What is the origin of the name Pequod in Herman Melville’s Moby-Dick (1851)?

The doomed whaling ship Pequod commanded by Captain Ahab in Herman Melville’s Moby-Dick (1851) was named for the Pequot tribe of Connecticut, massacred by English colonists in 1637.

Melville said the “celebrated tribe” was “now extinct as the ancient Medes.”