The name of Toronto has a history distinct from that of the city itself. Originally, the term "Tkaronto" referred to a channel of water between Lake Simcoe and Lake Couchiching on maps as early as 1675 but in time the name passed southward, and was eventually applied to a new fort at the mouth of the Humber River. Fort Toronto was the first European settlement in the area, and lent its name to what became the city of Toronto.
John Graves Simcoe identified the area as a strategic location to base a new capital for Upper Canada, believing Newark to be susceptible to American invasion. A garrison was established at Garrison Creek, on the western entrance to the docks of Toronto Harbour, in 1793; this later became Fort York. The settlement it defended was renamed York on August 26, 1793, as Simcoe favoured English names over those of First Nations languages, in honour of Prince Frederick, Duke of York. Residents petitioned to change the name back to Toronto, and in 1834 the city was incorporated with its original name. The name York lived on through the name of York County (which was later split into Metropolitan Toronto and York Region), and continues to live on through the names of several districts within the city, including Yorkville, East York, and North York, the latter two suburbs that were formally amalgamated into the "megacity" of Toronto on January 1, 1998.
History
The word Toronto was recorded with various spellings in French and English, including Tarento, Tarontha, Taronto, Toranto, Torento, Toronto, and Toronton. Taronto referred to "The Narrows", a channel of water through which Lake Simcoe discharges into Lake Couchiching at what is now the city of Orillia. This narrows was called by the Mohawk, meaning "where there are trees standing in the water," and was recorded as early as 1615 by Samuel de Champlain. Today, the area is partially surrounded by trees along the water's edge with the rest with marinas and location of the historic Mnjikaning Fish Weirs.
Prior to the Iroquois inhabitation of the Toronto region, the Wyandot (Huron) people inhabited the region, later moving north to the area around Lake Huron and Georgian Bay. The word toronto, meaning 'plenty', appeared in a French lexicon of the Wyandot language in 1632. Toronto, however, did not appear on any map of the region before 1650. After 1650, and the destruction of Fort Sainte Marie, the Hurons left the region.
A 1675 map in French, by Pierre Raffeix, referred to Lake Simcoe as , and the name appeared on a 1678 map of New France by cartographer Jean-Baptiste-Louis Franquelin. In 1680, it appeared as on a map created by French court official Abbé Claude Bernou.
By 1686, 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 1750s, a fort to the east of the delta on Lake Ontario was named Fort Toronto by the French. 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.
During his travels in Upper Canada in 1796, Isaac Weld wrote about Simcoe's policy of assigning English names to locations in Upper Canada. He opposed the renaming scheme, stating:
The name has also sometimes been identified with , 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.
The use of the name Tkaronto has reemerged as an alternate name for the city in 2020. The reemergence of the name has been attributed to an "Indigenous awakening", that aims to honour the city's Indigenous history and to decolonize the city's name.
Town of York
In 1786, Lord Dorchester arrived in Quebec City as Governor-in-Chief of British North America. His mission was to solve the problems of the newly landed Loyalists. At first, Dorchester suggested opening the new Canada West as districts under the Quebec government, but the British Government made known its intention to split Canada into Upper and Lower Canada. Dorchester began organizing for the new province of Upper Canada, including a capital. Dorchester's first choice was Kingston, but he was aware of the number of Loyalists in the Bay of Quinte and Niagara areas, and he chose instead the location north of the Bay of Toronto, midway between the settlements and from the US. Under the policy of the time, the British recognized aboriginal title to the land and Dorchester arranged to purchase the land from the Mississaugas.