Naming Canada: Stories about Canadian Place NamesThis wonderful collection of 76 essays explores the fascinating origin and meaning of the names of some of the towns, villages, cities, islands, mountains, and rivers that make up one of the world's largest countries. This new edition includes fifteen more essays, and updates the previous essays to include changes, corrections and new names to the year 2000. Discover how some of Canada's most unusual place names came to be; unearth the Aboriginal roots of names such as Miramichi, Klondike, Iqaluit, Toronto, and Ottawa; learn the origin of such playful and mellifluous names as Medicine Hat, Twillingate, Flin Flon, Cupids, or Saint-Louis-du-Ha! Ha! From Bonavista and Port au Choix in the east, to Malaspina Strait and Port Alberni in the west, this book also reveals the rich Portuguese, Spanish, and Basque contributions to Canada's toponymic heritage. Naming Canada tells us about place names that became undesirable and had to be changed for reasons of perceived political impropriety. The former Stalin Township, for example, was renamed after Rick Hansen, the renowned Man in Motion, who promoted research in spinal cord injuries. The book also discusses Canadian names that have been exported abroad, such as Quebec in England and Toronto in Australia. One new essay explores the nicknames used for Canadian places, and focuses on Hogtown as an alternative for Toronto. This collection is the best single source, in an engaging essay format, on the origin and meaning of hundreds of Canadian place names. Alan Rayburn has had over 35 years' experience in researching Canada's toponymic roots and in writing about the authentic backgrounds behind thousands of names, from Toronto in the south to Tukyoyaktuk in the north, and from Labrador in the east to Juan de Fuca Strait in the west. |
Contents
Introduction | 3 |
the Pacific and to the Arctic | 13 |
The North South East and West of It | 21 |
How Our National Parks Got Their Names | 28 |
Some Gratifying Some Grating | 38 |
Hogtown and Other Monikers across Canada | 44 |
Pronouncing Names as the Locals Do | 53 |
Sorting Out the SoundAlikes and LookAlikes | 56 |
Telenaming the Landscape | 172 |
Adopting Names of Native Origin and Acknowledging | 181 |
Jacques Cartier in the Land of | 187 |
Mystery Romance and Hints of Magic | 194 |
In Canso Survival Is a Tradition | 202 |
We Have Honoured the Moose 662 Times | 212 |
A Land without Boundaries | 219 |
Meech Lake of Accord Fame and Other Lakes | 225 |
Whos to Blame for Mistake Names? | 63 |
Avoid the Apostrophe But Not Always | 69 |
When Names Become Politically Incorrect | 77 |
Castle Mountain and Its ThirtyFiveYear Eisenhower | 86 |
Capitalizing on Foreign Capitals | 95 |
A Touch of Portuguese on the East Coast | 103 |
Spanish Names along Our West Coast | 111 |
Crimean Victories Commemorated across Canada | 118 |
Names from First World | 128 |
Canadian Names around the World | 135 |
Sorting Out Ontarios Municipal MakeUp | 144 |
Of Tickles and Rips Barachois and Bogans | 152 |
Shakespeare Remembered in Many Canadian | 155 |
Of Valentines and Other Matters of the Heart | 164 |
Toronto Has a Great Fish Tale to Tell | 233 |
Lake Laberge Rhymes with Marge and Other Yukon | 240 |
Mackenzie Expeditions Left a Trail of Names | 247 |
Calgary Kananaskis and Mount | 253 |
Relocating the Lost Villages | 260 |
Commemorating Prominent Individuals | 269 |
Inspiration for More than Twentyfive | 280 |
Canadian Tributes for Four Queen Elizabeths | 287 |
Places Honouring an Illustrious Statesman | 295 |
A Mountain for Michener a Lake for Léger | 305 |
Remembering John F Kennedy | 312 |
321 | |
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Common terms and phrases
References to this book
From Squaw Tit to Whorehouse Meadow: How Maps Name, Claim, and Inflame Mark Monmonier No preview available - 2006 |