↑ John E. Koontz, Winnebago, in The American Midwest: An Interpretive Encyclopedia, page 317
Etymology
The second part of the name, -cąk, means "big, important, original". The meaning of the first part is not universally agreed upon, and the full name is variously translated as "people of the big voice" or "people of the big fish". The people's English exonym, Winnebago, derives from an Algonquian word meaning "people of the dirty water", a reference to Lake Winnebago.[1]