Story Behind Manitoba Names: How Cities, Towns, Villages and Whistle Stops got their Names

by Ted Stone

Get to know Manitoba with the stories of over 500 names, ranging from the humorous to the historic. Communities included are particularly rich with an array of whimsical, descriptive, historical and aboriginal names. Perhaps because of our frontier heritage, towns and cities in North America come named after all manner of unlikely people, places and things, and they come in dozens of languages, all of which add interest and color to the stories behind the names. Manitoba's names stand with the best. From a town named after a baking powder can to the village of Dropmore, whose town fathers couldn't decide on a name until they'd had "a drop more" from a shared bottle; towns in Manitoba have been named after everything from bacon to ducks. One village was named after a local species of tree by local residents who only discovered later that they had been mistaken about just what kind of tree they had growing in the town. Other Manitoba communities have been named after early residents, prominent people, local incidents, former homes in other places and Indian legends. No matter if you're from Manitoba or someplace far away the stories behind the names on Manitoba's map make for stories that seem hilariously unbelievable, but that really are true. They also help illuminate the history and culture of Western Canada.

Paperback

Published September 11, 2006

Reviews

[RunRiverRead · Rating 5 out of 5]

It's a simple reference book listing the names of every inhabited location in Manitoba and the origins of said names, but that's all it needs to be and it does its job perfectly.

I loved the sense of humour in some of the entries, and how the author was not afraid to admit when a locale's name had an uncertain origin and listed the possible explanations, even including ones that didn't have any clear name origin.

The back of the book also provides a list of all the names covered by category for easy searching, along with a bibliography.

This is a great book if you're interested in place-names and local history, but man, it got a bit depressing how often an entry would go "The people here called it A, but the newly installed Post Office/Railway Stop/Some Guy From England decided to call it B instead and everyone just had to live with it".