Wisconsin magazine of history: Volume 48, number 3, spring, 1965

              WISCONSIN'S NAME: A LINGUISTIC PUZZLE
By Virgil J. Vogel
/^F THE twenty-seven Indian names of ^-^ American states, none is more obscure or controversial than the name of Wisconsin. With the exception of one source which claims French origin, all agree that the name is aboriginal, but the explanations of its origin and meaning are so numerous and disparate as to discourage efforts to unravel the mys¬ tery. Our purpose here is to discuss briefly and evaluate all known theories of the origin and meaning of the name, and to add another theory to the growing list.
The one source which attributes French origin to the name is a footnote to John H. Kinzie's unpublished manuscript, "Sketch of Hoo-wan-nee-kaw," written in 1831 while that gentleman was in charge of the Winnebago agency at Portage. A copy of this document in Chicago's Newberry Library has a foot¬ note which appears to be in the handwriting of his daughter, Nellie Kinzie Gordon, which declares: "Ouiskonsin (Wisconsin) is a cor¬ ruption of the French phrase 'Ou ce q'on descend' or 'the place from which one comes down' meaning the 'rapids,' or 'falls.'"
This bare assertion, lacking supporting evi¬ dence, must be summarily dismissed as un¬ tenable. The earliest forms of the name "Wisconsin," mentioned below, are enough to exclude serious consideration of French etymology.
The state of Wisconsin, all agree, takes its name from the river of the same name. It seems best here to give a chronological review
of the changing orthography of the name of this river from its first mention in 1673 until the present spelling was legalized in 1845. The following is not an exhaustive list, but is sufficiently representative.
The earliest known white traveller to men¬ tion the Wisconsin river by name^ was Father Jacques Marquette, who wrote in 1673: "We knew that, at three leagues from Maskoutens, was a River which discharged into Missisipi .... The River on which we embarked is called Meskousing. It is very wide; it has a sandy bottom, which forms various shoals that render its navigation very difficult. It is full of Islands Covered with Vines.""
A few days later Marquette had shortened the name to "Meskous." He proffered no ex¬ planation of the meaning of the name, or from whom it was obtained, but his account is pre¬ sented both for his significant orthography and for whatever bearing his description of the river may have on later etymological ex¬ planations.
' Although some believe that the river may have been seen earlier by Groseilliers and Radisson (1654) and Father Claude AUouez (1669), they gave it no name. While at Maskoutens on the Fox, Marquette wrote: "Here is the limit of the discoveries which the French have made, for they have not yet gone any farther." Reuben Gold Thwaites (ed.), Jesuit Relations and Allied Documents (Cleveland, 1896- 1901), LIX:  101.
^Thwaites (ed.), Jesuit Relations and Allied Docu¬ ments, LIX:  105, 107.
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