Etymology
The name Canada originated around 1535 from the Saint-Lawrence Iroquoian word Kanata meaning "village", "settlement", or "land"; another contemporary translation was "cluster of dwellings". Saint-Lawrence Iroquoian, which was spoken by the inhabitants of Stadacona and the neighbouring region near present-day Quebec City in the 16th century, was closely related to other Iroquoian languages, such as Oneida and Mohawk. In modern Mohawk, for example, the word kaná:ta' means "town". Jacques Cartier transcribed the word as "canada" and was first to use the word to refer not only to the village of Stadacona but also to the neighbouring region and to the Saint Lawrence River, which he called rivière de Canada. By 1545, European books and maps began referring to this region as Canada.
While the Saint-Lawrence Iroquoian origin for the name Canada is now widely accepted, other explanations have been put forth. Pierre François Xavier de Charlevoix noted that some had attributed the name to the Iroquois word Kannata (pronounced Cannada) meaning "collection of huts". One theory suggested that the name originated when Spanish or Portuguese explorers, having explored the northern part of the continent and unable to find gold and silver, wrote acá nada, or cá nada, ("nothing here") on that part of their maps.
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