ToponymicaUS City Name Origins
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French

Des Moines

Iowa (IA)est. 1843pop. 210,381/duh MOYN/

The meaning

“Disputed: 'of the monks' or 'the road' (mooyiinkweena)”

How it got the name

French traders recorded the river as Riviere des Moines, which reads as 'river of the monks' and was long explained by a Trappist settlement downstream. Linguists now trace it instead to the Miami-Illinois word mooyiinkweena, a decidedly unflattering term one group used for another — usually rendered as 'the dung-faces.' The polite French spelling papered over an insult.

Disputed / alternate theory

The older and friendlier explanation credits Trappist monks who lived near the river's mouth in the 1700s.

Former names

  1. Fort Des Moines
  2. Des Moines