Canada's Evolving Geographical Names

This dataset is a collaborative project by Natural Resources Canada and the federal, provincial and territorial members of the Geographical Names Board of Canada, illustrating a curated selection of official geographical names in Canada that have changed over time. The selection comes from the Canadian Geographical Names Database, displaying additional information including the previous name(s) of each feature, the year and the reason why the names changed along with a short history of each name change.

Data and Resources

Additional Info

Field Value
Last Updated April 17, 2026, 22:01 (UTC)
Created April 17, 2026, 22:01 (UTC)
contact_email geonames-toponymes@nrcan-rncan.gc.ca
contact_person {"en": "Government of Canada;Natural Resources Canada;Geoscience and Earth Monitoring Sector/Canada Centre for Mapping and Earth Observation", "fr": "Gouvernement du Canada;Ressources naturelles Canada;Secteur des géosciences et de la surveillance de la Terre/Centre canadien de cartographie et d'observation de la Terre"}
criticality_level []
data_dictionary EPSG:3978,http://www.epsg-registry.org,
geographic_scope []
open_canada_collection fgp
open_canada_date_published 2025-08-01 00:00:00
open_canada_keywords {"en": ["Toponymy", "Geographic data"], "fr": ["Toponymie", "Données géographiques"]}
open_canada_subject ["form_descriptors", "society_and_culture"]
sensitivity_level unrestricted
title_fr L'évolution des noms de lieux au Canada
update_frequency as_needed