In a detailed analysis of the toponym presented in his work De Québec au lac Saint-Jean or Sentiers des Laurentides: Sentier des Amérindiens, Sentier des Jésuites (1676-1703), Thomas-Edmond Giroux comes to the conclusion that he is a toponym of the Attikamek or Innu language which he translates as "the forest, it cries", of matow, "to cry" and mistik, "wood".