Kim and Kanye welcome daughter Chicago West
It's Chicago West.
Kim Kardashian West announced on Twitter on Friday the name of the third child that she and husband Kanye West have welcomed into the world.
Chicago West. https://t.co/3MyLwcIzTh
— Kim Kardashian West (@KimKardashian) January 19, 2018
The baby girl was born Tuesday, and Kardashian West also announced the birth on her website and social media accounts.
Chicago joins older siblings North, 4, and Saint, 2. Kanye was born in Chicago and often uses Chicago in his songs. But what is a history of the word Chicago, let's take a look.
“Shikaakwa” was the word for the a stream near Chicago because of the leeks or “smelly onions” that grew in the watershed. When the French began their explorations of the area, they took the word and “Frenchified” it, turning it into the “Chicago” we know today. The explorer Robert de la Salle is credited with recording the first precursor to Chicago, which he called “Checagou.”
So it probably won’t surprise you to learn that “Chicago” derives from a Native American word. However, there are different theories about which specific word it was derived from. The Native Americans who populated the area before European settlement had several different words that sounded similar to Chicago. One of the popular theories is that it was named after a chieftain named Chicagou who was reportedly drowned in the Chicago River. Other ideas about the origin include a derivative of “shecaugo” meaning “playful waters” or “chocago” meaning “destitute.” The origin of the name is wildly contested among academics due to the small number of documents contemporary to the time of Chicago’s establishment that actually discuss how it was named.
All that being said, the most accepted name origin is the Miami-Illinois word “shikaakwa,” which means “striped skunk” or “smelly onion”. Not exactly a glamorous name origin either way, right? Most historians think that the “onion” version is correct because the Miami-Illinois were known for naming natural landmarks after plants that grew in or near them, while naming something after an animal was a rarity. The plant-based naming system was practical because it was a reminder of what plants grew where, providing an easy reference for gathering food. Plant-based naming is also prevalent in other Algonquin languages. The Miami-Illinois people have also left their mark on several rivers in the area, including Indiana’s Salamonie River (from oonsaalamooni siipiiwi, or bloodroot river) and Sugar Creek (from ahsenaamisi siipiiwi, or maple tree sugar river).