In his 1948 article "Koshkonong, a Misunderstood Place-name," linguist Frederic Cassidy traces the various names applied to this lake and their meanings. He dismisses the most common explanations of the name's origin, including the widely repeated "lake-that-we-live-on." He shows that "Koshkonong was evidently first applied to a Winnebago [Ho-Chunk] village, from which it passed to the lake on which the village lay. In his report to the War Department concerning his trip into southwest Wisconsin during the summer of 1820, on which he gathered information about the local Indians from 'Mr. Law and other gentlemen Indian traders,' Dr. Jedidiah Morse wrote, 'On Rock River and its branches they [the Winnebago] have fourteen villages, one of which, the largest, the lowest down Rock River, three hundred miles by water from its mouth, is called Kus-kou-o-nog... Their village is on the west side of a lake of the name of their village six miles long by three wide...'

Cassidy explains that the word is not from the Ho-Chunk language but from Ojibwe, from whom Morse's white traders obtained their information. He concludes: "Analyzing the Ojibwa form 'kackdwanung' (pronounced kash ka-wa-nung) we get kack = shut in, close in; awan = fog; ung = place; the whole phrase meaning 'where there is heavy fog,' 'where it is closed in by fog,' or 'a sheltered place behind a windbreak (where fog might remain).' This would certainly suit the region of Lake Koshkonong and specifically a spot chosen for a village beside the lake."

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[Source: Cassidy, Frederic Gomes, 1907- "Koshkonong," a misunderstood place-name" Wisconsin Magazine Of History. Volume: 31 / Issue: 4 (1947-1948): 429-440]