Kanawha was a proposed name for the 39 counties which later became the main body of the U.S. state of West Virginia, formed on October 24, 1861.

It consisted of most of the far northwestern counties of Virginia, which voted to secede from the state after Virginia joined the Confederate States of America at the beginning of the American Civil War on April 17, 1861.

Additionally, there was an expressed desire among the convention members to reflect their Virginian heritage.

[1] During the subsequent discussion, names such as "Allegheny", "Augusta", "Columbia", "New Virginia", "Vandalia" (namesake of the failed Vandalia colony of the previous century), "West Virginia", and "Western Virginia" were suggested; it was decided that roll would be called and each member of the convention would answer their name with their preferred name for the new state.

[6] West Virginia, by then comprising 50 counties carved out of the Shenandoah Valley and northwestern and southwestern Virginia,[7] was officially announced as a new state by President Abraham Lincoln on April 20, 1863, effective sixty days thereafter.