Ashaway is an unincorporated village and census-designated place (CDP) in the town of Hopkinton in Washington County, Rhode Island, United States. Ashaway is a principal village of Hopkinton, along with Hope Valley, although it is the smaller of the two. The population was 1,537 at the 2000 census. The name Ashaway is an anglicisation derived from the Native American name for the river that runs through the village, the Ashawague or Ashawaug, which means "land in the middle" or "land between" in the Niantic and Mohegan languages. The name "Ashawague River" appears as late as 1832 on the Findley map of Rhode Island of the same year, published in Philadelphia, PA.