Names in Lakota culture were not arbitrary; they described something observed, something meaningful, something characteristic of the person who bore them.

She was also sometimes referred to as Mary Crawler after she lived on the reservation — a common pattern of the reservation era, in which Christian names were imposed or adopted as part of the assimilation process the government was enforcing.

The name Crawler came from her father — Crawler or Iŋyaŋkamani Ȟȟéčhetu — and the English surname was derived from his name.

The multiple names she carried — Tȟašína Máni, Moving Robe Woman, Mary Crawler — reflect the layered history of her life: a Lakota name given at birth in a Hunkpapa camp, an English translation used by American observers and historians, a Christian name imposed by the reservation system that tried to remake who she was.