List of Canadian provincial and territorial name etymologies

This article lists the etymologies of the names of the provinces and territories of Canada.

Historical regions

 * Acadia (Acadie): origin disputed:
 * Credited to Florentine navigator Giovanni da Verrazzano, who first named a region around Chesapeake Bay Archadia (Arcadia) in 1524 because of "the beauty of its trees", according to his diary. Cartographers began using the name Arcadia to refer to areas progressively farther north until it referred to the French holdings in maritime Canada (particularly Nova Scotia). The -r- also began to disappear from the name on early maps, resulting in the current Acadia.
 * Possibly derived from the Míkmaq word akatik, pronounced roughly "agadik", meaning "place", which French-speakers spelled as -cadie in place names such as Shubenacadie and Tracadie, possibly coincidentally.


 * Nunatsiavut: Inuktitut, meaning "our beautiful land".