Champnoun · 20th century
Well attestedNamed by exactly the trick that produced Nessie: clip the water's name, add a pet ending.
Lake Champlain lies between New York, Vermont and Quebec and carries the name of Samuel de Champlain, who reached it in 1609. Reports of a large creature were collected there through the nineteenth century, and the nickname Champ spread with the renewed interest that followed a widely printed 1977 photograph. Both the New York State Assembly and the Vermont legislature passed resolutions in the early 1980s protecting the animal from harm.
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