Origins of 8 strange place names in Canada

Written by

saintlouisduhaha
Mental Floss:

Every country has place names that make you scratch your head and say, “What were they thinking?” So I looked up what they may have been thinking when these places in Canada got their names.


  • http://darcyfitzpatrick.tumblr.com/ Darcy Fitzpatrick

    Not surprisingly, my home province of Newfoundland and Labrador took three of the eight places. And that really only scratches the surface.

    • http://www.yourmaclifeshow.com/ Shawn King

      LOL Yeah, you could fill many pages just of weird Newfoundland place names. :)

  • sincarne

    Well, darn: part of my family comes from Joe Batts Arm. I was hoping to hear the origin story of that one.

    • sincarne

      Update: it was named for Joseph Batt who deserted from Cook’s expedition, and the bay’s resemblance to an arm. Exciting stuff.

  • http://twitter.com/Moeskido Moeskido

    Sounds a lot more interesting than naming a town after a small subsection of some old settler’s farm.