Whence Empire State?

Why should we not be surprised that New York didn't win the "race to the top'' for additional federal education funds, whose winners were released today?

No, I won't get started. I've written too many versions of the same problem too many times. Still, that is $700 million we could have gotten. That would have funded almost three-quarters of the raises teachers are going to get this year around the state, but who's counting?

So let me pose it differently. What's wrong with the Empire State? And what does it mean to be the Empire State? Who named it the Empire State? Are we named after the building?

Why can't we be named after something simpler, like gardens (New Jersey), mountains (Vermont) rocks (New Hampshire), a tree (Maine) or the ocean (Rhode Island) or a part thereof, (the Bay State, Massachusetts)?

I can even get my brain around something like the Keystone State (Pennsylvania, which was in a key position between the North and the South in the 18th Century.) I assume Buckeye (Ohio) is some kind of agricultural product, like peach trees for Georgia.

I also understand why Michigan, say, would rather be known as the Great Lakes State rather than say, the heart of the rust belt.

But I don't get empire. Please forward to me some suggestions for a more apt name for our great state, or whatever you think of it.