Native Indian languages Native Indian cultures American Indian genealogy

Hutoqua

Q: My grandmother was named Hutoqua. Supposedly she was named after an Indian lady but we don't know her tribe. I wrote to an Oklahoma college about what this name means, but I received a response that unless you know what tribe it is from, you cannot figure out what it means as all the different tribes have different translations. Do you have any information about this name?

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A: I'm afraid deciphering the original meaning of proper names isn't really our specialty. They've always been corrupted so much by English, it's hard to even recognize them. The -qua at the end of your grandmother's name suggests to me that her name came from an Algonquian language, since -kwe, -skwa, and -skw are common endings of women's names in those languages (they are female marker suffixes). But I just don't know what the "huto" part might have been originally. Could have been something like hotho (yellow, in Shawnee.) But at this point it's nothing but guessing. It could have been any of a hundred other things, or it could have been a shortening of a longer name.

Sorry not to be more help. Have a good day!
Native Languages of the Americas

Hutoqua

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