SUMMARY
Early Virginia Indians the Algonquian-speaking Indians of Tsenacomoco, in particular, and possibly other groups used multiple personal names. Although these names had specific meanings, most were not translated by English colonists at Jamestown, and many of those meanings have been lost. Often, Indians held more than one name simultaneously, with different names used in different situations. Pocahontas, for instance, had a formal given name; a “secret,” or highly personal name; and nicknames that were updated throughout her life, sometimes commenting on her personality or her position within the community. Indian men and boys were expected to earn names that described their feats as hunters and warriors. Chiefs, such as Powhatan, often took new names when assuming power and sometimes even changed their names again after that. After the mid-seventeenth century, Virginia Indians began to adopt English first names, which they sometimes paired with shortened versions of thei
kwiocosuk. The
quiocosin was at least as large as a chief’s house (20 feet wide and up to 100 feet long, according to the colonist William Strachey) and usually situated in remote forest areas; entrance was forbidden to all but shamans and chiefs. Oriented east to west, with a door on the eastern end, the
quiocosin was partitioned off into two areas. The east end, being a gathering place for priests, was empty save for a central fire that was never allowed to go out. The more restricted western end housed wooden carvings, including one of Okee. Other carvings took the form of posts or pillars set upright in the ground, the upper ends of which featured likenesses of human heads (perhaps suggesting ancestors or spirits). The western room of the