"Named after the Niger River, from a native term "Ni Gir" (meaning "River Gir"). The name has often been misinterpreted as derived from the Latin niger (“black”), a reference to the dark complexions of the inhabitants of the region."
"It is often assumed that it derives from the Latin word for "black", niger, but there is no evidence for this, and it would have been more likely for Portuguese explorers to have used their own word, negro, or preto as they did elsewhere in the world; in any case the Niger is not a blackwater river. The name is thus thought to be indigenous, but no convincing origin has been found among the 30 languages of the Niger delta and lower reaches of the river. One hypothesis is that it comes from the Tuareg phrase gher n gheren "river of rivers" (shortened to ngher), originating in the middle reaches of the river around Timbuktu."
"African nation, named for the river Niger, mentioned by that name 1520s (Leo Africanus), probably an alteration of a local Tuareg name, egereou n-igereouen, from egereou "big river, sea" + n-igereouen, plural of that word. Translated in Arabic as nahr al-anhur "river of rivers.""
Doesn't come much clearer than that tbh. A common misconception and a misfortune of similarity. But we can keep going if you want. It's nothing to me, you can't win on Nigerian history against a full blooded Nigerian.
Don't feel like derailing this thread though.
