California, Texas and Florida are the only three states which are properly known
as states outside of America. New York City is probably the most Iconic place in America, but the State itself isn't Iconic.
If you asked people to name states my top 3, Alaska, Hawaii, Colorado and Washington (Most people would think they were talking about DC when they said it though) and other random ones depending on the person would all come before they said New York.
(You have no idea how many times I've had to explain the difference between Washington and DC to people.
)