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Revision as of 17:30, 5 January 2005 by Adam Bishop (talk | contribs) (→Other proposed names: Cabot explored for England, not France)(diff) ← Previous revision | Latest revision (diff) | Newer revision → (diff)Origin of the name
The name "Canada" is believed to have originated from a Huron-Iroquoian word, Kanata meaning "village" or "settlement" or "collection of huts" , referring to Stadacona, a settlement on the site of present-day Quebec City. Maps made by early European explorers show that the name River Canada was given to the Ottawa River, and the Saint Lawrence River below Montreal. A plausible hypothesis is that the river was named for the village on its banks, and the surrounding country for the river used to explore it.
An apocryphal explanation of the origin of the name is that Spanish cartographers, reflecting the fact that Spaniards had not explored the northern part of the continent, wrote ‘Aca nada’ on that part of their maps. This is translated as ‘Here, nothing’.
==Selection\
Adoption of ‘Dominion of Canada’
In 1867 through confederation, the British North America Act created "one Dominion under the Name of Canada".
At the time of the Charlottetown Conference, Sir John A. Macdonald, who later became the first prime minister of Canada, had talked of ‘founding a great British monarchy, in connection with the British Empire’.
Officials at the Colonial Office in London, however, opposed what they saw as a ‘premature’ and ‘pretentious’ title for the new country, and feared antagonizing of anti-monarchist sentiment in the United States. (1) "Dominion" would also to reflect Canada's status as a self-governing colony of the British Empire -- in fact, Canada was the first country to be so termed. Notwithstanding historical precedents for the term "dominion", the country's name and motto are often linked to Psalms 72:8 and Zechariah 9:10: "He shall have dominion also from sea to sea, and from the river unto the ends of the earth."
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Replacement by ‘Canada’
Until the 1960s, the term Dominion of Canada was commonly used to identify the country, after which time the Dominion Government began simply to use the name "Canada" on all official state documents and treaties. This was to recognize Canada's autonomy from the United Kingdom, though some critics insisted that the country's proper name should continue to be regarded as "the Dominion of Canada," even if it remained largely unused. The Canada Act 1982 refers merely to "Canada" and the single name is the current official shortform and longform (as well as bilingual) name in use. Later in 1982, this was reflected in the renaming of the national holiday from Dominion Day to Canada Day.
Other proposed names
While the provinces’ delegates spent little time, if any, in settling on ‘Canada’ as the name for the new country, others proposed a variety of other names.
- Albion
- Albionoria - "Albion of the north"
- Borealia – from ‘borealis’, the Latin word for ‘northern’,
- Cabotia – in honour of Italian explorer John Cabot, who explored the eastern coast of Canada for England
- Colonia
- Efisga - an acronym of "English, French, Irish, Scottish, German, Aboriginal"
- Hochelaga – an old name for Montreal
- Mesopelagia - "land between the seas"
- Norland
- Superior
- Tuponia - derived from 'The United Provinces of North America'
- Ursalia - "place of bears"
- Vesperia - "land of the evening star"
- Victorialand – in honour of Queen Victoria
Walter Bagehot of the Economist newspaper in London argued that the new nation should be called ‘Northland’ or ‘Anglia’ instead of Canada. (2)
On these names, the statesman Thomas D'Arcy McGee commented, "Now I would ask any honourable member of the House how he would feel if he woke up some fine morning and found himself, instead of a Canadian, a Tuponian or a Hochelagander?
Sources:
(1) Donald Crieghton, The Road to Confederation, Houghton Mifflin, Boston, 1956, p. 421
(2) Christopher Moore: 1867: How the Fathers Made a Deal, McClelland and Stewart, Toronto, 1997, p. 214