The year of Pocahontas's birth is unknown, but Camilla Townsend, author of "Pocahontas and the Powhatan Dilemma", suggests that she was born about 1597. Her father was Powhatan, the chief of an alliance of tribes in Virginia. Her mother was a woman of no social importance. Pocahontas was named Amonute. By the age of ten, the child was nicknamed Pocahontas, which means "playful one". She had a name known only to her parents. It may have been Makoata.