What does 'Canada' mean?

Luv2PlaGmz

A small canyon; a narrow valley or glen; also, but less frequently, an open valley. (From Dictionary.com) Also, a British province in North America, giving its name to various plants and animals. Sep 01 00, 4:21 PM

Thiv	From the Native word KANATA= village Sep 01 00, 10:48 PM

TripledBoy

There is also a suburb of Ottawa, Canada's Capital city, named Kanata. It's where the Ottawa Senators NHL team play. I lived there for about 5 years. Apr 12 06, 5:11 AM

Brainyblonde

Word History: Linguistically, mountains can be made out of molehills, so to speak: words denoting a small thing can, over time, come to denote something much larger. This is the case with Canada, now the name of the second-largest country in the world but having a much humbler origin. Apparently its history starts with the word kanata, which in Huron (an Iroquoian language of eastern Canada) meant “village.” Jacques Cartier, the early French explorer, picked up the word and used it to refer to the land around his settlement, now part of Quebec City. By the 18th century it referred to all of New France, which extended from the St. Lawrence River to the Great Lakes and down into what is now the American Midwest. In 1759, the British conquered New France and used the name Quebec for the colony north of the St. Lawrence River, and Canada for the rest of the territory. Eventually, as the territory increased in size and the present arrangement of the provinces developed, Canada applied to all the land north of the United States and east of Alaska. http://dictionary.reference.com/search?q=canada Apr 12 06, 6:49 AM

harrypotteris

kanata =village canada does not mean small canyon Apr 02 10, 12:40 PM

z360guy

Canada = Cañada which is a colonial Spanish term to describe flat usable land at the base of a canyon. Here in New Mexico we have many place names dating back to the 16th century, like my neighborhood in Santa Fe. The earliest maps of North America were written by Spanish explorers not by the French, English or Natives. Canada was named by the Spaniards. Oct 13 12, 6:58 PM

sportsherald

Please note that answers provided here are required to include links to websites that back them up! There is no documentation whatsoever of a Spaniard naming any part of what is now the country called Canada, with the word "canada." The Jacques Cartier story is documented- see http://www.canadafaq.ca/why+is+canada+called+canada/, among many, many others. The Spanish word is simply a coincidence, just as Haymarket has nothing to do with the Spanish word "hay." The California city of La Cañada Flintridge is, however named after a canyon (note the distinction it draws from the country name): "Part of the name for La Cañada Flintridge comes from the Spanish word cañada, meaning canyon, gorge, ravine. In Spanish, this has a tilde (ñ) and is pronounced "canyada" [ka??aða]; the English pronunciation is /k?n?j??d?/. "Flintridge" is simply pronounced as the two English words "flint" and "ridge", but does not refer to an outcropping ridge of flint (see history section). The name has nothing to do with the country Canada (whose name derives from the St. Lawrence Iroquois word for "village" or "settlement")." -from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/La_Ca%C3%B1ada_Flintridge,_California Oct 13 12, 7:41 PM