Which Native American Girl Name Do You Like Best

  • Aiyana (Pronounced Eye-yawn-uh)
  • Winona
  • Topanga
  • Miakoda
0 voters

I believe that [name_f]Winona[/name_f], which is [name_f]Sioux[/name_f], is the only name on this list that is actually Native American. So it got my vote.

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The other names are also Native American as well, surprisingly. :wink:

[name_f]Aiyana[/name_f] seems to be a spelling variant of [name_f]Ayanna[/name_f], but along the way has picked up the probably folk origin of coming from a Native American (unspecified tribe) language. I haven’t seen any evidence to indicate it has Native American origins, other than random naming sites with no sources.

Miakoda also has similar folk origin theories of coming from a Native American (unspecific tribe) language, but evidence has not been corroborated and it appears to have been invented for a 1990s sci-fi book.

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These are random naming websites that have uncorroborated origins listed and do not cite their sources. I would not consider them reliable.

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So far every time I look up those names, they come up as Native American. I honestly don’t know what else to say. I’m Native American myself & I even know that these names are Native American.

I think this page may be a nice resource in your search for Native American names.

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I’m sorry, but that site doesn’t look accurate & is probably false itself. I believe these names are all Native American. Like I have said, I am Native American myself & know a lot of people who are also Native American, & they have told me that these names are definitely of Native American origin. So, I am sorry you have different opinions/facts about these names & don’t think these names are Native American when they actually are. Another thing, Ayanna (A-yana/A-ya-nuh) is an Arabic/African American name. It is completely different from the name Aiyana (Eye-yawn-uh) which is Native American.

What languages do they come from?

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The name Ayanna that the previous commenter posted is from Eastern African Somali language meaning “Beautiful Flower”.

It is believed that Aiyana comes from a Native American language (some allege Cherokee) meaning “Eternal Flower”.

Miakoda is a Native American name derived from the Algonquian language, meaning “Power of the Moon”.

Topanga comes from American Indian language (also called Gabrielino), meaning “Where the mountain meets the sea”.

There is a Cherokee name which means flower - Adsila (from atsilunsgi - ᎠᏥᎸᏍᎩ), the word for flower. That sounds very different to Aiyana.

Miakoda does not seem to appears to have been invented for a Native American character in the poorly reviewed Western movie Shadowheart (2009) - I can’t seem to find any sources indicating it was used beforehand. Or any bearers.

Topanga does indeed mean “where the mountain meets the sea” in the Tongva language, but it’s the name of a region in California which does not appear to have any use as a given name either.

Edit: fixed spelling

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Native American is part of my heritage & that is why I know Aiyana, Topanga, & Miakoda are all Native American names. Lol I have a lot of friends & family members who are also Native American, & they have also said that these names are Native American. Again, sorry you don’t think or know that these names are Native American, but they actually are. Atsila is a Cherokee boy name meaning “Fire”, so that is not the Cherokee name that means “flower”. Aiyana (Eye-yawn-uh) & Atsila (Ah-chee-lah) are definitely different names, in sound & pronounciation. Although, the girl name Adsila is the Cherokee name that means “Blossom”. Another name that means “flower”, is the Native American girl name Rayen (Rah-yen) which comes from Mapuche word for “flower”.

You’re right, that was a typo on my part.

Cultural heritage and personal connections can play a significant role in how names are perceived and understood, yeah, but there are 50+ distinct families of Native American languages - and the names you’ve mentioned don’t appear to be recognised names from any specific tribe or language.

There’s just so much diversity in Native American languages that if the only knowledge we have about a name is that it’s allegedly Native American, that’s significantly less useful than someone saying a certain name is just European - which I’m fairly certain most people would consider useless information. Like, the gap between say, Occitan and German is much smaller than that between Navajo and Ojibwe.

The names you’ve mentioned might occasionally be used by Native Americans as well as other populations. Forebears (which is far from perfect, but quite useful for name prevalence - at least in North America and Europe) says that there were 13 women named Miakoda in the world, as of 2014, and 14 people (men and women, 40-60 split) named Topanga. Neither of these point to them being established names that are used more than incidentally.

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