# Native American names **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [February 4, 2007, 10:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/native-american-names/390840 "2007-02-04T22:52:33Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 19\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Amanda\_B\_Reckendwith](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/9d8465/32.png) [@Amanda\_B\_Reckendwith](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Amanda_B_Reckendwith)\ **Post date:** [February 4, 2007, 10:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/native-american-names/390840/1 "2007-02-04T22:52:33Z")
Presumably the idea that children were named after the first thing their father saw after their birth is mostly a set-up for a joke. But does it have any basis in fact? Were children ever really named in this way in any actual community? And, if not, where does the idea come from? ---
**Author:** ![Liberal](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/848f3c/32.png) [@Liberal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Liberal)\ **Post date:** [February 4, 2007, 11:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/native-american-names/390840/2 "2007-02-04T23:08:57Z")
The Cherokee tradition was that the child’s grandmother name him. It was a matrilinear culture. Names were colorful, translating to things like “Eyes of the Deer” and so forth. One of my favorites was “Let Me Hit Him”. But naming was not frivolous. The women took the task very seriously. ---
**Author:** ![BMax](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bmax/32/4267_2.png) [@BMax](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BMax)\ **Post date:** [February 5, 2007, 12:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/native-american-names/390840/3 "2007-02-05T00:22:37Z")
[QUOTE=Amanda B Reckendwith] Presumably the idea that children were named after the first thing their father saw after their birth is mostly a set-up for a joke. But does it have any basis in fact? Were children ever really named in this way in any actual community? And, if not, where does the idea come from? [/QUOTE] Yes, it is true. Why do you ask, Two Dogs Fucking? I really doubt that the naming convention you’re referring to has any basis in fact. To the best of my knowledge, lots of American Indian names were based on something they did, like Sitting Bull rode a young buffalo until it sat down. ---
**Author:** ![TheLoadedDog](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/35a633/32.png) [@TheLoadedDog](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TheLoadedDog)\ **Post date:** [February 5, 2007, 12:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/native-american-names/390840/4 "2007-02-05T00:45:02Z")
I had heard that people were named when they were considerably older (teenagers / young adults) so that their personality would already be apparent, and their name would have some bearing on that. In the interim, they had a childhood name. Is that true, or did I imagine it? I’m on the other side of the world, and can’t claim to be an expert on this stuff. ---
**Author:** ![Amanda\_B\_Reckendwith](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/9d8465/32.png) [@Amanda\_B\_Reckendwith](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Amanda_B_Reckendwith)\ **Post date:** [February 6, 2007, 12:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/native-american-names/390840/5 "2007-02-06T00:54:01Z")
We’re talking about this in Another Place, and have found this reference to Sioux practices: > [@](#): > > Indian names were either characteristic nicknames given in a playful spirit, deed names, birth names, or such as have a religious and symbolic meaning. It has been said that when a child is born, some accident or unusual appearance determines his name. This is sometimes the case, but is not the rule. From ‘_The Soul Of The Indian_’ by Ohiyesa (Charles Alexander Eastman), first published in 1911 by the University of Nebraska Press. ---
**Author:** ![The\_Flying\_Dutchman](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/9fc348/32.png) [@The\_Flying\_Dutchman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Flying_Dutchman)\ **Post date:** [February 6, 2007, 4:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/native-american-names/390840/6 "2007-02-06T04:20:31Z")
Did you know the Dutch wear wooden shoes ? ---
**Author:** ![Lemur866](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lemur866/32/434_2.png) [@Lemur866](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lemur866)\ **Post date:** [February 6, 2007, 4:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/native-american-names/390840/7 "2007-02-06T04:48:36Z")
“Native American Names” is a category as broad as “European Names”. So just because they give kids certain names in Ireland, don’t expect to see many Patrick O’Shaunesseys in Hungary. ---
**Author:** ![Bryan\_Ekers](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bryan_ekers/32/183_2.png) [@Bryan\_Ekers](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bryan_Ekers)\ **Post date:** [February 6, 2007, 4:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/native-american-names/390840/8 "2007-02-06T04:49:54Z")
That’s crazy talk! ---
**Author:** ![John\_Mace](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/john_mace/32/185_2.png) [@John\_Mace](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/John_Mace)\ **Post date:** [February 6, 2007, 5:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/native-american-names/390840/9 "2007-02-06T05:06:15Z")
[QUOTE=TheLoadedDog] I had heard that people were named when they were considerably older (teenagers / young adults) so that their personality would already be apparent, and their name would have some bearing on that. In the interim, they had a childhood name. Is that true, or did I imagine it? I’m on the other side of the world, and can’t claim to be an expert on this stuff. [/QUOTE] In some cultures, yes. I know that in the Sioux tribes it was common to change names as one got older, and not necessarily just once. I believe they would often pick the names themselves. At least the men did-- I don’t know about the women. ---
**Author:** ![Polycarp](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/82dd89/32.png) [@Polycarp](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Polycarp)\ **Post date:** [February 6, 2007, 5:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/native-american-names/390840/10 "2007-02-06T05:08:34Z")
[QUOTE=Lemur866] “Native American Names” is a category as broad as “European Names”. So just because they give kids certain names in Ireland, don’t expect to see many Patrick O’Shaunesseys in Hungary. [/QUOTE] But there are Patrick Oharas in Nagasaki, and a lot of Okellys in Gabon! 😛 Seriously, much of what we think we have as Native American traditions are: [ol][li]Actual traditions of one nation or one related group of nations, abstractly extended as being true for all Indians[/li][li]Cultural artifacts of “the myth of the American Indian” as promulgated between the times of James Fenimore Cooper and about 1960[/li][li]Casual elements in one culture blown up out of proportion as factoids and again attributed to all cultures[/ol][/li] Heyawontha was a legitimate historical figure, important in the early history of the Five Nations. But he probably never saw Lake Superior, emphatically did not indulge in the pseudo-Sioux cultural traits that Longfellow endowed him with, and had no particular interest in trochaic tetrameter (regarding which I have my own private bete noire). ---
**Author:** ![CalMeacham](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/calmeacham/32/35_2.png) [@CalMeacham](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CalMeacham)\ **Post date:** [February 6, 2007, 3:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/native-american-names/390840/11 "2007-02-06T15:03:48Z")
I don’t think so. I wrote an article on a colonial-era sachem named _Weequehela_, and his name translates as “Tired One”. It’s hard to believe that this was something seen. The woman who related this to me had a name that translates as “Touching Leaves Woman”, which also doesn’t sound like “the first thing seen.” In Clair Huffaker’s novel **Nobody Loves a Drunken Indian** he has a character named “Snowflake”. As he’s a macho guy, he keeps trying to downplay it, but he says that he as named that by his mother because she saw a rare and brief snowstorm in Arizona, and it was the most beautiful thing she ever saw, not because it was the first (and it was his mother doing the naming). It’s fiction, of course, but I got the impression that Huffaker knew enough about the customs of the folks he was writing about to keep it real. ---
**Author:** ![Liberal](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/848f3c/32.png) [@Liberal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Liberal)\ **Post date:** [February 6, 2007, 3:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/native-american-names/390840/12 "2007-02-06T15:24:52Z")
[QUOTE=Lemur866] “Native American Names” is a category as broad as “European Names”. [/QUOTE] Definitely. Maybe even \*more \* broad, as there were hundreds of Indian nations — thousands over the whole hemisphere. Most of those cultures have dissipated, of course. One of the most common Cherokee names today is Smith. ---
**Author:** ![Sal\_Ammoniac](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/8dc957/32.png) [@Sal\_Ammoniac](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sal_Ammoniac)\ **Post date:** [February 6, 2007, 5:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/native-american-names/390840/13 "2007-02-06T17:27:21Z")
[QUOTE=Amanda B Reckendwith] Presumably the idea that children were named after the first thing their father saw after their birth is mostly a set-up for a joke. But does it have any basis in fact? Were children ever really named in this way in any actual community? And, if not, where does the idea come from? [/QUOTE] In Rabelais’ _Gargantua_, Gargantua is named according to the first thing his father says: _Que grand tu as_! (Or something like that). It’s remarked at this point that he has done so after the fashion of the ancient Hebrews. Maybe somebody can tell you if the ancient Hebrews actually did do that. My impression is yes, in some cases, but I could be wrong. ---
**Author:** ![Enola\_Straight](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/dec6dc/32.png) [@Enola\_Straight](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Enola_Straight)\ **Post date:** [February 6, 2007, 9:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/native-american-names/390840/14 "2007-02-06T21:34:54Z")
This is a story involving Pres. Abe Lincoln and an Aide: There was to ba a meeting between President Lincoln and the indian squaw, Minnehaha. The aide informed Abe that the name translates into “laughing river” The Aide then informs The President of another squaw…“crying river”…and her name was… “Let me guess,” quips Abe," Minneboohoo." :dubious: ---
**Author:** ![Lemur866](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lemur866/32/434_2.png) [@Lemur866](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lemur866)\ **Post date:** [February 6, 2007, 10:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/native-american-names/390840/15 "2007-02-06T22:50:36Z")
[QUOTE=Liberal] Definitely. Maybe even \*more \* broad, as there were hundreds of Indian nations — thousands over the whole hemisphere. Most of those cultures have dissipated, of course. One of the most common Cherokee names today is Smith. [/QUOTE] Yeah, I was gonna nitpick that myself after I wrote it. European languages are almost entirely in a single language family, only Basque, Hungarian and Finnish aren’t Indo-European. And European/Mediterranean nations were much more tightly linked, with the shared history of Hellenic civilization, the Roman Empire and the Christian church. So variations on Biblical names like “Mary”, “Matthew”, “Luke”, “Mark” or “John” could be found all over Europe. Continent-spanning institutions like that never occured in the Americas until the Spanish came along. ---
**Author:** ![Roboto](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/b77776/32.png) [@Roboto](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Roboto)\ **Post date:** [February 7, 2007, 1:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/native-american-names/390840/16 "2007-02-07T01:40:43Z")
Stands With a Fist got her name after this one time when she stood up, and then Wind is His Hair fisted her. ---
**Author:** ![chowder](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/977dab/32.png) [@chowder](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/chowder)\ **Post date:** [February 7, 2007, 12:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/native-american-names/390840/17 "2007-02-07T12:57:29Z")
[QUOTE=Roboto] Stands With a Fist got her name after this one time when she stood up, and then Wind is His Hair fisted her. [/QUOTE] He then twirled her around and she shouted “Geronimo” ---
**Author:** ![Roboto](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/b77776/32.png) [@Roboto](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Roboto)\ **Post date:** [February 7, 2007, 4:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/native-american-names/390840/18 "2007-02-07T16:43:32Z")
[QUOTE=chowder] He then twirled her around and she shouted “Geronimo” [/QUOTE] And the Tonto came riding in and said, “How?” ---
**Author:** ![According\_to\_Pliny](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/8e7dd6/32.png) [@According\_to\_Pliny](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/According_to_Pliny)\ **Post date:** [February 7, 2007, 9:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/native-american-names/390840/19 "2007-02-07T21:27:00Z")
[QUOTE=The Flying Dutchman] Did you know the Dutch wear wooden shoes ? [/QUOTE] Dutch Indians were also named for their early deeds. That’s why so many were named “Jan” which translates as “finger in dike”