The French Element in Newfoundland Place Names

Abstract

Newfoundland place names derive from several linguistic bases — Portuguese, French, English, Basque, Breton, Micmac Indian, Gaelic and perhaps Scandinavian — with English and French names far out-numbering the rest. My study of the French element is still far from complete but, if it were, the limits of this paper would, of course, not admit of my treating it exhaustively. What I propose to do, then, is simply to give a short sketch of the history of the recording of the names and of their variety in the land of their adoption. If for our present purpose we omit any reference to names which may have been given previously by the indigenous Indians or by early Scandinavian explorers, about which there is some conjecture but little evidence, the first names imposed in Newfoundland were Portuguese, which occur in maps produced within a few years of the discovery of the island in 1497.

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