List of Place Names in New England of Aboriginal Origin - Maine

Maine

Common languages:

  • Northern: Abnaki, Maliseet, Mi'kmaq, Passamaquoddy
  • Southern: Abnaki, Norridgewock, Pennacook, Penobscot
    • Allagash River (and town): (Abnaki) "bark shelter"
    • Androscoggin River: (Abnaki) "place where fish are dried/cured"
    • Aroostook River: (Mi'kmaq) "beautiful river"
    • Aziscohos Lake: (Abnaki) "small pine trees"
    • Caribou: (Abnaki) kalibu "shoveler" (gets food by pawing or shoveling)
    • Casco Bay: (Mi'kmaq) muddy
    • Chebeague Island: (Abnaki) "separated place"
    • Chemquasabamticook Lake: (Abnaki) "where there is a large lake and a river"
    • Chesuncook Lake: (Abnaki) "at the principal outlet"
    • Chiputneticook Lakes: (Abnaki) "at the place of the big hill stream"
    • Cobscook Bay: (Maliseet) "rocks under water"
    • Cobbosseecontee Lake: (Abnaki) "many sturgeon"
    • Damariscotta (and lake and river}: (Abnaki) "many alewives"
    • Katahdin: (Abnaki) "the principal mountain"
    • Kennebago Lake: (Abnaki) "long/large pond/lake"
    • Kennebec River: (Abnaki) "long quiet water"
    • Kennebunk (and river): (Abnaki) "long sand bar"
    • Madawaska River: (Mi'kmaq) "where one river joins another"
    • Matagamon: (Abnaki) "far on the other side"
    • Matinicus Island: (Abnaki) "far-out island"
    • Mattamiscontis Lake: (Abnaki) "many ale-wives"
    • Mattawamkeag River (and town): (Abnaki) "fishing beyond gravel bar" or (Mi'kmaq) "on a sand bar"
    • Metinic Island: (Abnaki) "far-out island"
    • Millinocket (and lake): (Abnaki) "this place is admirable"
    • Molunkus Pond (and stream): (Abnaki) "ravine"
    • Monhegan Island: (Mi'kmaq or Maliseet) "out-to-sea island"
    • Mooselookmeguntic Lake: (Abnaki) "moose feeding place" (portage to or big trees at)
    • Muscongus Bay: (Abnaki) "many/large rock ledges"
    • Musquash Lake: (Abnaki) "muskrat"
    • Musquacook River (and lake): (Abnaki) "muskrat place"
    • Nahmakanta Lake: (Abnaki) "many fish"
    • Nollesemic (and lake): (Abnaki) "resting place at the falls"
    • Ogunquit: (Mi'kmaq) "lagoons within dunes"
    • Orono: (Abnaki) purportedly from a Chief Joseph Orono, no translation
    • Ossipee River: (Abnaki) "beyond the water"
    • Oquossoc: (Abnaki) "place of trout" (a certain trout-type)
    • Passadumkeag: (Abnaki) "rapids over gravel beds"
    • Passamaquoddy Bay: tribal name; "place of abundance of pollack"
    • Pemadumcook Lake: (Maliseet) "extended sand bar place"
    • Pemaquid: (Mi'kmaq) "extended land" (peninsula)
    • Penobscot River: (Abnaki?) tribal name; "place of descending rocks/ledges"
    • Piscataqua River (NH border): (Pennacook) "the place where the river divides"
    • Piscataquis River (Abnaki) "at the river branch"
    • Quoddy Head (Passamaquoddy) abbreviation to "pollack"
    • Saco (and river): (Abnaki) "flowing out" or "outlet"
    • Sebago Lake (and town): (Abnaki) "big lake"
    • Sebasticook Lake: (Penobscot-Abnaki) "almost-through place"
    • Seboomook Lake (and town): (Abnaki) "at the large stream"
    • Skowhegan (town): (Abnaki) "watching place "
    • Squapan Lake (and town): (Abnaki) "bear's den"
    • Umcolcus Lake: (Abnaki) "whistling duck"
    • Usuntabunt Lake: (Abnaki) "wet head" or possibly "three heads"
    • Wassutaquook River: sp.
    • Webhannet River: (Abnaki) "at the clear stream"
  • Former names:
    • Ahbaysauk: (Abnaki) "place where clams are baked/dried" Bar Harbor
    • Amitgon pontook: (Abnaki) "place at the falls where fish are dried/cured" Lewiston Falls
    • Machegony: (mi'kmaq) "shaped like a large knee" Portland

Read more about this topic:  List Of Place Names In New England Of Aboriginal Origin

Famous quotes containing the word maine:

    “I heard the dog-day locust here, and afterward on the carries, a sound which I had associated only with more open, if not settled countries. The area for locusts must be small in the Maine Woods.”
    —Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)

    “We know of no scripture which records the pure benignity of the gods on a New England winter night. Their praises have never been sung, only their wrath deprecated. The best scripture, after all, records but a meagre faith. Its saints live reserved and austere. Let a brave, devout man spend the year in the woods of Maine or Labrador, and see if the Hebrew Scriptures speak adequately to his condition and experience.”
    —Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)

    “Midway the lake we took on board two manly-looking middle-aged men.... I talked with one of them, telling him that I had come all this distance partly to see where the white pine, the Eastern stuff of which our houses are built, grew, but that on this and a previous excursion into another part of Maine I had found it a scarce tree; and I asked him where I must look for it. With a smile, he answered that he could hardly tell me.”
    —Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)