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This page lists the etymologies of the names of the provinces and territories of Canada.
[edit] Provinces
- Alberta
- named after Princess Louise Caroline Alberta (d. 1939), the fourth daughter of Queen Victoria and wife of the Governor General of Canada in the late 19th century.
- British Columbia
- takes its name partly from Britain and partly from the Columbia whose crew first explored the area. Columbia in turn is a poetic name for the American continent discovered by Christopher Columbus. The adjective "British" was presumably added to the name to distinguish it from Colombia in South America or from what became the state of Washington in the United States, whose name was originally going to be Columbia, after the river.
- Manitoba
- is most commonly believed to have come from the Cree word manitowapow or the Ojibwa word manitobau, both meaning "the strait of the spirit". It is unclear why this name was chosen for the province, though it is generally thought to be named after straits in Lake Manitoba.
- New Brunswick
- named in honour of the Duke of Brunswick-Lüneburg, the future King George IV of the United Kingdom, son of King George III of the United Kingdom.
- Newfoundland and Labrador
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- Newfoundland
- (Latin: Terra Nova) was named by its European discoverers around 1500; possibly by the Portuguese explorer João Vaz Corte-Real in 1472, making it the oldest European name in North America
- Labrador
- probably named after João Fernandes Lavrador, a Portuguese navigator who visited the area in 1498.[1]
- Nova Scotia
- Latin for "New Scotland". In the 1620s a group of Scots was sent by Charles I to set up a colony, and the Latin name is used in Sir William Alexander's 1621 land grant. Although this settlement was abandoned because of a treaty between Britain and France, the name remains.
- Ontario
- named after Lake Ontario, which got its name from a Native American language, most likely from onitariio, meaning "beautiful lake", or kanadario, translated as "sparkling" or "beautiful", or possibly from Wyandot (Huron) ontare ("lake").
- Prince Edward Island
- named after Prince Edward Augustus, Duke of York, the brother of King George III of the United Kingdom and a commander of troops in Anglo-French fighting in Canada that was occurring at the time the name was given.
- Quebec
- from Míkmaq kepék, "strait, narrows"[2]
- Saskatchewan
- from the Saskatchewan River (Cree: kisiskāciwani-sīpiy, "swift flowing river").
[edit] Territories
- Northwest Territories
- named for its location northwest of Lake Superior. The territory once comprised virtually all Canadian land northwest of that lake; it has since been split up into several other provinces and territories, but has retained its name.
- Nunavut
- means "our land" in Inuktitut, the language of the Inuit.
- Yukon
- takes its name from the Yukon River, whose name in turn means "great river" in Gwichʼin.
[edit] See also
[edit] References
- ^ João Fernandes Lavrador, exploration dates. Retrieved on 2007-08-31.
- ^ Afable, Patricia O. and Madison S. Beeler (1996). "Place Names". In "Languages", ed. Ives Goddard. Vol. 17 of Handbook of North American Indians, ed. William C. Sturtevant. Washington, D.C.: Smithsonian Institution, pg. 191
