Indian Names
And their meanings
abnaki:
those living at the sunrise (easterners)
achomawi:
river
acolapissa:
those who listen and see
ahtena:
ice people
akwesasne:
land where the partridge drums
alabama:
i clear the thicket
apache:
enemy (zuni word)
apalachicola:
people of the other side
apalachee:
people of the other side
arikara:
horns or elk people, or corn eaters
assiniboin:
ones who cook using stones (ojibwa word)
atakapa:
man eater
atsina:
white clay people
atsugewi:
hat creek indians
avoyel:
people of the rocks
bayogoula:
people of the bayou
bidai:
brushwood (caddo word)
brule:
burned thighs
caddo:
true chiefs
cayuga:
place locusts were taken out,
people at the mucky land
cayuse:
stones or rocks (French-Canadian word)
chakchiuma:
red crawfish people
chehalis:
sand
cherokee:
cave people (choctaw word),
people of different speech (creek word)
chetco:
close to the mouth of the stream
cheyenne:
red talkers (dakota word)
chickahominy:
hominy people
chipwyan:
pointed skins (cree word)
chitimacha:
they have cooking vessels
chontal:
stranger (nahuatl word)
choula:
fox
chowanoc:
people at the south
chumash:
people who make the shell bead money
clallam:
strong people
clatsop:
dried salmon
comanche:
anyone who wants to fight me all the time (ute word)
cowichan:
basking in the sun that warms your back or warm land
crow:
crow, sparrowhawk, bird people
dakota:
allie
erie:
log tail or cat people (iroquois word)
fox:
red earth people
gros ventre:
big bellies, one who cooks with a stone,
he cooks by roasting (see atsina)
hach winik:
true people
han:
those who live along the river
havasupai:
people of the blue green water
hiute:
bowmen
honniasont:
wearing something around the neck
hopi:
peaceful ones
houma:
red
huchnom:
mountain people
hunkpapa:
campers at the opening of the circle
hupa:
trinity river
huron:
ruffian, head of a boar (french words)
hwal'bay (hualapai): people of the tall pines
ihanktonwan:
dwellers at the end
ihanktonwana:
little dwellers at the end
iowa:
sleepy ones (dakota word)
iroquois:
real adders (snake) or we of the extended lodge
jatibonicu:
people of the great sacred high waters
jatibonuco:
great people of the sacred high waters
jicaque:
ancient person (nahuatl word)
jicarilla:
little basket weaver (spanish word)
kainai:
many chiefs
kan-hatki:
white earth
kanienkahaka:
people of the place of flint
kanza:
people of the south wind
karok:
upstream
kato:
lake
kawchottine:
people of the great hares
ketsei:
going in wet sand
kickapoo:
he stands about
kiowa:
principal people
klallam:
strong people
klamath:
people of the lake
kotsoteka:
buffalo eaters
kutcha-kutchin: those
who live on the flats
kwuda:
people coming out
lakota
friend or ally (same with dakota & nakota)
latgawa:
those living in the uplands
lenni lenape:
genuine men
lillooet:
wild onion
machapunga:
bad dust
mahican:
wolf
makah:
cape people
maliseet:
broken talkers
massachuset:
at the hills
mdewankantonwan: dwellers
of the spirit lake
menominee:
wild rice men
miami:
people on the peninsula, cry of the crane
michigamea:
great water
miniconjou:
planters by water
missouri:
great muddy, people with wooden canoes
moapa:
mosquito creek people
moatokni:
southerners
modoc:
southerners
mohave:
three mountains
mohawk:
the possessors of the flint, coward or
man eater (abenaki words)
mohegan:
wolf
moneton:
big water people
munsee:
at the place where the stones are gathered together
nahane:
people of the west
narragansett:
people of the small point
nanticoke:
people of the tidewaters
natsit-kutchin: those
who live off the flats
navajo:
cultivated field in an arroyo (tewa word)
nipmuck:
freshwater fishing place
nokoni:
those who turn back
nooksack:
mountain men
nootka:
along the coast
oglala:
scatters their own
ojibwa:
to roast till puckered up
okelousa:
blackwater
okmulgee:
where water boils up
omaha:
upstream people or people going against the current
oneida:
a boulder standing up, people of the standing stone
onondaga:
people on top of the hills
opata:
hostile people (pima word)
ottawa:
to trade
otto:
lechers
pahodja:
dusty nones
pakiutlema:
people of the gap
pamunkey:
rising upland
pantch-pinunkansh: men altogether red
papagos:
desert people, bean people
pascagoula:
bread people
passamaquoddy:
plenty of pollock
paugusset:
where the narrows open out
pawnee:
horn people, men of men, look like wolves
penateka:
honey eaters
pennacook:
down hill
penobscot:
it forks on the white rocks or the descending
ledge place, at the stone place
pensacola:
hair people
people of the lakes: tribes near the great lakes
peoria:
carrying a pack on his back
pequot:
fox people or destroyers
piegan:
scabby robes
piikani:
poor robe
pilthlako:
big swamp
pima:
river people
pojoaque:
drinking place
potawatomi:
people of the place of the fire, keepers of the fire,
(fire nation, fire people)
powhatan:
falls in a current of water
pshwanwapam:
stony ground
puyallup:
shadow
quahadi:
antelope
quapaw:
downstream people
sac:
people of the yellow earth or people of the outlet
salish:
flatheads
sans arc:
without bows
schaghticoke:
at the river forks
sekani:
dwellers on the rocks
seminole:
separatist, runaway or breakaway, peninsula people
seneca:
place of stone, people of the standing rock,
great hill people
shawnee:
south or southerners
sihasapa sioux: blackfeet
siksika:
blackfeet or black foot
sioux:
snake (french version of other tribe's name)
sisitonwan:
dwellers of the fish ground
skokomish:
river people
taino:
we the good people
takelma:
those living along the river
tanima:
liver eaters
tangipahoa:
corn gatherers
tantawats:
southern men
tatsanottine:
people of the copper water
tawakoni:
river bend among red hills
tejas:
friendly
tenawa:
down stream
tennuth-ketchin: middle people
teton:
dwellers of the prairie
tewa:
moccasins
thlingchadinne: dog-flank
people
titonwan:
dwellers of the plains
tonawanda:
confluent stream
tonkawa:
they all stay together or most human of people
tsattine:
lives among the beavers
tsetsaut:
people of the interior (niska word)
tubatulabal:
pinenut eaters (shoshone word)
tuscarora:
hemp gatherers, the shirt wearing people
two kettle:
two boilings
unalachtgo:
tidewater people
vunta-ketchin:
those who live among the lakes
wahpekute:
shooters amoung the leaves
wahpetonwan:
dwellers amoung the leaves
wailaki:
north language (wintun word)
wakokai:
blue heron breeding place
walapai:
pine tree people
wallawalla:
little river
wampanoag:
eastern people
wappo:
brave
waptailmin:
people of the narrow river
wasco:
cup, those who have the cup
wichita:
big arbor (choctaw word)
winnebago:
filthy water people
wiwohka:
roaring water
wyandot:
people of the peninsula, islanders
yakama:
runaway, pregnant people
yamparika:
rooteaters or yapeaters
yavapai:
people of the sun, crooked mouth people
yoncalla:
those living at ayankeld
yuchi:
situated yonder
yuki:
stranger (wintun word)
yurok:
downstream (karok word)
Source: www.americanindian.net
Back