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Quilby Creek is a
Quilby Creek is a headwater
The headwaters of a river or stream is the farthest place in that river or stream from its estuary or downstream confluence with another river, as measured along the course of the river. It is also known as a river's source.
Definition
The ...
of the Mobile River
The Mobile River is located in southern Alabama in the United States. Formed out of the confluence of the Tombigbee and Alabama rivers, the approximately river drains an area of of Alabama, with a watershed extending into Mississippi, Georg ...
, whose source is in the U.S. state of Mississippi. The creek flows Northeast for around , crossing the border into Sumter County, Alabama for the last third of its length, after which it empties into Bodka Creek Bodka Creek is a stream in the U.S. states of Alabama and Mississippi.
''Bodka Creek'' is a name derived from the Choctaw language
The Choctaw language (Choctaw: ), spoken by the Choctaw, an Indigenous people of the Southeastern Woodlands, is p ...
.
''Quilby'' is thought to be an Anglicization
Anglicisation is the process by which a place or person becomes influenced by Culture of England, English culture or Culture of the United Kingdom, British culture, or a process of cultural and/or linguistic change in which something non-English ...
of the Choctaw
The Choctaw (in the Choctaw language, Chahta) are a Native American people originally based in the Southeastern Woodlands, in what is now Alabama and Mississippi. Their Choctaw language is a Western Muskogean language. Today, Choctaw people are ...
''koi ai ʋlbi''. There is room for ambiguity in a translation, which could be "place where the lion
The lion (''Panthera leo'') is a large Felidae, cat of the genus ''Panthera'' native to Africa and India. It has a muscular, broad-chested body; short, rounded head; round ears; and a hairy tuft at the end of its tail. It is sexually dimorphi ...
was killed" or "place where the lion was trapped". The Alabama historian Robert D. Spratt reported the creek's name using the Choctaw word ''ʋlbi'', which has several meanings centering on the nouns "trap" or "snare". The intended or original word was possibly ''ʋbi'', the transitive verb "to kill". This distinction may be accidental or might specify the manner of the mountain lion's death. Variant names are "Koilbah Creek", "Quibby Creek", and "Quillibee Creek".
References
Rivers of Alabama Rivers of Sumter County, Alabama Alabama placenames of Native American origin {{Alabama-river-stub