Appendix:English terms of Native North American origin/Place names, personal names and tribe names

From Wiktionary, the free dictionary
Jump to navigation Jump to search

An offshoot of Appendix:English terms of Native American origin, this list includes place names, personal names and tribe names which originated from Native American language families spoken to the north of the Panama Canal. Terms from language families spoken on both sides of the Canal, or in the Caribbean, are listed separately; terms from Eskimo-Aleut languages are also listed separately. See Appendix:English terms of Native North American origin for a list of common nouns derived from these languages.

from Algic languages[edit]

from Algonquian languages[edit]

specific language unclear[edit]

  • Quonset, Quonset Point — "small peninsula in Narragansett Bay in the US state of Rhode Island" — from an Algonquian language

from Lenape (Delaware), Unami or Munsee[edit]

  • Neshannock — "place formerly in Mercer County, now in Lawrence County, in Pennsylvania" — from a Unami term for "place of two streams", from nisha (two) + a root meaning "stream" (compare tànkhane (narrow stream), wëlàhëne (nice stream) + the locative suffix -k

from Yurok[edit]

  • Chilula (Tsulu) — "particular Athabaskan-speaking tribe, now part of the Hupa" — from the Yurok name for them
  • Hoopa Valley (sometimes: Hupa Valley) — "valley in which the Hupa reside" — from the Yurok name of the valley
  • Hupa — "particular Athabaskan-speaking tribe" — from the Yurok name of the valley where they reside
  • Tolowa — "particular Athabaskan-speaking tribe" — either from the Yurok term tolowechek' (I speak Tolowa) or from the Yurok name of their principle town

from Siouan–Catawban languages[edit]

from Siouan (proper) languages[edit]

  • Wenona, Winona — "female given name" — from a Sioux (Dakota or Lakota) term which was assigned as a name to first-born children if they were female

from language isolates[edit]

from Chimariko[edit]

  • Chimariko — "particular Californian tribe, now part of the Hupa and Shasta", "language of this tribe" — from Chimariko chimar (person)

from Karok[edit]

  • Karuk, Karok — "particular Californian tribe", "language of this tribe" — from Karok karuk (upstream, upriver), because they lived upstream on the Klamath River while the Yurok lived downstream