A hydronym (from Greek hudor, "water" and onuma, "name") is a proper name of a body of water. Hydronymy is the study of hydronyms and of how bodies of water receive their names and how they're transmitted through history. It can apply to rivers, lakes, even oceanic elements. Like most toponyms, as linguistic items, hydronyms are very conservative, with successor peoples often retaining the name given a body of water. For example, Mississippi has passed from Native Americans to contemporary Ameri… (More on Hydronym)