Canadian Place Names That Reference Geography
Canada has about 350,000 official place names. While many of these names honour people, a great many others reference physical or human geography. This list showcases the latter, highlighting names that point to the natural features of a place — take Montreal, for example — or how people interact with the land, be it through travel or settlement (as in Portage la Prairie, Manitoba). And, as with “Canada” itself, many of these names stem from an Indigenous word, or are themselves in an Indigenous language, such as Ulukhaktok, Northwest Territories (see also Largest Cities in Canada With an Indigenous Name).