Origin of the name "Canada"

(NC)-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 Québec 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".

Soon explorers and fur traders opened up territory to the west and to the south and the area depicted as "Canada" grew. In the early 1700s, the name referred to all lands in what is now the American mid-west and as far south as present-day Louisiana.

The first use of "Canada" as an official name came in 1791 when the Province of Québec was divided into the colonies of Upper and Lower Canada. In 1841, the two Canadas were again united under one name, the Province of Canada. At the time of Confederation, the new country assumed the title the Dominion of Canada.