How fucking difficult can it be to track down a native speaker of Algonquian and ask?

Anyway, so. According to American Indian Place Names at Fact Monster, Chicago is "Algonquian for 'garlic field.'"

However, the word Chicago links to the Fact Monster page for Chicago, which states that "The name Chicago is thought to come from an Algonquian word meaning 'onion' or 'skunk.'"

Emphasis added.

Also of interest, perhaps:

The first white men known to have visited the region were Louis Joliet and Jacques Marquette in 1673. The first permanent white settler was John Kinzie, who is sometimes called the Father of Chicago. He took over a trading post in 1796 that had been established in 1791 by Jean-Baptiste Point du Sable, a black fur trapper. Fort Dearborn, a blockhouse and stockade, was built in 1804 but was evacuated in 1812, at which time more than half of its garrison was massacred by Potawatomi and Ottawa Indians loyal to the British.

Flipping over to Algonquian Language Family (Algonkian Indian Languages, Algic, Algonquian Indians), we see that:

Though this language family is most properly known as 'Algic' to linguists (Wiyot and Yurok are not considered closely related enough to qualify as Algonquian, and the broader category Algic includes them as well), 'Algonquian' (or 'Algonkian') is the general term most often used by the Native Americans who speak them.

I'm taking "speak," present tense, to mean there are still people who, you know, speak the language.

So why the confusion about what the name of the city means?

These are the questions that would keep me awake nights, were it not for Two Buck Chuck.

Actually closer to Three Buck Chuck here in Onionville or Skunktown or whatever the fuck the name means.

Want to know more about place names around the city? See Yes, Virginia, there was a William Busse, possibly registration-required, in the Trib:

Flossmoor. No, not named by a local dentist. It's the combination of two Scottish words — "floss," meaning dew on the flowers, and "moor," meaning gentle rolling countryside.

Wilmette. An Anglicized version of the name of Antoine Ouilmette, a French-Canadian fur trader who first came to Chicago in 1790. He and his part-Potawatomi wife Archange moved to a cabin along the lakeshore near what is Lake Street in present-day Wilmette.

Joe Orr Road (Chicago Heights). Joe Orr, born to pioneer settlers in 1864 on a farm near the corner of Dixie Highway and Joe Orr Road in Chicago Heights, founded a coal company in 1902 and later became a major road builder in the area.

McHenry County and the village of McHenry. Major William McHenry, from White County in Downstate Illinois, was a famous commander in the Black Hawk War as well as a state representative and senator.

Steger. John V. Steger built a series of three-story structures for his piano factory. The town built up around this business.

I see I shall have to call McHenry "Indian Killer Town" from now on. Sorry, Neo.