The Lafayette River, earlier known as Tanner's Creek,[1] is a 6.2-mile-long (10.0 km)[2] tidal estuary which empties into the Elizabeth River just south of Sewell's Point near its mouth at Hampton Roads, which in turn empties into the southern end of Chesapeake Bay in southeast Virginia in the United States.

The main village of the Chesepians was called Skicoak, believed to have been located along Tanner's Creek.

As the British Colony of Virginia expanded, the Native Americans were overwhelmed, initially moving further inland.

Eventually, after a series of annexations by the growing and expanding commerce center of the independent city of Norfolk to the south, all of the waterway became located within the corporate limits.

[5][6] Soon after, Tanner's Creek was renamed the Lafayette River in honor of the Marquis de La Fayette, a French Army officer who became a popular American Revolutionary War hero as French forces aided with vital assistance in the achievement of United States' freedom from British rule.