The name ''Canada'' comes from the word meaning "village" or "settlement" in the , but also to the neighbouring region and to the Saint-Lawrence River.
In other Iroquoian languages, the words for "town" or "village" are similar: the ''iennekanandaa'', and the Onondaga use ''ganataje''.Rayburn, ''op. cit'', p. 14.
- word ''manito-wapow'' meaning "the straight of the spirit or manitobau" or the Assiniboine words ''mini'' and ''tobow'' meaning "Lake of the Prairie", referring to Lake Manitoba .
- .
- word ''onitariio'' meaning "beautiful lake", or ''kanadario'' meaning "sparkling" or "beautiful" water.
- word ''kepék'', meaning "strait" or "narrows".Afable, Patricia O. and Madison S. Beeler (1996). "Place Names". In "Languages", ed. Ives Goddard. Vol. 17 of ''Handbook of North American Indians'', ed. William C. Sturtevant. Washington, D.C.: Smithsonian Institution, pg. 191
- name for the Saskatchewan River , ''Kisiskatchewani Sipi'', meaning "swift flowing river".
- , e.g. Koyukon ''yookkene'' or Lower Tanana ''yookuna''.Bright (2004:583)
- " in Cree.
- word ''saamis'', meaning "headdress of a medicine man".
- (Nakoda/Stoney language)
- " in Blackfoot Language
-
- word for "elk", ''waapiti'' (literally "white rump").Bright (2004:547-8)
For the scores of BC placenames from the Chinook Jargon, see List Of Chinook Jargon Placenames .
- Ahnuhati River: "where the humpback salmon go" in Kwak'wala (humpback salmon are also known as Pink Salmon )
- (Nootka).
- (Kootenay)
- .
- (the Lillooet language)
- , possibly because this locality and the creek of the same name is at the bottom of Chilliwack Mountain.
- .
- Attachie: the name of a Beaver Indian whose descendants are members of the nearby Doig River First Nation
- . ''Bella Coola'' is an adaption of /bəlxwəla/, the Heiltsuk name for the Nuxalk; their meaning is not limited to the band at Bella Coola but to all Nuxalk.
- name the First Nations people at this town use for themselves, /pəlbálá/.
- were once numerous in the Cariboo.
- Carmanah Creek, dialect of Nootka ( Nuu-chah-nulth ).
- , definition debatable, but possibly "old moccasins".
- dialect of Nootka , meaning "place where they fix up canoes".
- -area variant of ''cayuse'', originally from the Spanish ''caballo'' - "horse", although in Lillooet and The Chilcotin this word specifies a particular breed of Indian mountain pony. There are two versions of the name's meaning. In one account, someone's pony dropped dead in or at the creek after an arduous journey over the pass at the head of its valley. In the other, the crest of standing waves in the rushing waters of the creek are said to resemble bucking horses and their manes.
- chiefly and family name ''Celesta'', common in the nearby community of Neskonlith near Chase .
- word for "beaver".
- wofd for " Steelhead lake"
- for "salmon weir place".
- Cheam: Halqemeylem for "(place to) always get strawberries". The Halqemeylem term refers to an island across from the present-day reserve and village. This name is used in English for Mount Cheam ( Cheam Peak ), the most prominent of the Four Sisters Range east of Chilliwack, which in Halqemeylem is called Thleethleq (the name of Mount Baker 's wife, turned to stone).
- ) word for "people of cut on the beach".
- for "having an island nearby".
- name for Mount Garibaldi , meaning "dirty place" in reference to that mountain's ash-stained snows
- Chehalis and Chehalis River : probable meanings vary from "the place one reaches after ascending the rapids" or "where the 'chest' of a canoe grounds on a sandbar'. The sandbar or rapids in question would be the old "riffles" of the Harrison River where it empties into the Fraser River out of Harrison Bay (the riffles were dredged out in gold rush times)
- ), a reference to the bitemarks possible during a shamanic frenzy, which the local horseshoe-shaped bay is thought to have resembled.
- .
- Chic Chic Bay : ''Tshik-tshik'', under various spellings, is the Chinook Jargon for a wagon or wheeled vehicle.
- , often meaning simply "gold"
- . Other translations are "quieter water on the head" or "travel by way of a backwater of slough", all a reference to the broad marshlands and sloughs of the Chilliwack area, which lies between the Fraser River's many side-channels and Sumas Prairie (much of formerly Sumas Lake ). Older spellings are Chilliwhack, Chilliwayhook, Chil-whey-uk, Chilwayook, and Silawack.
- Chinook Cove: on the North Thompson River , a reference to the Chinook salmon rather than to the language, wind or people of the same name.
- Choelquoit Lake: "fishtrap lake" in the Chilcotin Language
- Chonat Bay: "where coho salmon are found" in Kwak'wala
- Chu Chua: the plural of the Secwepemc Language word for "creek".
- . The nearby Kilbella River means "long river".
- or Tahltan Language s. The area's population was half-Tlingit and half-Tahltan.
- ''cium-moust-un'', meaning "come and go back again", sometimes translated as "the bend" (i.e. in Shuswap Lake )
- Clayoquot Sound : an adaption of the Nuu-chah-nulth language Tla-o-qui-aht, which has a variety of translations: "other or different people", "other or strange house", "people who are different from what they used to be"; in Nitinaht the phrase translates as "people of the place where it becomes the same even when disturbed".
- Clusko River: "mud river" in the Chilcotin Language
- Cluxewe River: "delta or sand bar" in Kwak'wala
- Coglistiko River: "stream coming from small jack-pine windfalls" in the Carrier Language
- Colquitz River: "waterfall" in North Straits Salish
- for "dog" (''kamuks''), or from the Kwak'wala for "place of plenty".
- Conuma Peak: "high, rocky peak" in the Nuu-chah-nulth Language
- Coquihalla River : "stingy container" (of fish), a reference to black-coloured water spirits who would steal fish right off the spear
- ''. Another and more usual translation is "stinking of fish slime" and "place of stinking fish".
- )
- . In First Nations legend, this popular recreational lake south of Chilliwack was said to be inhabited by evil spirits.
- Cumshewa Inlet, Cunshewa Head: Cumshewa was a prominent Haida chief in the late 19th Century, noted for the killing of the crew of the US trading vessel ''Constitution'' in 1794. His name means "rich at the mouth" (of the river)".
- Ealue Lake: "sky fish" in Tahltan .
- for "tributary" or "something from the side" (the Ecstall joins the Skeena River near Prince Rupert
- Cape Edensaw: Edenshaw, in its modern spelling, remains an important name in modern Haida society, known mostly nowadays for the dynasty of famous carvers of that name, all descendants of the early 19th Century chief of this name, one of the powerful chiefs of Masset
- people, who live nearby.
- for "the place of gradually shoaling water". Derived from their word ''Es-whoy-malth''.
- Gananoque, Ontario "water running over rocks."
- word ''Tk'emlups'', meaning "where the rivers meet".
- " in the Okanagan language.
- Keremeos
- people, the Lil'wat of Mt. Currie . Lil'wat means "wild onions". The old name of Lillooet was Cayoosh Flat (1858-1860), derived from the name of one of the streams converging into the Fraser at the town (''cayoosh'' is the local variant of Chinook Jargon for "horse" or "Indian pony").
- Saanich :
- language of the Lillooet people
- Sicamous
- Skaha Lake : from the Okanagan language word for "dog" (''sqexe'')
- Skidegate
- (three different locations - Sechelt Inlet, Lillooet River, Columbia River/East Kootenay).
- Similkameen :
- First Nation people who live in the area
- Spuzzum , from the local variant of the Chinook Jargon ''spatsum'', a reed used in basketry
- Squamish : The town is named after the First Nations people who live in the area
- Stein River : Adjacent to Lytton BC, "Stein" is an adaptation of the Nlaka'pamux (Thompson) ''staygn'' - "hidden place".
- Taghum, British Columbia , ''taghum'' is the Chinook Jargon word for "six" (Taghum is six miles from Nelson
- Tofino :
- (Thompson) language for "red earth", a reference to the ochre found here, which was highly prized for use in ceremonial life.
- ''tyee'' - "chief, big, great, important, boss"
# from the Inuktitut ''maggok'', "two"; thus ''Makkovik'' would mean "two places". Around Makkovik are two inlets, Makkovik Bay and Makkovik harbour, and two main brooks floating into the two inlets. "Two Buchten Machovik", meaning "two bays Makkovik", is mentioned in a 1775 writing by the German Moravian Missionary Johann Ludwig Beck . {Link without Title}
- , meaning "our beautiful land" {Link without Title}
- , the Geological Survey or of Newfoundland in 1839 - 1840 , believed that Shannoc Brook, a tributary of the Exploits River , was given the Beothuk name for the Mi'kmaq {Link without Title} .
- , meaning "a narrow place in the river". {Link without Title}
- name for the region, ''turngait'', meaning "spirits"; Inuit legends hold that here the spirit and physical worlds overlap. {Link without Title}
- Wabana — from the Abanaki ''wabunaki'', "east land" from ''wabun'' "dawn"; so named in 1895 by Colonel Thomas Cantley , president of the Nova Scotia Steel Company {Link without Title}
- Wabush — from Innu ''wabush'', "rabbit ground" {Link without Title}
- ( Anishinaabe g) people of Ontario.
- Attawapiskat
- , a Mohawk leader.
- grow" from the word ''wadoopikaang'' in the Ojibwe Language .
- Gananoque
- Kanata
- Kapuskasing
- .
- Manitouwadge
- Mattawa
- M'Chigan
- Michipicoten
- Mississauga : Named after the native tribe of the Mississauga
- Mississippi River (between Ottawa and Mattawa)
- Nipigon
- term ''nibiishing'', "at (some) water".
- Ohsweken
- term ''aazhaway'', meaning "crossing to the other side of a river or lake" or just "(a)cross".Rayburn, Alan, ''Place Names of Ontario'', Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 1997, p. 258. Freelang Ojibwe Dictionary
- ; adapted as the name of the Odawa people.
- Penetanguishene
- Petawawa
- Pukaskwa National Park
- word ''dimiigami'', "deep water(s)".
- Toronto : from an Iroquoian language, but of uncertain derivation.Bright (2004:508-9)
- Wahnapitae : from the Anishinaabe ''waanabide'', "be shaped like a hollow tooth".
- Wawa
- Wikwemikong : from the Anishinaabe ''wiikwemikong'', "bay with a sloping bottom".
- word ''misāskwatōmin'', meaning Saskatoon Berry - a fruit native to the area.
- word for hammer stones used to fix salmon nets (''Tr'ondëk'').
- Kwan)
- ''Deisleen'', long narrow water
- Vuntut National Park
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