History
Originally, the term "Taronto" referred to The Narrows, a channel of water through which Lake Simcoe discharges into Lake Couchiching. This narrows was styled tkaronto by the Mohawk, meaning "where there are trees standing in the water", and was recorded as early as 1615 by Samuel de Champlain.
By 1680, Lake Simcoe appeared as Lac de Taronto on a map created by French court official Abbé Claude Bernou; by 1686, Passage de Taronto referred to a canoe route tracking what is now the Humber River. The river became known as Rivière Taronto as the canoe route became more popular with French explorers, and by the 1720s a fort to the east of the mouth of the river was named Fort Toronto. Rivière Taronto was renamed to Humber River by Simcoe.
The change of spelling from Taronto to Toronto is thought to originate on a 1695 map by Italian cartographer Vincenzo Coronelli.
The name has also sometimes been identified with Tarantou, a village marked on a 1656 map of New France by Nicolas Sanson. However, the location on this map is east of Lake Nipissing and northwest of Montreal in what is now Quebec.
Read more about this topic: Name Of Toronto
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