List of Wisconsin placenames of Native American origin
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The following list includes settlements, geographic features, and political subdivisions of Wisconsin whose names are derived from Native American languages.
Milwaukee County – Algonquin word Millioke which means "The Good Land", or "Gathering place by the water". Another interpretation is "beautiful or pleasant lands".
Kaukauna (named for early French settler pronunciation "Kakalin," and later Grand Kakalin, bastardized either from Menomonee Ogag-kane or O-gau-gau-ning, meaning "the place where fish stop" due to the massive amounts of fish they found where the river fell 52 feet beneath the falls. Because of the forceful rushing rapids, travelers were forced to carry their canoes around it)
Sheboygan (of obscure but likely Algonquian origins, it may derive from Shawb-wa-way-kum, meaning either "thundering under the ground" or "path between the lakes"; bastardized through French Cheboigan)
Waukesha (originally known by local tribes as Tshee-gas-cou-tak, meaning "burnt, fire-land", possibly later derived from Ojibwe Wagosh meaning "fox", or alternatively from a Chief "Leatherstrap" or "Wau-tsha", met by the early white settler Morris Cutler, who honored him with the namesake)
Waunakee – Waunakee is called Wanąǧi [wa-na-GHEE] in the Hocąk language, meaning "spirit", as in a spirit which has departed from the body. I was told by a tribal colleague that it was given this name due to the spirits who can sometimes be heard there at night, singing. Wanąǧi is attested in other Wisconsin place names as well: Wanąǧi Homįk ("where the spirit lies" or "cemetery") is the Hocąk name for Reesburg, WI.
Bright, William (2004). Native American Placenames of the United States. Norman: University of Oklahoma Press. ISBN080613576X.
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