Knysna

A number of explanations exist for the origins of the name, ‘Knysna’ – including ‘xthys xna,’ purportedly from a Khoekhoe language term that might have meant ‘place of timber’, ‘place of ferns’, or even ‘straight down’^[17][18] (referring to the cliffs at The Heads).

However, it is also likely that the name is related to, or a derivative of, similar place names that do or have existed in other parts of Africa.^{[speculation?]} In colonial times Lake Malawi was known as Lake Nyasa (very similar to ‘Knysna’), while Webster’s Universal Unabridged Dictionary^[19] defines the word ‘nyanza’ as a noun: “(African): An expanse of water, as a lake or wide river”