indicate the level to which a name has been verified.
Type Settlement
Usage English
Meaning & History
Likely from the Savannah River, which probably derives from a variant name for the Shawnee people (natively called Ša·wano·ki, meaning "Southerners") that began to settle near the river in the 1860s. The name may also be derived from either the English word savanna (a term for a type of grassland) or from an Algonquian language term meaning "southerners" or "salt".