By Troy Gillard

International Women’s Day

Interactive map recognizes Canadian places named for women

Mar 8, 2021 | 10:42 AM

OTTAWA, ON – Place names have an important role in recognizing, preserving and strengthening Canada’s history and culture.

Today, on International Women’s Day, the Honourable Seamus O’Regan Jr., Canada’s Minister of Natural Resources, unveiled a new interactive map entitled Recognizing Women with Canadian Place Names, which showcases locations across Canada named after women.

The interactive map, developed by Natural Resources Canada (NRCan) in collaboration with the federal, provincial and territorial members of the Geographical Names Board of Canada (GNBC), highlights nearly 500 geographical places named after women. Each point on the map is categorized by a theme — Indigenous cultures, family ties, royalty and religious figures, early settlers/pioneers, community service, arts/literature, medicine/science and political figures — and contains a short description about the person behind a particular place name.

“Women founded this country, women built this country. This map tells their stories, preserves their memories and pays tribute to so many names that deserve to be remembered,” says O’Regan Jr.

The new map endeavours to tell the often untold or forgotten stories of women who have contributed to Canada’s rich history. It is the first national map of its kind to commemorate and present geographical features that are named for women.

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Local examples include the Village of Caroline, named after Rebecca Caroline Nelson (née Langley), the first postmaster’s daughter. She often worked as a camp cook on Geological Survey of Canada surveys.

The GNBC is the national coordinating body responsible for official place names. It is composed of representatives from each provincial and territorial naming authority, as well as several federal departments and agencies. The members of the GNBC work to research, standardize, approve, record and promote the official geographical names of Canada. The GNBC is supported by NRCan, which provides a secretariat and maintains the national database of authoritative geographical names.