HistoryGal
The historian Gervais Carpin realized a study on the origin and etymology of the word “Canada” and “Canadians” since its first appearance in ancient documents such as the ones of Jacques Cartier’s travel narratives.
Jacques Cartier, the French explorer did three trips to North America, more specifically “Canada” after having, previously, travelling to Brazil in South America.
Jacques Cartier’s first voyage was in 1534. He sailed from Saint Malo and found the West Coast of Newfoundland, then discovered Prince-Edward Island and finally went up the Saint-Lawrence River past the island of Anticosti.
The second voyage took place in May 1535 with two Indians on board whom he had captured in his previous voyage and who now served him as guides. Jacques Cartier then sailed up the Saint-Lawrence River as far as Quebec City of today, where he established a base camp.
This is where the origin of the name “Canada” starts. When Cartier arrived not far from Quebec City, then called “Stadacona” by the Iroquoians (Hurons and Iroquois Indians), from the Saint-Lawrence, he learns that the name of the Iroquoian town or village is “Kanata”. “Kanata” literally means in Iroquoian “piles of huts” and designated the village of “Stadacona” but, for lack of another appellation and better understanding, Cartier baptizes “Canada”, not only the village, but also all the territory ruled by its leader, Donnacona. Jacques Cartier was actually the first Frenchman to have written the word “Canada” in 1535. This “province” as he designated it, is located between the “Ile aux Coudres” and “Hochelaga” (now Montreal). Historians then agree that the “country of Canada” originally referred to the current city of Quebec and its immediate region. Similarly, it was natural for Cartier to call the river “Kanata river”, the river or road leading to the village of Donnacona’s sons, term that they used “Kanata road” to show Cartier the waterway to the village and designated the today’s Saint-Lawrence till the beginning of the XV111e century.
To imagine that Jacques Cartier thought to give a significant and corresponding name to the present day “Canada” by giving this name to “Stadacona” is a matter of sheer imagination or obvious bad faith. He simply named the establishment as “Canada” in the new France to which Donnacona’s sons guided him. If Cartier was not the first to use the word “Kanata”, he gave the word he heard a meaning that it did not originally have. From a common name, he made it a proper name. Cartier recorded the name “Canada” in his diary, described it as the “Kingdom of Canada” and said that the entrance of the river opened the “Canada” route and named the territory of chief “Donnacona” as the “Province of Canada” . This applies especially since Jacques Cartier was far from realizing that Canada is the second larges country of the world after Russia and before the United States.
As far as the term “New France” (which was originally used for “Canada”), Verrazano used it in 1524. After putting his foot down in Virginia for the King of France, Francis 1st, he named “Francesca” (in latin, Nova Francia or Nova Gallia), i.e. New France, a territory from Carolina (in the United States) to Newfoundland (in “Canada”), where, since 1505, came to fish Bretons and Basques peoples alike. This same expression, “Nouvelle France”, Cartier used to refer to all the winter establishments ranging from “Stadacona” to “Hochelaga” (future Montreal), inclusively. The word “New France”, which refers to all establishments, therefore, precedes the word “Kanata”, which designated the establishment “Stadacona-Kanata-Quebec” for 10 years.
Soon, however, the name “Kanata” applied to a much wider area, to the space explored or occupied by the French in North America, to the entire territory north of the river “Kanata” or now Saint-Lawrence, the New France stretching from the river and passing through the Great Lakes to the present American Midwest. In 1606, Samuel de Champlain writes in his diary that the territory known as “New France” is also known, although more vulgarly as “Canada”. A map, dated in 1656, also names the river “the Great River of Canada or St-Laurens” and this clearly shows that saying and writing “Canada” is saying and writing the same as “New France” at the beginning of the XV111e century. At the beginning of the XV111e century, this name designated all the lands that extended to Louisiana in the United States. In fact, European books and maps soon apply the appellation “Canada” to the French settlement along the shores of the “St-Lawrence”. Later, the appellation is recovered by the British Empire to refer to most of the contiguous provinces it manages in North America.
After the complete British conquest, it was indeed the English who named their colony “Province of Quebec” by the name of the town founded by Samuel de Champlain in 1608. Many Frenchmen refusing this name, the English formally adopted the name “Canada” with the “Canada Act”. It was thus in 1791 that the name “Canada” was officially used for the first time when the province of Quebec was divided into two colonies names respectively “Upper Canada” and “Lower Canada”. In 1841, the two “Canadas” were reunited by the “Act of the Union” under the name of “British Province of Canada”. At the time of Confederation, the new country became known as “Canada”. On July 1867, “Canada” became officially independent of the British Empire. Then, on February 15, 1965, “Canada” adopted its red maple lead flag as its national emblem.
References: “Origines du nom “Canada”, gouvernement du Canada, Canada.ca.
It was good learning where the name Canada originated from. It reminds of the origin of my country whereby a German explorer (I can’t quite remember if he was an explorer), was unable to pronounce the local name of the biggest mountain in the country. Thus, he shortened it to a name he could pronounce and it was later adopted as the name of the country.
A question: Was Canada ruled by the French and British – the upper Canada and the lower Canada before the two regions were united?
If I remember my Canadian history, yes they were ruled separately by the British and French until they were united. This often happened in exploration and expansion of the different empires back then. Just like in South Africa, there were the Dutch, the Portuguese (I think) and finally the British. I am happy you enjoyed my little presentation. But, if I may ask, where are you from, to have your country have the same problem?
I am from Kenya, Africa.
Well now I understand and, if I may, I would like to invite you to read my upcoming historical type post, not on Kenya, but on South Africa. Thank you for your response to my question.
I am looking forward in reading you historical post on South Africa. I don’t know much about the country from the historical point of view
Interesting posting … I did not know this and I learned something again
I am happy you enjoyed it. Thank you for reading, commenting and up voting my little account of the naming of Canada.
It is always good to expand our general culture knowing the origin of words and names, in this particular case of an American country, and much better when the information that is received is widely presented.
Thank you so much Arelis for your comment and for up-voting this post. I am glad you enjoyed it.
Excellent history lesson!Thanks for the information.
Thank you for your nice comment Branka. I certainly appreciate you stopping in and reading.
I’ve never thought about where Canada got its name before. Thanks for the information.
Thank you again Barbara. I appreciate your stopping by and reading this post.
I am interested in history. It was my minor in college.
Another excellent history lesson!
Thank you very much Paul. I appreciate your stopping by, reading, commenting and most of all complimenting.
compliments well deserved 🙂
Thank you. I learned something today.
Thank you very much for reading and commenting Francisco.
It’s a great article that expands my knowledge!
Thank you for your comment and compliment and up-vote Albert. I appreciate it very much.
Reading this article makes me think of films with the historical and colossal genres I like
Wow, high praise indeed. Thank you again.
You are most welcome, my friend
Thank you Tasartcraft. I appreciate your reading and commenting.
Very interesting history trivia and Norman asked an interesting question as well… as usual!
Thank you for your nice comment and of course Norman asked a pertinent question which I did not have the real answer to. Ha! Ha! But I never proclaim to know everything….
So enjoyed this read! We loved our visit to Canada and would like to go again. Such a large country and we would love to see it all. Thanks for this informative post.
Yes I hope you come by again. Canada is so vast, even I, a Canadian have not visited it completely as of now.
Intriguing and informative article. Thanks for sharing it here, HistoryGal. Do you know why many French rejected the name “Province of Quebec”? It seems slightly ironic, as i”Quebec” now stands (in the minds of many in Europe, at least) for francophone steadfastness 🙂
I am not sure why they refused it. The only thing I can think of is that maybe it was an English suggestion and not a French one. French Canadians (mostly those residing in Quebec) are a very difficult and determined bunch. Even though I am French Canadian, I am not a Quebecer but rather a Franco-Ontarian. There are also a lot of French speaking people living in Manitoba who are like me ardent Canadians. There have always been conflicts between the French of Quebec and the Federal Government (that is the Canadian government) and the other provinces. But at least, for now, Quebec has not separated from the rest of Canada.
Very nice country. Big and rich. Good luck to you.
Yes Canada is very big and still underpopulated for its size with only 35,000,000 citizens. There are still a lot of wide open spaces. But on the other hand, some of these spaces are very harsh and difficult to live in. All in all, it is in my mind the best country in the whole wide world. But mind you, I am Canadian and am bound to say that.