Wauwatosa, or "the great walker," a noted Indian chief of the vicinity.  Another source interprets the name to mean "lightning bug" or "dim of memory" from the word wawatosi.  The Ho-Chunk word pronounced in a similar way means "I grabbed something".

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[Source: A letter of Mrs. Sarah K. Curtiss, Minneapolis, March 1917; Milwaukee Sentinel, Aug. 29, 1939.]