Well, ignoring things like etymonline's explanation...
 Quote:

Hottentot
1677, from S.African Du., said to mean "stammerer," it is from hot en tot "hot and tot," nonsense words imitative of the clicking, jerking Khoisan speech.

or AskOxford
 Quote:
ORIGIN Dutch, perhaps a repetitive formula in a Khoikhoi dancing song, transferred by Dutch sailors to the people themselves, or from German hotteren-totteren ‘stutter’ (with reference to their click language).

which seem to me to suggest that the origin of the name was possibly not "politically correct" to begin with... (ChingChong Chinese for another example)

If there were a hypothetical town of Stamm in the country of Stutt, my first choice to call the people would not be Stammer or Stutter - even if the result wasn't negative. Would you call someone from Chay a chair? ;-)

Last edited by Myridon; 06/18/08 09:15 PM.