SwANTON] INDIANS OF THE SOUTHEASTERN UNITED STATES 673 



Adair furnishes us with a considerable description of the Chicka- 

 saw naming system. He says that they named their children on account 

 of "their tempers, outward appearances, and other various circum- 

 stances," but before such a name was bestowed we learn that there 

 was one general name given to a boy and another general name given 

 to a girl. Besides the names directly significant, however, there was 

 a stock of names belonging to each clan from which the child's name 

 might be selected, and the selection was probably made by the men of 

 the father's clan as was customary among the Creeks. Parents also 

 carried the names of their children, being known as "the father (or 

 mother) of so-and-so." If this child died, they allowed a certain time 

 to elapse and then called themselves after the name of the next. The 

 dead were not called by name but only faintly alluded to. Chickasaw 

 men were also given one or more war names after they came of age and 

 had performed exploits considered worthy of note, and most of these 

 were combinations of two elements, the second signifying "to kill," 

 as "He counted and killed." "He shook hands and killed," "He came 

 and killed," and so on. Women's names appear to have had the same 

 origin as men's names among the Creeks, but their signification has in 

 most cases been lost (Swanton, 1928 c, pp. 187-190; Adair, 1775, pp. 

 191-193). 



Cushman thought that the Choctaw names had a totemic significance, 

 but he is followed by no one else and the Choctaw had no totems; 

 therefore Claiborne is probably correct when he says that a child was 

 named after some incident which happened at the moment of birth. 

 Adult males received names from circumstances connected with war. 

 As in the case of the Chickasaw, most of these ended in -abi, "to kill," 

 but some consisted of two words of which the second resembled similar 

 words used by the Creeks. Among these we find hacho, mi°ko, holahta 

 (a certain kind of chief) , hopai, "leader," or "prophet," imataha, prob- 

 ably related to Creek imathla, iskitini, "little," and humma, "red." 

 This last is said to have been used of a special class of warriors, the na 

 humma, desperate fighters who were never supposed to turn their 

 backs in combat. They may have constituted one of the four grades 

 of warriors of which an anonymous French writer speaks (Cushman, 

 1899, p. 98; Swanton, 1931 a, pp. 119-124). Among Creeks, Chicka- 

 saw, and Choctaw alike an individual was averse to telling his own 

 name or mentioning those of the dead, and the terms of relationship 

 show that this must have been true of the Timucua. 



We have little information regarding Natchez common names. 

 War titles were given out by the old war chiefs, and these are said to 

 have indicated all of his exploits, the name telling how many enemies 

 he had slain. To deserve the name of a great man-killer, it was neces- 



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