Answered By: Joelle Maurepas
Last Updated: Sep 29, 2015     Views: 1404

According to various sources on the internet, Tallulah means "Leaping Water."  It's taken from the Choctaw (Native American) language.  However, we could find no primary sources backing that up.

We did, however, find a Choctaw language dictionary published in 1909, A Dictionary of the Choctaw Language By Cyrus Byington (free as an ebook through Google Books).

There is no entry for "Tallulah."  However, there is an entry for Talula defined as "n. A bell (A word in use among the sixtowns people)"

According to the same work, Sixtowns is a dialect of Choctaw that was prevalent among Southern speakers of Choctaw (and not present in the major, or "Longtown" dialect).

If you have any further questions, please write back or give us a call at (225) 231-3750.
 

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Comments (1)

  1. Tallulah is not Choctaw. Leaping water would roughly translate to Oka-uva in Anumpo. Tallulah is the name of the community that both portions of Nell and Deliverance was filmed in and it was English Speaking Settlers that gave it the name, not the Cherokee.
    by Choctaw Soldier on Mar 26, 2024

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