How did Canada get its name?
According to the Government of Canada’s Canadian Heritage department, the history of Canada is as follows: In 1535, two Indian Youths told Jacques Cartier about the route to “kanata.” They were referring to the village of Stadacona; “kanata” was simply the Huron-Iroquois word for “village” or “settlement.” But for want of another name, Cartier used “Canada” to refer not only to Stadacona (the site of present day Quebec City), but also to the entire area subject to its chief, Donnacona. The name was soon applied to a much larger area: maps in 1547 designated everything north of the St. Lawrence River as “Canada.” Cartier also called the St. Lawrence River the “rivire de Canada”, a name used until the early 1600s. By 1616, although the entire region was known as New France, the area along the great river of Canada and the Gulf of St. Lawrence was still called Canada. Soon explorers and fur traders opened up territory to the west and to the south and the area depicted as “Canada” grew. In
It came borne on the wind. The word “Canada” was first heard off Anticosti Island in the Gulf of St. Lawrence on August 13, 1535, during Jacques Cartier’s second voyage of exploration. Jesuit Pierre-Francois-Xavier de Charlevoix, the great early historian of New France, says it derived from the word “Kanata,” a Huron-Iroquois term for village or community.
In 1535, two Indian Youths told Jacques Cartier about the route to “kanata.” They were referring to the village of Stadacona; “kanata” was simply the Huron-Iroquois word for “village” or “settlement.” But for want of another name, Cartier used “Canada” to refer not only to Stadacona (the site of present day Quebec City), but also to the entire area subject to its chief, Donnacona. The name was soon applied to a much larger area: maps in 1547 designated everything north of the St. Lawrence River as “Canada.” So, it’s an Iroquois that basically means “village”.
