Etymology of Kalamazoo

Kalamazoo is the name of several places in the U.S. state of Michigan:

All are named after the river, but there is uncertainty concerning the origin of the river's name. A number of etymologies (some of them folk etymologies) have been proposed, all of which suggest that the name was derived from the languages of indigenous peoples. Some of the theories are:

In his 1986 Indian Names in Michigan, Virgil Vogel explained when Kalamazoo County was formed on July 30, 1830, it "was allegedly named from the 'Indian' name of the river, Ke-kanaamazoo, 'the boiling pot'." There had been various transliterations of the term. In the 1821 Treaty of Chicago, the village of Match-e-be narh-she-wish, was described as at the head of the "Kekalamazoo river" (this village became the present-day city). Vogel suggests that the word "may be from the Miami, because of the presence of l." Vogel cites Father Chrysostam Verwyst stating the name Kalamazoo comes from Ojibwe as a "corruption of Kikanamsoso" meaning "it smokes, or he is troubled with smoke" and pronounced "kee-kah-nah-mo-zo or kee-kau-nau-mo-zo". Vogel also cites William R. Gerard as concurring in this opinion, that "Kalamazoo is a slight alteration of older Ojibwe kikalâmoza, meaning 'he is inconvenienced by smoke in his lodge'." Vogel further cites Gerard as dismissing Schoolcraft's opinion that the name was from negikanamazoo, or "otters beneath the surface" as an "etymological absurdity". However, Vogel also suggests that both Verwyst and Gerard accounts also "deserve this label". Vogel also dismisses the view that the name means "mirage or reflecting river".

Instead, Vogel suggests the following interpretations for the source of Kalamazoo as more credible:

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