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There is no record of Europeans having explored as far as the Great Lakes by the year 1600. The First Nations would have had their own names for the Great Lakes. One of their names for Lake Superior was Gichigami.
When the French explores and traders entered the Great Lakes region in the 1600s, American Indian Nations already had given names to the lakes the lives along. As reports and crude maps went back to Europe, these Indian names were combined with names the French thought more appropriate.
They are all names of lakes.
The great Lakes
The five North American "Great Lakes" have the same names in Canada and the US : (by size) Lake Superior, Lake Huron, Lake Michigan, Lake Erie, and Lake Ontario. A sixth, much-smaller lake, called Lake St. Clair, lies on the waterway between Lakes Michigan and Erie.