English 'Canada' comes from Laurentian Iroquoian kanata meaning 'village' — Jacques Cartier misapplied a word for a single settlement to an entire territory, and the name stuck for the second-largest country on Earth.
A country in North America, the second-largest country in the world by total area.
English 'Canada' derives from the Laurentian Iroquoian word 'kanata' meaning 'village' or 'settlement'. The word was recorded by French explorer Jacques Cartier in 1535–1536, when Indigenous guides near present-day Quebec City used 'kanata' to direct him to the village of Stadacona. Cartier subsequently applied the name to the entire region. The word is well-attested in Iroquoian languages: compare Mohawk 'kaná:ta' (town) and Huron-Wendat 'yändata' (village). The
Canada is named after a misunderstanding of scale. When Cartier asked his Iroquoian guides what the land was called, they said 'kanata' — meaning their specific village. Cartier applied the word to the entire vast territory along the St. Lawrence. A single village name became the name of the world's second-largest country.