State Capitals by Alphabet and Number of Letters

Here are two state capital lists without the states, inspired by the Final Jeopardy! question on March 29, 2016 that asked: “Of the 5 U.S. State capitals that begin with the letter “A”, the one that is farthest north.” That one was easy for most trivia buffs, even if they could only rattle off 4 of the “A” capitals off the top of their heads. All of the players in that game found it easy, too.

But how about which state capital is alphabetically first? That was a triple stumper in an 11/3/2010 match and a missed Daily Double in a 1/30/87 game.

The cluewriters got even trickier with this Final Jeopardy! from 4/5/2006 : “Alphabetically, they’re the first two state capitals named for presidents”

Here is a list showing how many state capitals start with each letter of the alphabet:

STATE CAPITALS
A (5) Albany, Annapolis, Atlanta, Augusta, Austin
B (4) Baton Rouge, Bismarck, Boise, Boston
C (6) Carson City, Charleston, Cheyenne, Columbia, Columbus, Concord
D (3) Denver, Des Moines, Dover
E (0)
F (1) Frankfort
G (0)
H (4) Harrisburg, Hartford, Helena, Honolulu
I (1) Indianapolis
J (3) Jackson, Jefferson City, Juneau
K (0)
L (3) Lansing, Lincoln, Little Rock
M (3) Madison, Montgomery, Montpelier
N (1) Nashville
O (2) Oklahoma City, Olympia
P (3) Phoenix, Pierre, Providence
Q (0)
R (2) Raleigh, Richmond
S (6) Sacramento, Saint Paul, Salem, Salt Lake City, Santa Fe, Springfield
T (3) Tallahassee, Topeka, Trenton

This one is sorted by how many letters are in each state capital (not including spaces for 2-word capitals)

STATE CAPITALS – HOW MANY LETTERS
(3) 5-letters: Boise, Dover, Salem
(8) 6-letters: Albany, Austin, Boston, Denver, Helena, Juneau, Pierre, Topeka
(12) 7-letters: Atlanta, Augusta, Concord, Jackson, Lansing, Lincoln, Madison, Olympia, Phoenix, Raleigh, Santa Fe, Trenton
(7) 8-letters: Bismarck, Cheyenne, Columbia, Columbus, Hartford, Honolulu, Richmond
(5) 9-letters: Annapolis, Des Moines, Frankfort, Nashville, Saint Paul
(9) 10-letters: Baton Rouge, Carson City, Charleston, Harrisburg, Little Rock, Montgomery, Montpelier, Providence, Sacramento
(2) 11-letters: Springfield, Tallahassee
(3) 12-letters: Indianapolis, Oklahoma City, Salt Lake City
(1) 13-letters: Jefferson City

Now we are sure to ace clues like this:

PLACES THAT END IN “IA” $600: One of the 2 U.S. state capitals that fit the category
IT HAS TO END WITH “U” $2000: The 2 U.S. state capitals that fit the category
STATE CAPITALS $1,000 (Daily Double): 2 of the 4 state capitals with the word “City” in their names

The Final Wager has a State Capitals Primer with additional pointers and clues, and Amazon has a bunch of stuff on state capital trivia.