Lake Erie (/ˈɪri/; French: Lac Érié) is the fourth largest lake (by surface area) of the five Great Lakes in North America, and the tenth largest globally or twelfth largest globally if measured in terms of surface area. It is the southernmost, shallowest, and smallest by volume of the Great Lakes and therefore also has the shortest average water residence time. Lake Erie's northern shore is bounded by the Canadian province of Ontario, with US states of Ohio, Pennsylvania and New York on its southern and easternmost shores and Michigan on the west. The lake was named by the Erie tribe of Native Americans who lived along its southern shore. That Iroquoian tribe called it "Erige" ("cat") because of its unpredictable and sometimes violently dangerous nature.