Before the colonial era, the settlement was known as ?Nu?goaes or Swartmodder, both of which means "Black Marsh" and indicated the presence of a spring in the area. The first white settler, Guilliam Visagie, arrived here in 1785. In 1860 the Rheinische Missions gesellschaft founded a mission there to christianize the local Nama. The first missionary, Johann Georg Schr�der, arrived in Keetmanshoop on April 14, 1866, which is now marked as the founding date of Keetmanshoop. The mission station was named after the German trader Johann Keetman who supported the mission financially, but never actually visited the place himself
