There also may have been some anti-monarchial sentiment in using the word commonwealth.

In the era leading to 1780, a popular term for a whole body of people constituting a nation or state (also known as the body politic) was the word 'Commonwealth.' This term was the preferred usage of some political writers. Legally, Massachusetts is a commonwealth because the term is contained in the Constitution. Those that do use it are equal to those that do not. The term 'Commonwealth' does not describe or provide for any specific political status or legal relationship when used by a state. Commonwealths are states, but the reverse is not true. Kentucky is also called a commonwealth in its full official state name (and in the Third Kentucky Constitution of 1850). form themselves into a free, sovereign, and independent body politic, or state by the name of The Commonwealth of Massachusetts.' Virginia (on June 29, 1776) and Pennsylvania (on September 25, 1776) adopted Constitutions which called their respective states commonwealths. Part Two of the Constitution, under the heading 'Frame of Government' states: 'that the people. In 1780, the Massachusetts Constitution went into effect. From 1776 to 1780 the words 'State of Massachusetts Bay' appeared on the top of all acts and resolves.

What states are commonwealth states