What does the name kiowa mean?

Answer 1

"Kiowa" is a very poor attempt by white people to say the real name of the tribe: Gaigwu or Cáuigú.

The first part of this is the element Kae- or Gai-which means the Kiowa themselves - it may derive from the word ka' (mother) or from ka-a' (a type of spear with feathers along its length). The true origin is lost. Kae-kiameans a Kiowa man; Kae-ma is a Kiowa woman.

The second element -gua means men or people.

So Cáuigú means "Kiowa people".

Some writers have claimed that the meaning of Kiowa is "principal people", but a careful study of their language shows this idea to be false; the only way of expressing the word "principal", "genuine" "real" or "true" in Kiowa is to add the ending -hin.