How Wahoo, Nebraska Got Its Name (A Shrub, an Elm or a Bluff?)

Wahoo, Nebraska, shares its name with Wahoo Creek, and nobody knows for sure where the name came from. The favorite explanation is a shrub called the wahoo that grows on its banks. A 1925 study lists two other ideas.

Three explanations

A 1925 study of Nebraska place names opens with a warning: “There is some dispute as to the origin of the name Wahoo.” Then it lays out three ideas.

The shrub. The study’s first explanation is that the name comes from the “wahoo,” a shrub also known as the “burning bush,” which “grows on the banks of Wahoo creek.” It adds that, according to “traditional lore,” the shrub was a medicinal plant for Native people. Wikipedia also says the town’s name comes from the eastern wahoo, a shrub found along the creek.

“Not very bluffy.” The second idea is that Wahoo comes from “pahoo,” said to mean “not very bluffy.” The study itself doubts it: that’s “not very probable, judging from the rugged appearance of the country.”

An elm. Third, the study notes that Henry Gannett’s national book of place names says “wahoo” is an Indian word “said to mean some species of elm.”

Where the word “wahoo” comes from

The shrub’s English name, wahoo, is itself borrowed from a Native language. Wikipedia and Dictionary.com both trace it to a Dakota word meaning “arrow wood.” We’re not linguists, and none of our sources ties that Dakota word directly to the naming of the town or the creek, so we pass it along as their explanation, not as settled fact.

Our take

The shrub is the explanation most sources go with. The 1925 study lists it first and doubts the “pahoo” idea, but it doesn’t rule out the elm. But the study calls the question disputed, and we found no record from the people who first chose the name. So we mark this one as disputed.

The U.S. Geological Survey’s record says Wahoo was founded in 1870 and incorporated in 1874. It’s the county seat of Saunders County.

Sources & further reading

• Lilian Linder Fitzpatrick, Nebraska Place-Names (University of Nebraska, 1925). A public-domain study of the state’s place names, county by county. The three explanations: the wahoo shrub, “pahoo” and Gannett’s elm.
• Wikipedia, “Wahoo, Nebraska.” Named for the eastern wahoo shrub on the creek’s banks; the Dakota word behind the shrub’s name.
• Dictionary.com, “wahoo.” The shrub’s name traced to a Dakota word for “arrow wood.”
• GNIS feature 834421 (U.S. Geological Survey). The federal record for Wahoo. Founded 1870; incorporated 1874.