"Kwe" or "que" at the ending of a name usually indicates it is a woman, it is a feminine ending (Spanish and French have feminine and masculine endings to words, for example: Joseph is masculine in French while the feminine would be Josephe or Josephte or Josette or Josephine or they could use Marie-Joseph [the French are a confusing bunch], another example is Rene (with appropriate accents) is masculine and Renee is feminine, still another is Michel (male) and Michelle (female), however (always exceptions to the rule) Amable can be either, only when it is Marie-Amable do you have a good idea that it is a woman. At the ending of a name (kwe, que, qua, quah, quay) can roughly be translated as "woman". For example: Susan OSHAWGUSCODAYWAYQUA's (wife of John JOHNSTON) name is rendered "Woman of the Green Glade". Her daughter Eliza JOHNSTON aka Wah-bu-nung-o-qua is called "Woman of the Morning Star". Another daughter Charlotte aka Oge-bu-no-qua is called "Woman of the Wild Rose" Se-be-quay is given as "River Woman". Of course since I do not speak Ojibwa or Odawa or Potawatomi I cannot say for certain that these are indeed correct translations of the name, but that is how they are given in various sources. What is confusing is Miami (who belong to the same language family) names where both men & women's names end in quay or quah. Hopes this helps some. PS. there are some men's names which appear like they may be women's names but I do not know if it is because someone transcribed them wrong or what, a Native speaker may be able to provide that answer. Jim. ----- Original Message ----- From: "Kathleen Bazinau" <bazinaus@nmo.net> To: <MIMACKIN-L@rootsweb.com> Sent: Tuesday, June 22, 2004 5:49 PM Subject: Re: [MIMac] Re: Antoine Martin > Yes, but I believe in a womans native name it comes in as kwe (at the end of > the name) or a variation of that...I know a couple of people who speak > Ojibway and have native names given to them by their clans. The three woman > I know have "kwe" at the end of their native name and two of them told me > that it meant "woman". I just didn't have the time to verify before I > posted the last message, hence the statement that I had very limited > knowledge of my own about the language. When I have a few moments, I will > call/email one of the the ladies to verifty cuz now I want to know for > sure...ya got me doubtin' myself now :o). > > Kathleen Bazinau > > >