The Commonwealth of Virginia is one of four states in the USA that uses the term “commonwealth” in its official state name. Kentucky, Massachusetts, and Pennsylvania are the other three. The significance of the use of “commonwealth” is historical and symbolic; it neither signifies nor implies that Virginia’s status as a state is any different than that of any other state in the union.

A traditional English term for a political community founded for the common good, [“commonwealth”] is used symbolically to emphasize that these states have a government based on the common consent of the people as opposed to one legitimized through their earlier colonial status that was derived from the British crown.

Source: Wikipedia Contributors (“Commonwealth (U.S. state)”) (accessed May 22, 2018).