Canada's Provinces

Having recently been reminded of how the name of Canada being named for a tiny area around the St Lawrence where the Iroquoi referred to their kanata or ‘village’, I thought it a good idea to examine the origins of the names of the territories. These twelve names have a variety of origins, some simplistic, others transferred from the Old World, and even those from the indigenous languages.

Alberta's name is down to the Scottish Marquis of Lorne, the Governor General of Canada, who named it after his wife Princess Louise Caroline Alberta in 1882.

British Colombia shares an origin with the US District of Columbiia in being named after Christopher Columbus, although this was much later than the US names and not known as such until 1858.

Manitoba is a province named after Lake Manitoba, itself from the Cree tribe's name for the island in the centre of the lake which they called Manatuapa or 'great spirit' as they regarded this as the home of said spirit.

New Brunswick is named to honour King George III in 1784 when it was separated from Nova Scotia (see below). George was not only the third George to be king of England but also the third of the House of Hanover, also referred to as Brunswick.

Newfoundland is possibly the most simplistic English place name anywhere. Discovered by John Cabot, an Italian-born Englishman, in 1497 he never actually named it such but is first seen in a document of the following year when it is simply said to be 'the new-found land'. Correctly the territory is Newfoundland and Labrador, where the English name of the island was translated to Portuguese as Terre-Nueve. The Portuguese exploration of this region is also seen in the naming of Labrador, itself directly from the surname of the navigator Joao Fernandes Lavrador. Hence the dog taking its name from the region and often abbreviated to just 'lab' should correctly be called a 'lav'. Also of note is the name given to some parts as New Britain, named as this was north of what was known as New France in the 17th century. This all started in 1612 with Welsh captain Thomas Button when he spent the winter on the shoreline of Hudson Bay at a place he called Nelson on the shores of the Nelson River. He called the region 'New Wales' and erected a sign telling others who came here. Nobody arrived until 1619 when Captain Luke Foxe discovered the sign and referred to the lands north of the mouth of the Nelson River as New North Wales and that to the south as New South Wales.

North West Territories is another requiring no explanation other than to say it is referred to as being 'north west' of Rupert's Land. A much better name is the earlier Inuktitut name of Nunatsiaq or 'beautiful land'. In the earliest days it was proposed the name should be changed to Denendeh, an Athabaskan word meaning 'our land'. This was rejected along with the rather amusing idea this should be known as simply 'Bob', which likely began as a joke but attracted a lot of interest until the joke ceased to be funny.

Nova Scotia is literally the Latin for 'New Scotland' and named by Sir William Alexander after being granted the area by James I. Previously the French had settled here and knew the place as Acadia.

Ontario, like Manitoba, is named after its lake. Here the Iroquois oniatar-io means 'beautiful' in referring to lake. The river and state of Ohio in the USA share this derivation.

Prince Edward Island was discovered in 1534 by the French explorer Jacques Cartier who called it Ile St Jean or St John's Island as it indeed became known when ceded to the British in 1763. In 1798 it was renamed after Prince Edward who was the fourth son of George III but, more importantly, the father of Queen Victoria.

Quebec takes the name of the city, one of the oldest known names on the North American continent and from the Algonquin kebec meaning 'where the river narrows'.

Yukon, as our final example, is thankfully an indigenous name. The region takes its name from the Yukon River which simply means 'big river'.

For those interested I looked at the origins of the names of Canadian cities a couple of years ago.

Canada and its Place Names

Having blogged samples of my books on English place names and also examined the etymologies of the nations of the world and their respective capitals I thought it time to cast my net a little wider. This time Canada and a look at some of its largest settlements and most interesting names and starting with the largest.

Toronto had originally been a water channel between lakes Simcoe and Couchiching known as Taronto. In time this came to be used for the newly built fort, itself originally known as Fort York after Prince Frederick, Duke of York. The original name of Toronto was restored in 1834, a Mohawk word tkaronto meaning 'where there are trees standing in the water' and still an apt description of this place today.

Montreal is named after Mount Royal, the three-peaked hill on which the city stands. There is no agreement as to whether this is derived from the French mont Real or from an Italian Monte Real, either having the same meaning.

Vancouver took the name of George Vancouver, who explored the inner harbour of Burrard Inlet in 1792.

Calgary borrowed its name from Calgary on the Isle of Mull in Scotland. As with so many names around this part of Britain it is derived from Old Scandinavian, where kald gart or 'cold garden'. Rather than taking this literally, we should understand this as 'exposed' rather than cold and 'agricultural land' as opposed to garden.

Edmonton was named after Edmonton in London, the home town of both John Peter Pruden and Hudson's Bay Company deputy governor Sir James Winter Lake. Whilst hardly applicable here, the name of Edmonton is derived from Old English and describes the tun of 'farmstead of a man called Eadhelm'.

Ottawa is from the Ottawa River, itself the Algonquin word Odawa meaning 'to trade'.

Quebec is one of the oldest cities on the North American continent, it from the Algonquin kebec meaning 'where the river narrows'.

Winnipeg is another name of local origins. Here, taken from that of Lake Winnipeg, it describes 'the muddy or brackish water'.

Hamilton is named after George Hamilton, founder of the city on land he purchased as Barton Township from James Durand in January 1815.

Kitchener was originally known by the highly appropriate name of Sandhills, for obvious reasons. By 1833 the number of German immigrants gave this a name of Berlin, then in 1916 to Kitchener after Field Marshal the 1st Earl Kitchener.

London is clearly transferred from the United Kingdom's capital. The problem here is the name of London has never been defined, with the earliest record of Londinium simply a Litinicised version of whatever had gone before. It has always been, and will doubtless likely remain, a mystery.

Victoria springs no surprises being named after Queen Victoria, formerly the longest reigning monarch in British history.

Halifax is another transferred from its counterpart in the United Kingdom. Here the original name meant 'the nook of land where coarse grass grows', but came here as a title from the 2nd Earl of Halifax.

Oshawa comes from the Ojibwa word aazhaway simply mewaning 'crossing point'.

Windsor is another transferred from the United Kingdom. Today the name of the ruling royal house and also a famous castle, its rather ignominious beginnings were down to Windsor's location on the Thames. Goods brought by river had to come up a steep and slippery bank. Ingenuity came to the rescue in the form of winding gear which made use of the slippery slope to bring the goods up on a sled.

Saskatoon is derived from the Cree tongue where misaskwatominik refers to this as 'the place of the saskatoon berry'. This local fruit is a sweet berry described as violet in colour.

Regina was, like Victoria, named for Queen Victoria. Here this was the suggestion of her daughter, Princess Louise, as her husband was then Governor General of Canada. Previously the place had the far better name of Wascana, the Cree word for 'buffalo bones'.

Barrie was named in 1833 after Sir Robert Barrie, who was then in charge of Canada's naval forces.

Note the spellings of the places are English as the piece is written in English.