- Canadian provincial name etymologies
This page lists the
etymologies of thename s of theprovinces and territories of Canada .Provinces
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Alberta : named after Princess Louise Caroline Alberta (d. 1939), the fourth daughter of Queen Victoria and wife of theGovernor 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 byChristopher Columbus . The adjective "British" was presumably added to the name to distinguish it fromColombia 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 theOjibwa 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 inLake Manitoba .;New Brunswick : named in honour of the Duke ofBrunswick-Lüneburg , the future KingGeorge IV of the United Kingdom , son of KingGeorge III of the United Kingdom .;Newfoundland and Labrador :; Newfoundland :: (Latin : "Terra Nova") was named by its European discoverers around 1500; possibly by the Portuguese explorerJoão Vaz Corte-Real in 1472, making it the oldest European name in North America:;Labrador :: probably named afterJoão Fernandes Lavrador , a Portuguese navigator who visited the area in 1498. [cite web|url=http://www.thecanadianencyclopedia.com/index.cfm?PgNm=TCE&Params=A1ARTA0002769|title= João Fernandes Lavrador, exploration dates|accessdate=2007-08-31] ;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 afterLake 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 KingGeorge 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" [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] ;Saskatchewan : from theSaskatchewan River (Cree : "kisiskāciwani-sīpiy", "swift flowing river").Territories
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Northwest Territories : named for its location northwest ofLake 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 theInuit .;Yukon : takes its name from theYukon River , whose name in turn means "great river" in Gwichʼin.ee also
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Canada's name
*List of etymologies of country subdivision names References
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