List of Canadian provincial and territorial name etymologies

Template:Short description This article lists the etymologies of the names of the provinces and territories of Canada.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>

Provinces and territories

Name	Language of origin	Word(s) in original language	Meaning and notes
Template:Flag Error creating thumbnail:	Latin (ultimately from Proto-Germanic)		Feminine Latinized form of Albert, ultimately from the Proto-Germanic *Aþalaberhtaz (compound of "noble" + "bright/famous"), after Princess Louisa Caroline Alberta<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation	CitationClass=web }}</ref><ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation	CitationClass=web }}</ref>
Template:Flag File:British Columbia in Canada 2.svg	Latin		Referring to the British sector of the Columbia District, after the Columbia River, ultimately after the Columbia Rediviva, a reference to Christopher Columbus<ref>Template:Cite book</ref><ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation	CitationClass=web }}</ref>
Template:Flag File:Manitoba in Canada 2.svg	Cree, Ojibwe. or Assiniboine	manitou-wapow, manidoobaa, or minnetoba	"Straits of Manitou, the Great Spirit" or "Lake of the Prairie", after Lake Manitoba<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation	CitationClass=web }}</ref><ref>Template:Cite book</ref>
Template:Flag File:New Brunswick in Canada 2.svg	German (ultimately from Low German)	lang}}	Combination of Bruno and wik, referring to a place where merchants rested and stored their goods<ref>Template:Cite book</ref>
Template:Flag File:Newfoundland and Labrador in Canada 2.svg	Portuguese	lang}} and {{#invoke:Lang|lang}}	"New land", and the surname of João Fernandes Lavrador, meaning "farmer" or "plower"<ref>Hamilton, William B. (1978): The Macmillan book of Canadian place names, Macmillan of Canada, Toronto, p. 105.</ref>
Template:Flag File:Northwest Territories in Canada 2.svg	English		Referring to the territory's position relative to Rupert's Land
Template:Flag File:Nova Scotia in Canada 2.svg	Latin		lang}}, the term applied to Gaels<ref>Scottish Settlement Template:Webarchive. Novascotia.com. Retrieved 12 July 2013.</ref><ref>P. Freeman, Ireland and the Classical World, Austin, 2001, pp. 93.</ref>
Template:Flag File:Nunavut in Canada 2.svg	Inuktitut		Nunavut means "Our land" in the Inuit language<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation	CitationClass=web }}</ref>
Template:Flag File:Ontario in Canada 2.svg	Iroquoian, Wyandot	Ontarí꞉io or Skanadario	"Great lake" or "beautiful water", after Lake Ontario<ref>Template:Cite book</ref><ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation	CitationClass=web }}</ref>
Template:Flag File:Prince Edward Island in Canada 2.svg	English (ultimately from Old English)		After Prince Edward, Duke of Kent and Strathearn, ultimately from the Anglo-Saxon {{#invoke:Lang|lang}} "wealth, fortune; prosperous" and {{#invoke:Lang|lang}} "guardian, protector"<ref>Tidridge, Nathan. Prince Edward, Duke of Kent: Father of the Canadian Crown. Toronto: Dundurn Press, 2013.</ref>
Template:Flag File:Quebec in Canada 2.svg	Algonquin, Mi'kmaq, Ojibwe	lang}}	"Where the river narrows", referring to the narrowing of the Saint Lawrence River at Quebec City<ref>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, p. 191.</ref>
Template:Flag File:Saskatchewan in Canada 2.svg	Cree	lang}}	"Swift-flowing river", after the Saskatchewan River<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation	CitationClass=web }}</ref>
Template:Flag File:Yukon in Canada 2.svg	Gwichʼin	lang}}	"White water river", after the Yukon River<ref>"Dear Sir, I have great pleasure in informing you that I have at length after much trouble and difficulties, succeed[ed] in reaching the 'Youcon', or white water River, so named by the (Gwich'in) natives from the pale colour of its water. …, I have the honour to Remain Your obt Servt, John Bell" Hudson's Bay Company Correspondence to George Simpson from John Bell (August 1, 1845), HBC Archives, D.5/14, fos. 212-215d, also quoted in, Template:Cite book</ref><ref>In Gwich'in, adjectives, such as {{#invoke:Lang|lang}} [big] and {{#invoke:Lang|lang}} [white], follow the nouns that they modify. Thus, white water is {{#invoke:Lang|lang}} [water white]. White water river is {{#invoke:Lang|lang}} [water white river]. Template:Cite book</ref>

Historical regions

• Acadia (Template:Langx): origin disputed:
  1. Credited to Florentine navigator Giovanni da Verrazzano, who first named a region around Chesapeake Bay Archadia (Arcadia) in 1524 because of "the beauty of its trees", according to his diary. Cartographers began using the name Arcadia to refer to areas progressively farther north until it referred to the French holdings in maritime Canada (particularly Nova Scotia). The -r- also began to disappear from the name on early maps, resulting in the current Acadia.<ref>Template:Usurped</ref>
  2. Possibly derived from the Míkmaq word {{#invoke:Lang|lang}}, pronounced roughly "agadik", meaning "place", which French-speakers spelled as -cadie in place names such as Shubenacadie and Tracadie, possibly coincidentally.<ref>Provinces and Territories - The origins of their names Template:Webarchive</ref>
• District of Keewatin: Algonquian roots—either {{#invoke:Lang|lang}} ({{#invoke:Lang|lang}}) in Cree or {{#invoke:Lang|lang}} ({{#invoke:Lang|lang}}) in Ojibwe—both of which mean 'north wind' in their respective languages.<ref>"Who Named the North-Land?". Manitoba Free Press. August 19, 1876. p. 3.</ref>
• Nunatsiavut: Inuktitut, meaning "our beautiful land".<ref>Nunatsiavut Government|Nunatsiavut.com Template:Webarchive</ref>

See also

• Locations in Canada with an English name
• List of Canadian place names of Ukrainian origin
• List of place names in Canada of Aboriginal origin
• List of etymologies of administrative divisions
• Name of Canada
• Origins of names of cities in Canada
• Scottish place names in Canada

Further reading

• Template:Citation
• Template:Cite book
• Template:Cite book

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