Canadian provincial name etymologies
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This page lists the etymologies of the names of the Provinces and territories of Canada.
- Alberta named after Princess Louise Caroline Alberta (d. 1939), the fourth daughter of Queen Victoria.
- 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 in order to distinguish it from Colombia in South America.
- 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.
- 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: Newfoundland (Terra Nova in Latin) 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 is probably named after João Fernandes Lavrador, a Portugese navigator who visited the area in 1495.
- Northwest Territories is 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.
- Nova Scotia is 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 is 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 is 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 comes from the Micmac word Gepèèg meaning "strait", or possibly Algonquian kebek meaning "narrow passage" originally referring to the narrowing of the St. Lawrence River off what is currently Quebec City.
- Saskatchewan: The province's name comes from the Saskatchewan River, whose name is Cree for "swift flowing river" (kisiskatchewan).
- Yukon takes its name from the Yukon River, whose name in turn means great river in Gwich'in.