Little Rock derives its name from a small rock formation on the south bank of the Arkansas River called la Petite Roche (French: “the little rock”). The “little rock” was used by early river traffic as a landmark and became a well-known river crossing. The “little rock” is across the river from “big rock”, a large bluff at the edge of the river, which was once used as a rock quarry.

Although the Little Rock-North Little Rock Metro Area itself is less populated ethno-linguistically than other Metro Areas relatively the same size demographically, several unique ethno-linguistic people groups claim Arkansas as their home. For instance, in northwest Arkansas (the Bentonville area), Marshallese, a Paciifc Islander people group, have migrated from their remote and beautiful North Pacific archipelago, Marshall Islands, to the Ozark Mountains of Arkansas since the 1980s.