Where does the name Lake Erie come from?

The Erie people

The Handbook of American Indians North of Mexico, published by the Smithsonian's Bureau of American Ethnology early in the twentieth century, describes the Erie as a populous, settled Iroquoian people whose seventeenth-century lands stretched south from the lake, probably toward the Ohio River.^[1] Wikipedia's article on the Erie places their territory southeast of the lake, in what is now western New York and northwestern Pennsylvania, and records that, after several years of war with the Haudenosaunee (Iroquois) Confederacy, they no longer existed as an independent nation by the mid-1650s.^[2]

The long tail

The Handbook traces the name to a Huron word meaning 'it is long-tailed', which referred to the eastern puma or panther; place-name forms recorded by French missionaries meant 'at the place of the panther', and their name for the people meant 'people of the panther'.^[1] The Jesuit Relation of 1653 called them the Cat Nation, and Wikipedia quotes the missionaries explaining the name by the many wildcats in their country; it adds that 'People of the Panther' or 'People of the Long Tail' may be a more accurate translation.^[1,2] The Handbook also lists dozens of spellings of the name found in early records, from Eriehronon and Riquehronnons in the Jesuit Relations to Eries and Eriez in eighteenth-century books and maps. The lake, in other words, carries the name of the people who lived beside it.^[1]

The name today

In Canada, in history books and in everyday use on both sides of the border, the lake is Lake Erie, and that is the name this site uses. Name proposals come and go; the dated note below records the most recent one we know of, and it will be marked as possibly out of date after a year.

In September 2026 a Pennsylvania state representative said he was drafting a resolution asking the federal government to rename the lake 'Lake Pennsylvania'. (as of September 2026)^[3]

Questions people ask

What does Erie mean?

It comes from the name of the Erie people. The Smithsonian's Handbook of American Indians traces it to a Huron word meaning 'it is long-tailed', referring to the eastern panther.

Why were the Erie called the Cat Nation?

French missionaries recorded the name 'Cat Nation' in the 1650s; their name for the people is usually understood as 'people of the panther' or 'of the long tail'.