Alternate names for French "Louisiana"

I mean, it's all nice and dandy to call new colonised places after whatever king is on the throne at the time (way too many French Louises by the way), but I wonder what other names could inspire the Frenchies (apart from "Nouvelle France" ofc) to describe this vast territory they claim as theirs.
 
Settlers named the Mississippi River based off of the Ojibwe word misi-ziibi meaning Great River.

Maybe Mississipie? Mizipie? Missipie?


Alternatively, the word bayou originates from the Choctaw work bayuk referring to a small stream.

Bayougne maybe? Maybe a settler notices the similarity between bayuk and Bayeux and names the place Nouvelle Bayeux.
 
Settlers named the Mississippi River based off of the Ojibwe word misi-ziibi meaning Great River.

Maybe Mississipie? Mizipie? Missipie?

https://geonames.usgs.gov/apex/f?p=...NO::P3_FID,P3_TITLE:1629903,Mississippi River - You can pick any of these names, they're variants on "Mississippi" (some look like cognates in other Algonquian languages), names used by other native peoples, or European names given by Spanish and French explorers.

I like the idea of a variant of "Malbanchia" which seems to pop up a bunch. Looks like it's from the Biloxi language.
 
Bayeux is a city so perhaps Nouveau Bessin (the area of Bayeux) or Nouvelle Normandie, with Nouvelle Bayeux one of the cities (NO?)
Alternatively perhaps it's named for the Dauphin? Nouvelle Dauphine or Viennoise.
 

Skallagrim

Banned
Settlers named the Mississippi River based off of the Ojibwe word misi-ziibi meaning Great River.

Maybe Mississipie? Mizipie? Missipie?

https://geonames.usgs.gov/apex/f?p=138:3:11222174678813::NO::p3_FID,P3_TITLE:1629903,Mississippi River - You can pick any of these names, they're variants on "Mississippi" (some look like cognates in other Algonquian languages), names used by other native peoples, or European names given by Spanish and French explorers.

I like the idea of a variant of "Malbanchia" which seems to pop up a bunch. Looks like it's from the Biloxi language.

The actual form the French typically used (as far as I've come across it) in the period was "Messipi".

Possibly, absent the name Louisiane, they'd call it something like Les Pays Messipienne ("The Messipian Lands"), eventually dropping the cumbersome "les pays", and just calling it Messipienne.
 
It depends if you ask about nowadays Lousiana, which is easy (Nouvelle Camargue maybe, a place with salty marshes and wonderful nature)

For the Nouvelle France - Québec = Lousiana it's a bit more difficult. Something about the Loire river maybe, since it's the river that resembles the most Mississipi by it's many tributaries and it's wild appearance. You can also name it "Bourbonaise" since Lousiane comes from Louis XIV or something about the Sun, like Virginia that with named after Elizabeth Ist the Virgin Queen ...
 
If the current king was named Charles instead of Louis, you might call it Caroline.

If he's named Philippe, I don't know... same for Henri... and if he's named Francois, we'd be back to Nouvelle France.

Then, there were also kings named Jean, Robert and Hugo...
 
If the current king was named Charles instead of Louis, you might call it Caroline.

If he's named Philippe, I don't know... same for Henri... and if he's named Francois, we'd be back to Nouvelle France.

Then, there were also kings named Jean, Robert and Hugo...

The idea is for a TL where French Louisiana (or at least the area around New Orleans) declares independence and becomes a republic. So they would effectively try to get rid of any name that would tie them to monarchy...

Though Henriane or Robertiane does have a ring to it....

Possibly, absent the name Louisiane, they'd call it something like Les Pays Messipienne ("The Messipian Lands"), eventually dropping the cumbersome "les pays", and just calling it Messipienne.

Messipienne.... I like the sound of that... la République Messipienne...

Nouvelle Camargue maybe, a place with salty marshes and wonderful nature

Nouvelle Camargue sounds great too !
 
Nouvelle Egypte could be a potential name, if they realize just how long the Mississippi is and discover the Mound-cities early on, classifying them as similar to Pyramids. Not likely, but it's a cool concept
 
But we aren't talking about a group of islands here.

Yes, I was just saying that Philippe became the Philippines, so the Mississipi would probably be called "La Philippine" or it would be Lousiana

Edit : sorry, it took time for me to realize I had a bad behavior by writing something you could interprete as "Philippines, duh, you stupid", sorry for this
 
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You could name it after a saint; St. Dennis or St. Joan of Arc would be the obvious choices since they're the patron saints of France, or alternatively the Virgin Mary. Or you could always name it after whichever saint's day it was when the first explorer made landfall.
 
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