The following list includes settlements, geographic features, and political subdivisions of Minnesota whose names are derived from Native American languages or are popularly known by a Native-language name.
Placename linguistic origins
The primary Native languages in Minnesota are Dakota and Ojibwe. Some Dakota and Ojibwe placenames are based on Iowa language, a people that had significant presence in the Southern portion of the state until the 16th century.[1][2]
Many[1] Minnesota placenames are translations or mistranslations, mispronunciations, or Romanized transcriptions of Native placenames and descriptions. Dakota, Ojibwe, and Iowa people had no written language at the time these names were popularly adopted.
One of the most common mispronunciations is that of the Dakota-language consonant "b", which is a combination of "m" and "b" consonants in English. In English there is no equivalent. Placenames were often recorded verbally and textually by European colonizers with the English consonant "m" in place of the Dakota consonant "b". In modern Dakota language, "b" is typically the correct consonant for words such as Bdóte, whose deprecated form in the historical record is mdóte. Cities such as Mendota, Minnesota take their name from Bdóte with the European colonizer mispronunciation of the Dakota "b" consonant.[3]
State name
Minnesota – from the Dakota name for their homeland Mnisóta Makhóčhe: Where the Water Reflects the Sky.
City of Anoka – Dakota for "the other side" or "both sides" for the city being on both sides of Rum River. Possibly also from Ojibwe anoki meaning "I work", referring to local logging sites.[4][5][6]
Red Lake County – named for the Red Lake River, which takes its name from the English translation of the Ojibwe name referring to red sunsets reflecting off the lake[45][46][47]
Rock County – named for a prominent outcropping of rock noted by the Dakota and named Inyan Reakah: River of the Rock[50][51]
Traverse County – named for Lake Traverse, originally called Lac Travers in French, a translation of the Dakota name for the lake Mdehdakinyan: "lake lying crosswise"[52][53]
Red Wing – for the village of Dakota chief Tatanka Mani (lit.'Walking Buffalo'), known as Red Wing for the red-dyed swan wing carried as part of his standard[78]
Bde Maka Ska – Dakota for "Lake White Earth". The lake was dubbed "Lake Calhoun" by European colonizers. The original name is likely a Dakota translation of the placename given by the Iowa people who inhabited the area until the 16th century. Early settlers and maps call it "Lake Medoza" after another Dakota name for the lake: Bde Bedoza.
Minnehaha Falls – from the Dakota name Mníȟaȟa: lit.'Water Waterfall'. A common legend mistranslates Mníȟaȟa as "laughing waters" due to the similarity to the English onomatopoeia "haha" for laughter.[80]
Minnesota River – from the Dakota name Mnísota Wakpá: lit.'Minnesota River'
Mississippi River – mispronunciation of the Ojibwe name Misi-ziibi: lit.'Great River'
Bdóte – lit.'Clearwater Confluence', the Northern tip of Pike Island and the surrounding area, known to the Dakota as the center of the universe and start of all life
^Webb, Grace (2020) [Summer 2013]. "What's in a Name? Blue Earth County's Geographic Names". In Webb, Donna (ed.). Blue Earth County Historian, 2011 – 2015. Mankato, Minnesota: Blue Earth County Historical Society. pp. 81–87. ISBN978-1953432001.