Various proposals have been given for the origin of the word "Cheyenne". Some have suggested that it comes from French fur traders, who named Cheyennes with the French word "chien," meaning "dog." Further suggested in this folk etymology is that that name would make sense because at the time of French-Cheyenne contact, the Cheyennes did not yet have horses, but were using dogs for pulling their travois, loaded with their tepees and other supplies.

More often it is suggested that "Cheyenne" derives from a Sioux word. The Sioux words most often cited have meanings related to 'red' or 'alien'. Sometimes the meaning has been given in the literature as "those who speak an alien tongue."

These Siouan explanations are reasonable, but they do not stand up to the most rigorous linguistic and historical analysis. Ives Goddard, Algonquianist and a curator at the Smithsonian Institution, says (personal email communication, 28 May 1997]:

There is no question about the etymology of Cheyenne. It comes into English from French; the J.B. Franquelin map of 1678-1679 has Chaiena, a direct rendering of Dakota (dialect) šahíyena (Riggs 1890, p. 440)], corresponding to Lakota (dialect) šahíyela. This is the regular diminutive of šahíya, the name of the Cree. So the Cheyenne are [called] the "little Cree" [by the Sioux].

Sioux

The name "Sioux" is an abbreviated form of Nadouessioux borrowed into French Canadian from Nadoüessioüak from the early Odawa exonym: naadowesiwag "Sioux".[6] It was first used by Jean Nicolet in 1640.[3]