Entry № 8162 · Powhatan origin

Pocahontas Pocahontas — Meaning, Origin & Baby Name Popularity

/ poh-kah-HON-tas /
Gender
Girl
Origin
Powhatan
Meaning
"Playful one (Powhatan princess and English diplomat)"
Syllables
4
First recorded
Modern (Powhatan)

A name that means "playful one (powhatan princess and english diplomat)".

Pocahontas (Powhatan, "playful one, ill-behaved child") was the personal name of Matoaka, daughter of Chief Powhatan of the Tsenacommacah confederacy in what is now Virginia. Most famous for the disputed account that she saved the life of English colonist John Smith in 1607 — captured by the English in 1613, baptized Rebecca, married tobacco planter John Rolfe in 1614, and traveled to London where she was presented at court. Died at age 21 in Gravesend, England while preparing to return home; her descendants include the First Families of Virginia.

Subject of Disney's Pocahontas (1995) and Camilla Townsend's Pocahontas and the Powhatan Dilemma (2004).

Playful one. Powhatan princess presented at the English court; died at twenty-one in Gravesend.

The name in its native script.

Pocahontas
Transliteration
Pocahontas
Pronunciation
/ ˌpoʊ.kəˈhɒn.təs /
Root
Grammatical form

Where Pocahontas stands.

Pocahontas does not currently appear in the US Social Security Administration's top 1,000 girls' names, so we don't publish a US rank or birth count for it. That says nothing about the name's standing elsewhere in the world — only that it sits outside the ranked US data we rely on.

Pocahontass before her.

Real people
Pocahontas
Powhatan princess.
c. 1596 – 1617
In fiction
Pocahontas
Disney's Pocahontas.
1995

Names connected to Pocahontas.

The number behind Pocahontas.

4

The Builder

In Pythagorean numerology the letters of Pocahontas reduce to 4, The Builder. This is a traditional interpretive system, not a factual claim about the name.