Savannah River - Name

Name

The name "Savannah" comes from a group of Shawnee who migrated to region in the 1680s, destroyed the Westo and occupied the former Westo lands at the Savannah River's head of navigation on the fall line, near present day Augusta. These Shawnee were called by several variant names such as Shawano, Savano, Savana, and Savannah. The origin and meaning of the name savana for these Shawnee is uncertain. One theory is that the name was derived from the English term "savanna", a kind of tropical grassland, which was borrowed by the English from Spanish sabana and used in the colonial southeast. The Spanish word was in turn borrowed from the Taino word zabana. Other theories interpret the name Savannah to come from Algonquian terms meaning "southerner" or perhaps "salt".