List of U.S. Place Names of French Origin - Illinois

Illinois

• Illinois, French version of Illini, a local Native American tribe
• Illinois River
• Beaucoup Creek (plenty good)
• Belle River ("Beautiful Bank") (French military commander)
• Belleville ("Beautiful City")
• Bonpas Creek ("Good Step")
• Bourbonnais (named for François Bourbonnais, Sr., a fur trader)
• Bureau County ("Office"; person's name)
• Cache River (hidden river)
• Champaign (from Champaigne, a French surname)
• Chicago, although not a French place name in itself, shikaakwa or "wild onion" in the Native-American Miami-Illinois language, the pronunciation of the "chi" (as opposed to the "chi" as in China) is the result of early French settlement
• Creve Coeur ("Heartbreak"; early French fort)
• Decatur
• Des Plaines ("of the Plains")
• Des Plaines River
• Du Bois (from the woods)
• DuPage River
• DuQuoin (name of an Illiniwek chief)
• Embarrass ("Predicament")
• Fayette County (after LaFayette)
• Fort Massac
• Joliet (named after explorer Louis Jolliet)
• La Grange ("The Barn")
• La Moine River ("The Monk", after an early monastery)
• La Salle (named after explorer René-Robert Cavelier, Sieur de La Salle. La Salle literally means "the Hall.")
• Marseilles (after Marseille)
• Massac (French Minister)
• Menard County (after Pierre Menard)
• Prairie du Rocher ("Prairie of the Rock")
• St. Anne (Anne is spelled in French. Founded by French-speaking Canadians. See Charles Chiniquy)
• St. Georges (Note: retains the silent "s" from the French)
• Versailles (for the French city and palace)