Name

Mount Rainier was first known by the Native Americans as Talol, or Tacoma or Tahoma. One hypothesis of the word origin is [təqʷúʔbəʔ] ("mother of waters"), in the Lushootseed language spoken by the Puyallup people.^[8] Another hypothesis is that "Tacoma" means "larger than Mount Baker" in Lushootseed: "Ta", larger, plus "Koma (Kulshan)", Mount Baker.^[9] Other names originally used include Tahoma, Tacobeh, and Pooskaus.^[10]
The current name was given by George Vancouver, who named it in honor of his friend, Rear Admiral Peter Rainier.^[11] The map of the Lewis and Clark expedition of 1804-1806 refers to it as "Mt. Regniere".
Although "Rainier" had been considered the official name of the mountain, Theodore Winthrop, in his posthumously published 1862 travel book The Canoe and the Saddle, referred to the mountain as "Tacoma" and for a time, both names were used interchangeably, although "Mt. Tacoma" was preferred in the city of Tacoma.^[12][13]
In 1890, the United States Board on Geographic Names declared that the mountain would be known as "Rainier".^[14] Following this in 1897, the Pacific Forest Reserve became the Mount Rainier Forest Reserve, and the national park was established three years later. Despite this, there was still a movement to change the mountain's name to "Tacoma" and Congress was still considering a resolution to change the name as late as 1924.^[15][16]
In the lead up to Super Bowl XLVIII, the Washington State Senate passed a resolution on Friday, January 31, 2014, temporarily renaming the mountain Mount Seattle Seahawks until the midnight after the Super Bowl, Monday, February 3, 2014,^[17] in response to the renaming of 53 mountains in Colorado after the 53 members of the Denver Broncos by Governor of Colorado John Hickenlooper.^[18]
After the 2015 restoration of the original name Denali to Mount McKinley in Alaska, debate over Mount Rainier's name intensified.^[19]