Names: and Their Meaning. Leopold Wagner
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of Orange, in Holland. Cape Colony is the British colony in South Africa, so called after the Dutch settlement at Cape Town, which dates from the year 1652. The Cape of Good Hope, discovered by Bartholomew de Diaz in 1487, was so named (Cabo de Bon Esperance) by John II., King of Portugal, who, finding that Diaz had reached the extremity of Africa, regarded it as a favourable augury for future maritime enterprises.
The most southern point of South America was called Cape Hoorn (or, according to the English, Cape Horn) by Schonten, who first rounded it in 1616, after Hoorn, his native place in North Holland. Patagonia was so styled by Magellan in accordance with the Spanish word patagon, meaning a large, clumsy foot. It was from the fact of seeing the impressions of the large shoes (not, as he imagined, the feet) of the aborigines that he at once concluded the country must be inhabited by giants. Chili is a Peruvian word denoting the “land of snow.” Argentina, now the Argentine Republic, owes its name to the silvery reflection of its rivers. Brazil is a Portuguese term derived from braza, “a live coal,” relative to the red dye-wood with which the country abounds. Bolivia perpetuates the memory of General Simon Bolivar, “the Liberator of Peru.” Uraguay and Paraguay are both names of rivers; the former meaning “the golden water,” and the latter “the river of waters,” referring to its numerous tributaries. Peru likewise received its name from its principal river, the Rio Paro, upon which stands the ancient city of Paruru. The Brazilian term Para, however modified, is at all times suggestive of a river. Pernambuco means “the mouth of hell,” in allusion to the violent surf always distinguished at the mouth of its chief river. Ecuador is Spanish for Equator, so called by virtue of its geographical position. Columbia was named in honour of Christopher Columbus. Venezuela expresses the Spanish for “Little Venice,” which designation was given to this country owing to the discovery of some Indian villages built upon piles after the manner of the “Silent City” on the Adriatic Sea.
The term Panama is Caribbean, indicative of the mud fish that abound in the waters on both sides of the isthmus. Costa Rica is literal Spanish for “rich coast”; while Honduras signifies, in the same tongue, “deep water.” The name of Nicaragua was first given by Gil Gonzales de Arila in 1521 to the great lake situated in the region now called after it, in consequence of his friendly reception by the Cacique, a Haytian term for a chief, whose own name was Nicaro, of a tribe of West Indians, with whom he fell in on the borders of the lake referred to. The Mosquito Coast owes its name to the troublesome insects (Spanish mosca, from the Latin musca, a fly) which infest this neighbourhood. Yutacan is a compound Indian word meaning “What do you say?” which was the only answer the Spaniards could obtain from the natives to their inquiries concerning a description of the country. Quatemala is a European rendering of the Mexican quahtemali, signifying “a decayed log of wood”; so called by the Mexican Indians who accompanied Alvarado into this region, because they found an old worm-eaten tree near the ancient palace of the Kings, or Kachiquel, which was thought to be the centre of the country.
Mexico denotes the place or seat of Mexitli, the Aztec God of War. The name of California, derived from the two Spanish words, Caliente Fornalla, i.e., “hot furnace,” was given by Cortez in the year 1535 to the peninsula now known as Old or Lower California, of which he was the discoverer, on account of its hot climate. British Columbia is the only portion of North America that retains the name of the discoverer of the New World; but originally the whole of the territory now comprised in the United States bore the designation of Columbia in honour of Christopher Columbus. The term Canada is Indian, indicative of a “collection of huts”; Manitoba traces its origin from Manitou, the Indian appellation of “The Great Spirit.” Ontario comes from the native Onontac, “the village on the mountain,” and chief seat of the Onondagas; while Quebec is an Algonquin term signifying “take care of the rock.” Labrador was originally denominated Tierra Labrador, the Spanish for “cultivated land,” as distinguished from the non-fertile though moss-covered Greenland. New Brunswick, colonized in 1785, received its name in compliment to the House of Brunswick. Nova Scotia, otherwise New Scotland, was so called by Sir William Alexander, a Scotsman who obtained a grant of this colony from James I. in 1621. Florida was named by Ponce de Leon in accordance with the day of its discovery, to wit, Easter Sunday, which in the Spanish language is styled Pascua Florida.
The first British settlement in North America was claimed by Sir Walter Raleigh on the 13th of July, 1584, in the name of Queen Elizabeth, and called Virginia in her honour. Maryland was so denominated by Lord Baltimore (who gave the name of Baltimore to a neighbouring State), in honour of Henrietta Maria, Queen of Charles I. Pennsylvania denotes the colony founded “in the wood” by William Penn, the son of Admiral Penn, in 1681. This is usually alluded to as the Keystone State, from its relative position to the other States. Georgia was named after George II., in whose reign this state was colonized; and Carolina (North and South) after Carolus II., the Latinized style of Charles II., by whom this state was granted to eight of his favourites. Louisiana was so called by M. de la Sale in the year 1682, in honour of Louis XIV. of France; while Maine and New Orleans received the names of existing French provinces. The title of New Hampshire was given to the state granted to him in 1629 by John Mason, in compliment to his native county in England; New Jersey complimented the scene of action whereon Sir George Carterat distinguished himself in the defence of Jersey Island against the Parliamentary forces in 1664; and New York (State) was denominated in honour of James, Duke of York, afterwards James II. [For Michigan see the great lake of the same name.] Indiana derived its name from the great number of Indians found here. Alabama in the native tongue, signifies “Here we rest”; Nebraska means “water valley”; Ohio is “beautiful”; Massachusetts, “about the great hills”; Wisconsin, “wild rushing channel”; Kansas, “smoky water”; Tennessee, “river of the great bend”; Kentucky, “at the head of a river”; Mississippi, “great and long river”; Missouri, “muddy river”; and Minnesota, “white water.” Arkansas conveys the same meaning as Kansas, with the addition of the French prefix arc, a bow. Illinois is a compound of the Indian illum, men, and the French suffix oix, a tribe. Oregon received its name from the Spanish oregano, wild majoram, which grows in abundance on this portion of the Pacific shore. Texas means “the place of protection,” in reference to the fact that a colony of French refugees were afforded protection here by General Lallemont in 1817; Vermont is, more correctly, Verd Mont, so called in testimony to the verdure-clad mountains which traverse this state; Colorado expresses the Spanish for “coloured,” alluding to its coloured ranges; while Nevada is Spanish for “snowy,” indicative of the character of its mountain ridges, the Sierra Nevada. Connecticut presents itself in the native Indian form Quinnitukut, meaning “the country of the long river”; Iowa is a French corruption of a Sioux term, signifying “drowsy,” or “the sleepy ones,” applied to the Pahoja, or Gray-snow tribe; Astoria was founded by John Jacob Astor, of New York, as a fur-trading station in the year 1811; and Delaware received its name from Thomas West, Lord de La Warre, Governor of Virginia, who visited the bay in 1610, and died on board his vessel at its mouth.
Lake Superior denotes the uppermost and chief of the five great lakes of North America. Lake Erie is the Lake of the “Wild Cat,” the name given to a fierce tribe of Indians exterminated by the Iroquois. Lake Huron