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Originally published in the Historic Nantucket, Vol 46, No. 4 (Fall 1997) p. 9-16

Nantucket Indian Place Names
By Elizabeth A. Little

Introduction

IVES GODDARD (1977:157) HAS WRITTEN THAT "careful documentation of the earliest spellings of the names [is] an indispensable prerequisite to place name analysis." In the list of Nantucket Indian place names presented here, I have corrected a number of mistakes, misspellings, and typographical errors found in previously published transcriptions of the original manuscripts. In addition, I have documented chronological variations of place names, some of which can be related to linguistic, cultural, or geographic phenomena.

Nantucket Indian place names, recorded from 1659 on, are found in bound manuscript volumes of town and county records at the Nantucket Town Building in the handwriting of the various registrars. Not only are the ancient documents faded, blotched, and worn, but the handwriting is archaic, and the sounds being recorded were not the same sounds that were found in the English of the time (Trumbull 1974:vi). Nor were the sounds of English in the seventeenth century the same as those spoken today. It is quite likely that the original recording process itself introduced copying errors, such as repetition, omission, and misspelling.

As far as I know, there are no living speakers of the language called Massachusett who are familiar with our places and could translate Nantucket place names. Using TrumbuH's Natick Dictionary (1903), Roger Williams's Key into the Language of America (1936), and Josiah Cotton's Vocabulary of the Massachusetts (or Natick) Indian Language (1830), one can try to match Massachusett words with place names. Although this activity has been called "Sunday-supplement linguistics" (Goddard 1977: 157), it does generate alternative hypotheses. For the definitive modern work on the Massachusett language, see Goddard and Bragdon (1988).

Methodology

Deeds, probate records, court records, and proprietors records have been searched for Indian place names and variations. The bilingual Englishmen — Peter Folger, his son Eleazer and grandson Eleazer; Thomas Mayhew, Jr., his son Matthew and grandson Experience; and William Worth, who recorded early deeds and court records for Nantucket and Martha's Vineyard islands — translated documents written in Massachusett and sometimes gave place-name meanings in English. In addition to names from those sources, which are recorded in Table 1, I include the place-name meanings given by Zaccheus Macy (1792), because he was born on Nantucket in 1713 and could be expected to have had some knowledge of the Indian place names.

Worth (1910) and Ewer (1869) have ten place names which I have not documented (Bogue, Canopache, Cotackta, Herrecater Swamp, Nashawomank, Peedee, Pochick, Pocoy, Quanata, and Tawnatpeinse), and I have seventeen names that Worth did not include. Altogether we have eighty-six Indian place names. I have omitted English place names, such as Long Pond; names that include Indian or pidgin-English words, such as Sachem Spring and Wigwam Ponds; and the personal place names: Abrams Point, Pimneys Point, Tom Nevers Head, Gibbs Pond, Hummock Pond, Nanahuma's Neck, Pattaconet's Island, Myoakeses Pond, Spotso Country, Tashme's Island, and Towpausher's Swamp.

Analysis

Although showing their three hundred years, the early documents at the Registry of Deeds are legible and constitute a treasure chest of data on place names and geography. Eighty-six recorded Indian place names on an island of one hundred and thirty square kilometers is a density of 0.7 names per square kilometer. By comparison, the whole of Connecticut has a density of 0.04 recorded Indian place names per square kilometer (Trumbull 1974). The presence of more English recorders and/or more Indians on the coast than inland could account for the higher density of recorded Indian place names on the coast than inland.

Linguistic Variations

Early observers such as Roger Williams in 1643 (1936) and William Wood in 1635 (1865), noted that certain geographically distributed dialects used r, y, I, or «, preferentially for the same Proto-Algonquian sound. In some regions of southern New England, the distribution of these sounds has been confirmed, with evidence of mixing and of change with time (Goddard 1977, 1978, 1981). From place names, Nantucket's dialect of Massachusett is an n dialect, with no / and only four examples of r, some of which may have been English introductions, as in the change from Tuckanuck to Tuckernuck.

For locative endings of place names (at the place of), Bragdon (1981:22) has pointed out that -ui, -it, or -et were more common on Martha's Vineyard and Nantucket than the form -uk or -ik. The Nantucket place names listed here show a 3:1 ratio of t to k endings. The t endings supersede the k endings (see Goddard 1981:64), with the exception of Tuckernuck.

Changes

Since 1659, an obvious change in Nantucket Indian place names has been in length. Some names lost their final consonants early. An example is Coweightuet to Cowatu, by 1663. Also, dropping of prefixes and suffixes, primarily by the English, appears to have been routine; for example, Wonnashquoom in 1668 became Squam by 1691. Indeed, the process continues. Today, Sesachacha and Siasconset, are written forms only. One says, Sacacha and Sconset. These changes not only save effort but help to distinguish visitors from residents.

Changes in place names can reflect differences between the Indian view of the landscape and the English view. The place names Monomoy, Shimmo, Shawkemo, Masquetuck (Quaise) in colonial times referred to necks or small peninsulas, but originally Shimmo named a spring, and Monomoy, Shouahkemmuck, and Masquetuck were names for creeks. The English settlers, with grazing animals at pasture, borrowed place names from the adjacent bodies of water.

Place names also change because of geographical changes. Esther Island, Whale Island, and Sturgeon Island were (and are) names of transitory islands off the west end of Nantucket (Southack, 1720-1734).

Meanings

In 1910, Henry Barnard Worth of Nantucket, using original documents, his knowledge of Nantucket places, and the works of Dr. W. W. Tooker and Dr. Trumbull, produced a list of Nantucket Indian place names with possible meanings (Worth 1910:285-98). He admitted that his translations ranged from reasonable to impossible. As subsequent Nantucket Indian word lists generally have included Worth's meanings for names, there are few proven meanings for Nantucket place names. However generated, hypothetical translations must be tested locally before they can be considered possible. For example, the hypothetical translation Rattlesnake Hill for Sesachacha (Worth 1910:295) and Rattelsnack Banck or the Snake Place for Shouahkemmuck, have long been suspect because we have no independent evidence that there ever were rattlesnakes on Nantucket (Worth 1910:295). However, in places on the east half of the island Lazell (1976:207) found a density of about 6000 per square mile for large, patterned, king or milk snakes, which can make a rattling noise by shaking their tails. Dated archaeological finds of identified species of snake vertebrae could further test this interesting biological and linguistic issue.

I have also found two examples for which alternative meanings have produced testable results. Consider the Pool Ponds, heretofore translated as Whale Ponds (Starbuck, 1924:611,651). These are two glacial kettle ponds some distance from the sea. Pootop means whale in a 1696 Nantucket Indian deed (Eittle 1981:67), and Trumbull (1903:227) gives the root pootau, he blows. A translation for Poot Ponds could, therefore, be Whale Ponds, Blower Ponds, or Blow Hole Ponds. As a test of the last hypothesis, a comparison of the ponds with a right whale's blow holes shows a startling resemblance to a baleen (right) whale's blow holes (a sperm whale has only one blow hole). This coincidence is no proof of the derivation of the name, but it does suggest an interesting process for name formation.

A similar procedure can be applied to Coatue, for which the standard translation is At the (White) Pine Woods (Worth 1910:291). The problem with this meaning is that pines, especially white pines, because of the deleterious effect of salt spray, do not find Nantucket, and especially Coatue, a congenial habitat (Reagan 1973). Now cowaw, the root for the pine tree name, means "it is sharp pointed" (Trumbull 1903:13,41). Is it possible, as Elizabeth Gosnell speculated in 1983, that the six sharp cuspate points of land at Coatue suggested this name? An alternative sharp point is that found on the native prickly pear cactus (Opuntia humifusa), which grows there. These hypotheses could be tested by comparing the geographical distribution of the dozens of place names in New England containing cowa, with the distribution of evergreens, cactus, and sharp points of land. This project will take some time, but I already have found that Cotuit on Cape Cod; Koessek, now Vernon, Vermont; and Cohasset, Massachusetts center about bold and dramatic points of land.

Summary

To summarize, I have assembled a list of Nantucket Indian place names and their variations over time. Examples show how geographically testable alternative meanings may be generated by the process of looking at the meaning of the roots. Familiarity with the land is a first step. Indian place names have always been important to the people of Nantucket, and thirty-one names from this list are well known and still used to locate areas today. They are also popular on automobile license plates.

Acknowledgments: I am grateful for the help and encouragement of Ives Goddard, Margaret Pignato, Wesley N. Tiffney, and the late Louise Hussey, J. Clinton Andrews, Edouard A. Stackpole, and Gordon Day. This is a slightly revised version of a paper published in 1984 in The Papers of the 15th Algonquian Conference, edited by William Cowan, pp. 345-362, Carleton University, Ottawa, reprinted with permission of David H. Pentland, current editor.

 

LIST OF NANTUCKET INDIAN PLACE NAMES, WITH SOURCES AND DATES:

ACAMY (NCD [1659] 4:93). "The Pond Acamy" Today's Hummock Pond. A boundary between the Indians and English in the seventeenth century.

AHAPAHCONSET (NCD [1690] 2:53). Near Squam Pond.

APAQUNUMINNOHKIT (BCD [1668] 7:44). Unidentified locality, northeast of Quaise.

AQUIDNESE (NCD [1687] 3:110) "a neck of land";

AQUITNEESO (NCD [1711] 3:57); AQUITNET (NCD [1726] 4:45) "between Monomoy and Shimmo." Probably today's Pimneys Point. A point or peninsula at Nantucket in the seventeenth century was a neck. See Aquidnet Point.

AQUIDNET POINT (NCD [1722] 4:13). Today's Quidnet, which has been subject to shoreline changes and erosion, see Aquidnese. Both are candidates for WAMMASQUID, one of the three Christian Indian meeting places in 1674 (Gookin 1970:104). See also Wahquotnoy.

AQUNAONAGQUESSIT (DCD [1668] 7:44). "the hole where a Stone stands", translated by Experience Mayhew before 1745. Unknown location northeast of Quaise.

BOCOCHEGO (NCD [1765] 7:76). A tract laid out in 1744 (Worth 1910:291), once containing the mouths of several streams, between Broad, Main, Federal streets, and the harbor. Worth (1910:291) suggests an Indian origin for the name, and Obed Macy (Starbuck 1924:650) states that the name came from a Dutch ship cast away on Nantucket. It appears Spanish, and may derive from Boca Ciega, blind mouth, a Spanish name for a body of water with a hidden entrance.

CAPPATTUDACONA (NCD [1711] 3:47). Near Sankaty Head.

CATCHCASSOK (NCD [1667] 1:14); KACHKES-SET (NCD [1687] 6:4). A place near the Swain house-lots on the southwest side of Hummock Pond (Starbuck 1924:56).

CHAPANACOY (NCD [1669] 1:21). Salt marsh, unknown location near Shawkemo or Shimmo.

CHAPPAPEMESET (NCD [1691] 3:53); CHAPPA-PONISS (NCD [1762] 6:335).

CHAPAPAMISS VALLEY (NPR [1762] 1:104). An Indian-English boundary, at the west edge of "a great valley at Chappapemeset called Pasocha" (NCD 3:53). Between Toupche and Tom Nevers Pond.

COBOAHCOMMOH (NCD [1692] 2:69). At the southeast of Hummock Pond (probably), which, like many of the ponds near the shores, has been periodically opened to the sea for fishing purposes for an unknown time in the past. Alongshore currents soon close it up again (see kuppiva Trumbull 1903).

COCYEAMA (NCD [1687] 3:110). A valley near Shimmo Spring and Aquidnese.

CODSPANNETT FIELD (NCD [1659] 4:93). North of Hummock Pond.

COSCATY (NPR [1778] 1:148). Woods and meadow at "Causkata" (Macy 1792), which is a broad place with woods, pond, and meadow on Coatue. Today called Coskata.

COWEIGHTUET (NCD [1660] 1:7); COWATU (NCD [1663] lb:3); COATUE (NCD [1674] 4:90); COATUET, "a neck" (NCD [1684] 3:73); COETUIT (NCD [1687] 3:110). Macy (1792) applied this name to both the present Coatue and to Great Point, which was also "the Long Point, or Nauma" (NCD [1660] 6:1; NCD 3:73). Coatue today has no white pine (J.C. Andrews, 1979 personal communication). Its unique attributes are six regular, sharp-pointed, cuspate spits.

CUPPAMMET HARBOUR (NCD [1667] 1:11); CUPPAME HARBOUR (NCD [1672] lb:21). Capaum Pond was a harbor until a storm about 1717 deposited a sand beach across its entrance (Worth 1910:80). J.C. Andrews in 1983 suggested that it may have been closed at times prehistorically.

HASHKINNITCHAOHKET (DCD [1668] 7:44). Unknown location near Quaise.

KESTOKAS FIELD (NCD [1715] 3:91). Unknown location in Polpis area.

MACHUPUNES (NCD(1742)5:23). Unknown location on the South Shore.

MANA "wells on Mana" (NCD [1691] 3:50); MONAH (NCD [1695] 3:49); MANNA (NCD [1678] 2:1, 2). Twenty acres near the present airport. An early Indian document refers to a "great hunting meeting at Manna" (NCD 2:1,2).

MANOIS (NCD [1702] 3:42). Unknown location just south of Coatue.

MARDADPOQUEHY "The swampy slow or run near the highway at Mascotuck" (NCD [1691] 3:53). See Maskatuk Creek.

MASHAAM (NCD [1670] 3:39). 100 acres at the "going on to Coattue on the south side of the meadows or creek." Coskata, probably.

MASHQUAPOMTIT (DCD [1668] 7:44). Unknown location northeast of Quaise.

MASQUAPOCK (NCD [1687] 3:110). The run or creek, with a pond and fresh marsh, that was crossed by a cart path going from Pocomo to Coatue. The water running out of this creek can have a red color, probably due to bog iron deposits common to this area.

MASQUETUCK (NCD [1667] lb:7); MASHQUT-TOOHK (DCD [1668] 7:44); MASCOTUCK, "Mr. Thomas Mayhew's Neck" (NCD [1674] 3:65); MASQUATUCK NECK (NCD [1702] 3:61). "The read land" (Macy 1792); Quaise, today (see Quaus). Reed or red are both applicable (see Masquapock).

MASKATUK CREEK (NCD [1669] 1:21); STONY BROOK (NCD [1678] 2:35); READ RIVER (DCD [1668] 7:44), translated from Mashquttoohk by Experience Mayhew. At the east boundary of Masquatuck (Quaise); today, West Polpis Harbor and Stony Brook. See Masquetuck, Quaus.

MATTAQUITCHAME POND (NCD [1692] 3:50); MATTAQUATCHAM (NCD [1691] 3:53). A pond and valley, today called Madequecham, on the south shore of the island.

MAWTUKKIT (NCD [1667] 1:17); MATTAKETT (NCD [1687] 6:4). Today's Madaket.

MEKINNOOWAKE (NCD [1690] 1:30); MEKAN-UAHQUE (NCD [1711] 3:47). Unknown location near Sesachacha Pond.

MONNUMENT HARBOR (NCD [1660] 2:7). Wheeler's Creek; MANNAMOY (NCD [1664] 6:1); MONOMOY (NCD [1683] 3:54). Mr. Macy's meadow, or Wherfore Creek (NCD [1684] 3:73). Today this region is called the Creeks and Monomoy is the name of the land northeast of the Creeks alongshore. In the eighteenth century, Monomoy was also west of the Creeks (Worth 1910).

MOOSKEIAKIT (NCD [1693] 2:74). "westernmost of the Sturgeon Islands"; MUSKEGIT (NCD [1710] 3:30); MISKEGETT (NCD [1710] 3:31). Kotget (1630) (Worth 1910:293). Today's Muskeget Island.

MYACOMET POND (NCD [1695] 1:66); MOYACOMET POND (NCD [1711] 3:23). Today's Miacomet Pond at the South Shore, site of the Christian Indian village of Miacomet ca. 1732-63. Macy (1792) gives "Moyaucournet" as "a meeting place."

NANNUHTUKQUESUT (NCD [1690] 2:9). "The River." Near Squam Pond.

NANTUCKET (NCD [1659] 4:93); NANTUCKETT (NCD [1684] 3:73). Other versions, such as Natocke or Nautican, date to before the island was purchased in 1659 (Worth 1910:288-90).

NAPANEAH (NCD [1668] lb:7,8); NOBBANEAH (NCD [1758] 6:403); NOPEDEAR (NCD [1762] 6:399); NOBEDEAR (NCD [1768] 7:263). Nobadeer today, a valley on the south shore.

NARETOQUESO (NCD [1692] 2:70). The creek mouth near the northwest end of Squam Pond.

NASHAYTE (NCD [1659] 6:1). "The neck but one northerly of Masquetuck;" "Wots Neck" (NCD [1674] 3:65). Today's Swain's Neck, Polpis.

NOAPE "the Vinyard" (Macy 1792).

NOPQUE "a landing place" (Macy 1792), Smith Point (Worth 1910:294). The southwest point of Nantucket, nearest Martha's Vineyard.

OGGAWAME "where the church meets" [1674] (Gookin (1970):104); OCKAWAW (NCD [1778] 9:362). A historic Indian settlement, "the headquarters of old Waunuchmamuck's territory" (Macy 1792), somewhere east of Gibbs Pond.

ONGQUAHQAM (NCD [1669] 1:21). "a flaggy marsh." Unlocated place west of Masquatuck. Flags (probably cattail or wild iris leaves) were used for mats.

PAKPANNOGKAHKUNNUT (NCD [1676] 3:41). Near Squam Pond.

PAKUMMOHQUOH (NCD [1662] 4:89); PAQUO-MOQUAT NECK (NCD [1667] lb:6); POCO-MOCK (NCD [1688] 3:55); POHCOMO (NCD [1729] 4:67). Today's Pocomo, was bounded by "the river" on the north, by Masquapock, Squam Swamp, and "the creek at Poatpes" (NCD 3:73).

PASOCHA (NCD [1691] 3:53). "a great valley." See Chappapemeset.

PENETAHPAH (NCD [1669] 1:21). "next great crek above Ashimmo." Creek east of Abram's Point.

POATPES (NCD [1684] 3:73); "Podpis" (Macy 1792). Today's Polpis.

POOT PONDS (NPR [1767] 1:114). Whale Ponds, after whale (pootop). Starbuck (1924: 611) gives a legend in which a whale appeared in each Poot Pond before escaping to the sea (Starbuck 1924:611). Called Pout Ponds, after a species of fish, on 1977 USGS map of Siasconset.

PQUAOPUACHUS (NCD [1686] 3:112). Islands surrounded by Gibbs swamp near Gibbs Pond.

PUKQUOTANUSSUT or POOKQUOTTANUS-SUH (NCD [1696] 4:62). Land gift to Matakekin and George Huma from Nickanoose near Squam Pond.

QUAQUAKUNNUTTUMMUKUTAUT (NCD [1690] 2:9). Unlocated region near Squam Pond.

QUAQUAT (NPR [1773] 1:128). Region north of Siasconset Pasture.

QUADS (NCD [1702] 3:61); QUAISE (NCD [1708] 3:8); QUAIS (NCD [1708] 3:12). See Masquetuck. Today's Quaise.

QUONSUE (NCD [1721] 3:136). "Qunsue Meador" (Macy 1792). Near the present Consue Spring.

SANCKATANCK (NCD [1691] 3:52). Near "the place called the blew cleft." "Naphchecoy," or "round the (Sankata) head" (Macy 1792). Today's Sankaty Head, where blue clay can be found.

SEANAKONKONIT (NCD [1668] lb:7,8). "the pond." Probably Tom Nevers Pond.

SHIMMO (NCD [1668] lb:7,8). "The Spring at"; SHEMO (NCD [1687] 3:110); ASHIMMO "A Spring called" (NCD [1683] 3:54). A creek and region west of the creek are today known as Shimmo. Ditching obscures the original location of the spring (J.C. Andrews, personal communication, 1980).

SHUAKIMMO CREEK (NCD [1674] 3:67); SHOUAHKEMMUCK (NCD [1678] 2:1,2); SHOWAKEMMOE "The Snake Place" (NCD [1684] 3:73). At the head of Shuakimmo Creek was "Read Spring" (NCD 3:67), under "Rattelsnack Banck" (NCD 2:35) (see Stewak'ininkers). "Showaucamor" meant "the Midel field of Land," according to Macy (1792). Today Shawkemo Creek is called Folger's Creek, and Shawkemo is the name of a region west of the creek.

SISACKOCHAT (NCD [1682] 2:10);SASAGACHA (NCD [1745] 5:84). "Sasachacor" and "Sussachacor" (Macy 1792) are misspellings. Originally the name referred to an area with cod-fishing stages south of the pond, but today it is the name of the pond, Sesachacha Pond or 'Sachacha Pond (the first 'ch' is hard). At a guess it means 'rattlesnake hill'; see Wonnashquoom.

SISIASCONSET (NCD [1691] 3:52). Today's Siasconset. The first Si- may have been a copying error. This village of ancient fish or whale houses is commonly known today as Sconset.

SQUATESIT one of three places where Indians met to worship in 1674 (Gookin 1970:104). Possibly near Maskatuk Creek, where Spotso had a "meeting house" in 1686 (Mass. Sup. Ct. Jud. #2466).

STEWAKININKERS (NCD [1678] 2:28); RATTEL-SNAKE HILL OR BANK (NCD [1677,1678] 2: 28,35). At junction of several Indian-English boundary lines at the head of Shuahkimmo Creek. TAWTEMEO, "the hummuck pond" (Macy 1792), a boundary. See Acamy.

TOOCHAHY(?) POND (NPR [1775] 1:135); TOUPHCHUE POND, at the South Shore (Macy 1792). The original is neither early nor legible.

TUCKANUCK "ALIAS" TUCKANUCKETT (N.Y. DEEDS [1661] 3:53). Early maps show it called Petockenock [1630,1650] (Worth 1910:297; Fite and Freeman 1967:146). Today an er replaces the a, and it's called Tuckernuck, which Macy (1792) said meant "a loufofbrad."

TUPPOCKOMMACK (NCD [1678] 2:1,2). Unknown location south of Shimmo.

WAHQUATNOY (NCD [1690] 1:30); WAHQUOTNOY (NCD [1711] 3:47). Unknown location near Sesachacha Pond. Obed Macy (in Starbuck 1924:650) called it a neck. It was along the beach, between today's Quidnet and the Sankaty Beach Club, and probably has succumbed to erosion.

WAMMASQUID One of three places where the Indians met to worship in 1674 (Gookin 1792:207). See Aquidnet Point.

WANNACOMET (NCD [1664] 1:5);WANNA-CONSET (NCD [1667] 1:11). Land just west of Wesco, along the north shore.

WAQUITTAQUAUG (NCD [1660] 2:8, [1664] 1:5); WAQUTUQUAB (NCD [1660] 6:1). The Head of Hummock Pond, which was a bound mark for the purchase of the west end of the island.

WASSOMUHKATTOG (NCD [1676] 3:41); WAS-SOMMUKKUTTUK (NCD [1690] 2:9). "That Me swamp and river," near Squam Pond.

WATAQUETE (NCD [1687] 3:110). From the mouth of the creek on the north of Pocomo (Masquapock), about 16 acres of "swamp," "run," "spring," "slow," "marsh," and "meadow."

WESACHIMNUSSUD (NCD [1710] 3:24). Unknown location at Squam or Polpis.

WESQUO (NCD [1664] 1:5); WESQUO POND (NCD [1667] 1:19); THE WHITE ROCK (NCD [1711] 3:34). Part of town near Lily Pond. Macy (1792) translated "Wesko" as, "at the white ston."

WEWEDA POND (NCD [1695] 3:49). Today's Weweeder Ponds, at the South Shore. Macy (1792) translated "Wewedor" as "a pare of horns."

WONNASHQUOOM (DCD [1668] 7:44); WUN-NASQUAM (NCD [1686] lb:55); WUNISQUAM POND (NCD [1690] 2:70); SQUAM POND (NCD [1691] 2:59); SQUAM (NCD [1704] 3:2). Today's Squam Pond was larger in the past (J.C. Andrews, 1983 personal communication). Wunnasquam was Sachem Nickanoose's territory, possibly encompassing today's Squam, Quidnet, and Sesachacha Pond (which may have been Squam Pond originally).

WONNAHKTIH (NCD [1690] 1:30). Unknown location near Sesachacha.

Elizabeth Little was long associated with the Nantucket Historical Association, including positions as Archaeological Field Director, Research Director, and Curator of Prehistoric Artifacts. She was a Research Fellow in Archaeology. She was also a Research Associate at the R. S. Peabody Museum of Archaeology and Phillips Academy, Andover. She and her husband lived in Lincoln, Massachusetts.

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