Suwanee: County, town, and river in Florida, creek and town in Gwinnett County, Georgia. Interpretations of this Indian word are various; some stating that it is from Shawnee, the tribe, while others give its derivation as from sawani, meaning "echo," or "echo river"; others give it as a corruption of the name San Juanita, applied by the Spaniards to the stream, meaning "little St. John," in contradistinction to St. John on the eastern coast.