Isn it true that Tonto means “fool” in Spanish?
This *is* true, but it was not that meaning that was intended by the producers of the show. There are two versions of the story. Fran Striker told the Saturday Evening Post that he invented Tonto’s name and that it was picked by merely alterring the consanants in the name Bobo. (This was a caveman character Striker had created in another radio program.) Jim Jewell says that Striker was remembering wrong. Tonto, he said, is another Potowatomie word. There were a few Indians who would come to the camp to tell stories to the children. One of the Indians apparently had a penchant for drinking after the children had gone to sleep. Sometimes he would get rowdy and the other Indians would call him “tonto.” This meant “wild one.” Jewell remembered the word, liked it, and gave the name to the Lone Ranger’s Indian companion.
