Holding my friend's newborn baby on Friday was nothing short of glorious. Little wrinkled miniature person, with pink skin and long slender toes. A sweet baby boy with a blank slate. His life is yet to be written.
It prompted me to also think about names and how we choose to name our children, how we refer to places names, how we describe things in general.
Because of tornado warnings near our planned destination, our Easter plans morphed into a weekend at home, one of the few of 2011 we haven't been on a road trip across the diverse countryside of the USA. In the past twelve months our family has been traveling more than normal -- but as a side benefit we've seen Phil the Groundhog in Punxsutawny Philadelphia, chipmunks at the Grand Canyon in Arizona, and prairie dogs like this one at Badlands National Park. (look past Alvin on the dashboard to see the little critter).
My son is a Junior Ranger at several national parks and one of the activities has been learning the names and origins of places and animals. I corrected him that he COULD call the little rodent a "beaver dog" if he wanted to, but that the REAL name was "prairie dog" -- and we didn't have the authority to change the name.
I found these great resources and maps for Caleb that explain the names of the United States and origins. Twenty-six of the states have a name that has a tribal origin -- including the great state of Minnesota. It made me think about the strong immutable connection that a person has to whatever he or she named...the emotional connection. Whether it's their child/their homeland/their discovery...they named it and they are forever connected.
It prompted me to also think about names and how we choose to name our children, how we refer to places names, how we describe things in general.
Because of tornado warnings near our planned destination, our Easter plans morphed into a weekend at home, one of the few of 2011 we haven't been on a road trip across the diverse countryside of the USA. In the past twelve months our family has been traveling more than normal -- but as a side benefit we've seen Phil the Groundhog in Punxsutawny Philadelphia, chipmunks at the Grand Canyon in Arizona, and prairie dogs like this one at Badlands National Park. (look past Alvin on the dashboard to see the little critter).My son is a Junior Ranger at several national parks and one of the activities has been learning the names and origins of places and animals. I corrected him that he COULD call the little rodent a "beaver dog" if he wanted to, but that the REAL name was "prairie dog" -- and we didn't have the authority to change the name.
I found these great resources and maps for Caleb that explain the names of the United States and origins. Twenty-six of the states have a name that has a tribal origin -- including the great state of Minnesota. It made me think about the strong immutable connection that a person has to whatever he or she named...the emotional connection. Whether it's their child/their homeland/their discovery...they named it and they are forever connected.
| State's Name: | Name Origin from First Nations |
| Alabama | Alabama is the name of an Indian tribe native to the state. This tribal name may have come from the word albina, which means "campsite" in their own language, or from the words alba amo, which mean "clearing brush." |
| Alaska | Alaxsxix, which is a name from the Aleut language. This name means "place the sea crashes against." |
| Arizona | Arizonac, which is a Spanish corruption of a local Indian name-- possibly the Tohono O'odham word alishonag, which means "little spring." |
| Arkansas | Acansa, which is the name of a Quapaw Indian town. Literally the name means "southern place." |
| Connecticut | Quinnitukqut, which is the Mohegan Indian name for the Connecticut River. Literally the name means "long river." |
| Illinois | Illiniwek, which is the tribal name of the Illini tribe. Literally the name means "best people." |
| Iowa | Ayuhwa, which is one of the tribal names of the Ioway Indian tribe. Literally the name means "sleepy ones." |
| Kansas | Kansa, which is the name of the Kansa Indian tribe. Literally the name means "south" and is a shortened form of their own tribal name for themselves, People of the South Wind. |
| Kentucky | Kentake, which is an Iroquois placename meaning "meadow land." |
| Massachusetts | Massachuset, which is a Wampanoag Indian name meaning "by the range of hills." |
| Michigan | Mshigem or Misigami, which are the native names for Lake Michigan in the Potawatomi and Ojibwe languages. Both names mean "great lake." |
| Minnesota | Mnisota, which is the native name of the Minnesota River in the Dakota Sioux language. Literally the name means "cloudy water." |
| Mississippi | Misiziibi, which is the native name of the Mississippi River in the Ojibwe language. Ojibwe is not actually a native language of Mississippi state-- the language is spoken near the source of the Mississippi River in Minnesota, which is where the river got its name, and the state was later named after the river. Literally the name means "great river." |
| Missouri | Missouria is the name of an Indian tribe native to the state. Their tribal name came from the word mihsoori, which means "big canoe people." |
| Nebraska | Nibthaska or Nibrathka, which are the native names for the Platte River in the Omaha-Ponca and Otoe languages. Both names mean "flat river." |
| New Mexico | Of course, New Mexico was named after the country of Mexico, but since Mexico itself is named after an American Indian word, the state of New Mexico is also! Mexico is a placename from the Aztec Indian language (Nahuatl.) It literally means "city of the Aztecs." |
| North Dakota | Dakota, which is the tribal name of the Dakota Sioux Indians. Literally the name means "the allies." |
| Ohio | Ohiyo, which is the name of the Ohio River in the Seneca Indian language. Literally the name means "it is beautiful" |
| Oklahoma | Okla Homma, which means "Red People" in the Choctaw Indian language. |
| Oregon | This was a name given by early American settlers to the Columbia River. It was probably a Native American name which the settlers brought with them from another state, since it does not resemble names from the Native American languages of Oregon. It may have meant "beautiful river" in an eastern Algonquian language. |
| South Dakota | Dakota, which is the tribal name of the Dakota Sioux Indians. Literally the name means "the allies." |
| Tennessee | Tanasi, which was the name of a Cherokee Indian town in the region. Although "Tanasi" was recorded as the Cherokee name of this town, it does not specifically mean anything in the Cherokee language (just as many English place names are not specific words.) It may have been a shortened form of a longer Cherokee word or phrase, or it may have been named after a Cherokee person. |
| Texas | Taysha, which means "friend" in the Caddo Indian language. |
| Utah | Ute is the name of an Indian tribe native to the state. This tribal name may have come from the word nuutsiu, which means "the people" in their own language. |
| Wisconsin | Wishkonsing, which is the Ojibwe name for the Wisconsin River. However, this word does not have a specific meaning in the Ojibwe language, and none of the Ojibwe Indians in our organization knows any oral traditions about where the name came from. |
| Wyoming | Chwewamink, which means "by the big river flat" in the Lenape Indian tribe. The Lenape Indians never actually lived in Wyoming-- it was originally the name of a town in Pennsylvania, and white settlers from that area brought the name with them when they moved west. |
