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List of Ohio placenames of Native American origin

The following list includes settlements, geographic features, and political subdivisions of Ohio whose names are derived from Native American languages.

Listings

State

Counties

Settlements

  • Catawba Island - Name of a Siouan speaking tribe from North Carolina who participated in many wars and conflicts, some of which being in Ohio.
  • Chickasaw - name of a tribe from Kentucky and Tennessee.
  • Chillicothe - Shawnee. Chalakatha, one of the Shawnee bands.
  • Chippewa Lake
  • Choctaw Lake - name of a tribe from Mississippi.
  • Conneaut
  • Guyan - Shortened from French name for an Iroquoian Native tribe from West Virginia who were later absorbed into the Ohio Seneca—the Guyandotte (Also Little Mingo, Tiontatecaga. Not to be confused with Wyandot.)
  • Metamora - Wampanoag?. Name comes from a play about a Native American from the Wampanoag people of New England.
  • Mingo Junction - Mingo is common nickname for the Ohio Seneca people. Variant of Mingwe, what the Lenape once called the related Susquehannock Indians of Pennsylvania.
  • Mississinawa - Miami. Name of a river tributary to the Wabash. From nimacihsinwi, "it lies on a slope."
  • Montezuma - named for the last Tlatoani (Emperor) of the Aztec Empire, Moctezuma II.
  • Nimishillen - Lenape. from Ni + Missilla, or Waters of the Black Alder.
  • Ontario - Huron/ Wyandot. Named for Lake Ontario. Comes from Huron word which means Lake.
  • Pataskala - Lenape. Unknown (May be of Siouan origin?)
  • Piqua – Shawnee Pekowi, name of one of the five divisions of the Shawnee.
  • Pusheta - Shawnee. Named after a local Chief.
  • Pusheta Creek
  • Powhatan Point - name of an Algonquian tribe from Virginia. The first Shawnee split away from them in the mid-1600s.
  • Shawnee - Named for the Shawnee people
  • Shawnee Hills (Greene County)
  • Shawnee Hills (Delaware County)
  • Texas - Named for the state, which derives its name from taysha, in Caddoan Native American language. Allegedly means friend.
  • Tontogany - Named after a local Chief. Most likely of Wyandot origin.
  • Tymochtee - Wyandot. Allegedly means 'stream around the plains.'
  • Wabash - Common name of a tribe from Indiana
  • Wabash River
  • Wapakoneta – from Shawnee Wa·po’kanite 'Place of White Bones' (wa·pa 'white'+(h)o’kani 'bone'+-ite locative suffix).
  • Wauseon - Odawa. Named for Chief among the Potowatomi.

Bodies of water

  • Kinnikinnick Creek - Algonquian origin, multiple Tribes. Word refers to a person's personal smoking tobacco mix, or any plant someone would mix with their own tobacco for flavor, medicinal purposes or to extend the life of their personal tobacco supply. Can also refer to a specific plant in English, known As Kinnikinnick in the Eastern US, Bear berry in Canada and Manzanita on the West Coast.
  • Kokosing River - Lenape. From Gokhos + -ing, generally translating to "Owl, here."
  • Lake Erie
  • Lake Mohawk - Named after tribe of the Iroquois Confederacy.
  • Mahoning River - Lenape. Allegedly means "Upon here is a deer lick," but this may be incorrect. May come from Ma + aney + -ing, or, roughly, "There is the path."
  • Mahoning Valley
  • Maumee River - Miami. A nickname or spelling variant for the Miami people.
  • Mohican River - Name of an Algonquian tribe from New York who were closely related to the Lenape.
  • Olentangy River - Lenape. Allegedly, river of red paint.
  • Pymatuning Lake – Lenape. Either corruption or variation on the word, "Pemuteneyig." Likely translation could be, "Upon this place, Towns are near." Or it could be a reference to the sweat-lodge of a hunting camp. According to etymologist August C. Mahr it's from the Munsee dialect of Lenape word Piim/'attoon/'nk meaning 'sweating oneself, it is put here,' or, in idiomatic English 'here are facilities for sweating oneself.' The Moravian missionary John Heckewelder gives a similar etymology for Pomonkey Creek in Maryland.
  • Shenango River – Seneca. Possibly from gesho:ne:gwa:h (keh-s-hoh-ney-g-wah) which means something along the lines of "It's right behind me."
  • Walhonding River - Lenape. Unknown

See also

References

Citations