Submitted Name Revision History

The origins of this name are uncertain. This was the name of a Barbadian slave who was one of the first people accused of witchcraft in the Salem witch trials. In the literary world, said Tituba is featured in Maryse Condé's novel I, Tituba: Black Witch of Salem (1986) as well as in the 1952 play The Crucible by Arthur Miller.

Several origins have been suggested. According to Veta Smith Tucker, Tituba is a Yoruba word, a verb meaning "to atone", and titi in Yoruba means "endless". If Tituba hailed from the Caribbean or from South America, she could have surely been given a Spanish name; Spanish titubear means "to stammer". In the 16th century the Spanish identified a tribe of Indians around the Orinoco River that they named Tibetibe, and anthropologists also distinguished a group of Arawaks around the Amacura River called the Tetebetana. In Latin, often a source of slaves' names in Europe and America, tituba means "totter, stagger".