The Meaning of Winnipesaukee
Winnipesaukee is an Indian name, and is derived from winne (beautiful), nipe (water), and kees (high), and auke (a place); and the Indian tribe that inhabited the territory adjacent to the lake took the name, the Winnipesaukee, as well as the lake itself, - “Beautiful water of the high place.”
Another interpretation has frequently been given to this word, which, entirely inaccurate, is yet exquisitely beautiful, and has, no doubt, been suggested by its eminent appropriateness: “The smile of the Great Spirit.” Emphatically a “smile,” equally to the Indian and the white man, of the Great Spirit, this lovely lake has been.
Also an excerpt from:
The Merrimack River: Its Source and its tributaries, by By J. W. Meader. 1869
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