色河上的夸帕族人。早期，他们的名字也被写作Akancea, Acansea, Acansa（Dickinson, 1995）。不过，这并不是夸帕族人自己使用的名字。这个词/akansa/是由阿尔冈昆语族的人给他们起的，包含了/a-/，一个常见的前缀，用于许多民族名称，和/kká:ze，一个西乌鸦语词，指的是西乌鸦语族中的德赫吉哈分支成员。这部分词根也构成了坎萨族和Kansas州名称的来源。因此，地名Arkansas和Kansas在某种程度上有着相同的起源。[威廉·布赖特，《美国原住民地名》，2004年]
这个词最后的-s在发音上是静音的，可能最初源自法语的读音。1881年，该州立法机构正式确认了这一发音规则。
