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Canada's name - Name origin

Canada's name - Name origin: Encyclopedia II - Canada's name - Name origin

The name Canada is believed to have originated around 1535 from a Wendat (Huron-Iroquoian) word, kanata, meaning "village", "settlement", or "collection of huts"[1], referring to Stadacona, a settlement on the site of present-day Quebec City; another contemporary translation was "land"[2]. By 1547, maps made by early European explorers show that the name See also:
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Canada's name, Canada's name - Adoption of Dominion, Canada's name - After the conquest of New France, Canada's name - Footnotes, Canada's name - French terms for Dominion, Canada's name - Name origin, Canada's name - Other proposed names, Canada's name - Other sources, Canada's name - Selection of the name Canada, Canada's name - Usage of Canada/Dominion of Canada

Canada's name: Encyclopedia II - Canada's name - Name origin

Canada's name - Name origin

The name Canada is believed to have originated around 1535 from a Wendat (Huron-Iroquoian) word, kanata, meaning "village", "settlement", or "collection of huts"^[1], referring to Stadacona, a settlement on the site of present-day Quebec City; another contemporary translation was "land"^[2]. By 1547, maps made by early European explorers show that the name rivière de Canada was given to the nearby St. Lawrence River, called Kaniatarowanenneh ("big waterway") in Mohawk (coincidentally and reinforcingly similar to kanata). A plausible hypothesis is that the river was named for the village on its banks and the surrounding land for the river used to explore it.

See also: List of place names in Canada of Aboriginal origin and the suburban city of Kanata, Ontario.

An apocryphal (or likely after-the-fact) explanation of the name's origin is that Spanish cartographers, not having explored the northern part of the continent, wrote acá nada ("nothing here") on that part of their maps. A similar tale credits Portuguese explorers who, upon seeing the eastern coastline, declared a similar sentiment (cà nada).