List of River Name Etymologies - North America

North America

• Athabasca: From the Woods Cree word aðapaskāw, " there are plants one after another".
• Bow: After the reeds growing along its banks, which were used by the local Indians to make bows.
• Brazos: From the Spanish Los Brazos de Dios, or "the arms of God". There are several different explanations for the name, all involving it being the first water to be found by desperately thirsty parties.
• Canadian River: The etymology is unclear. The name may have come from French-Canadian traders and hunters who traveled along the river, or early explorers may have thought that the river flowed into Canada.
• Chattahoochee: from Creek cato hocce "marked rock".
• Colorado: Spanish for "red-colored; reddish."
• Columbia: Named for Captain Robert Gray’s ship Columbia Rediviva, the first to travel up the river.
• Cumberland: Named for Prince William Augustus, Duke of Cumberland.
• Delaware: After the Bay, named for Thomas West, Baron De la Warre, first English colonial governor of Virginia.
• Fraser: Named for Simon Fraser, who confirmed it was a separate river from the Columbia.
• Hackensack: probably from Unami Delaware ahkinkèshaki, "place of sharp ground".
• Hiwassee: from the Cherokee meaning "stone wall", or from an Eastern Algonquian language meaning "beyond the hill" (e.g., Abenaki awasadenek).
• Hudson: named for Henry Hudson, an Englishman sailing for the Netherlands, who explored it in 1609.
• Loup: French for "wolf", after the Pawnee "wolf people" (Skidi band).
• Mackenzie: After Alexander MacKenzie, the Scots-Canadian explorer.
• Mississagi: Ojibwe misi-zaagi, "river with a wide mouth".
• Mississippi: Ojibwe misi-ziibi, "big river".
• Missouri: Named for the Missouri Indians, who lived along the banks. Their name comes from the Illinois mihsoori, meaning "dugout canoe".
• Nelson: Named for Robert Nelson, a ship's master who died at the mouth of the river in 1612.
• Ottawa: Named for the Ottawa people, a community of the Algonquian nation, who lived along the river until 1685.
• Peace: After Peace Point, the location of the ratification of the Treaty of the Peace.
• Platte: French Rivière Plate ("Flat River"), a calque of the Chiwere name ñįbraske ("flattened water").
• Potomac: From the Patowamek tribe noted by Captain John Smith.
• Republican: Named for the Pawnee band known as "the Republicans".
• Rio Grande: Spanish for "big river".
• Saint-Laurent: French for Saint Lawrence.
• Saskatchewan: From the Cree term Cree kisiskāciwani-sīpiy, meaning "swift flowing river".
• Schuylkill: from the Dutch schuil and kil, meaning "hidden river".
• Snake River: Derived from an S-shaped gesture the Shoshone made with their hands to represent swimming salmon. Explorers misinterpreted it to represent a snake, giving the river its present-day name.
• Stanislaus: named after Estanislao
• Susquehanna: Named after the Susquehannock Indians, whose name derives from an Algonquian word meaning "people at the falls", "roily water people", or "muddy current".
• Tennessee: Named for the Cherokee town of Tanasi, whose etymology is unknown.
• Wabash: English spelling of French Ouabache, from Miami-Illinois waapaahšiiki, "it shines white".
• Yukon: from an Athabaskan language (e.g., Koyukon yookkene, Lower Tanana yookuna).