The Great Miami originates at the man-made Indian Lake and flows south through the cities of Sidney, Piqua, Troy, Dayton, Middletown and Hamilton.

The river is named for the Miami, an Algonquian-speaking Native American people who lived in the region during the early days of European settlement.

This term is used in the upper portions of the valley as a moniker for the economic-cultural region centered primarily on the Greater Dayton area.

Indian Lake is an artificial reservoir which receives the flow from the North and South forks of the Great Miami River.

[6] This name was directly taken from the Myaamia language (Miami-Illinois) of the Miami Nation that lived in the area (ahseni siipiiwi, meaning Rock River[7]).