Location and Geography

The name Canada comes from the St. Lawrence Iroquoian word kanata, meaning "village" or "settlement".In 1535, indigenous inhabitants of the present-day Quebec City region used the word to direct French explorer Jacques Cartier to the village of Stadacona.Cartier later used the word Canada to refer not only to that particular village, but the entire area subject to Donnacona (the chief at Stadacona);by 1545, European books and maps had begun referring to this region as Canada.]