Toronto was originally used on maps dating to the late 17th and early 18th century to refer to Lake Simcoe and the portage route to it. Eventually, the name was brought down to the mouth of the Humber River, which is where the present City of Toronto is situated. The bay serves as the end of the Toronto Carrying-Place Trail portage route from Lake Simcoe and Georgian Bay.
The word is likely derived from the Mohawk word tkaronto meaning “where there are trees standing in the water”, which originally referred to The Narrows, near present-day Orillia. Hurons and many other groups that had lived there drove stakes into the water to create fishing weirs. French maps from the 1680s to 1760s identify present-day Lake Simcoe as Lac de Taronto. The spelling changed to Toronto during the 18th century. As the portage route grew in use, the name became more widely used and was eventually attached to a French trading fort just inland from Lake Ontario on the Humber.[1]
Confusion about the name of location may also be attributed to the succession of First Nations peoples who lived in the area, including the Neutral, Seneca, Mohawk, Cayuga and Wendat nations.[2] It has also been speculated that the name origin is the Seneca word Giyando, meaning “on the other side”, which was the place where the Humber River narrows at the foot of the pass to the village of Teiaiagon.
From August 1793 to March 1834, the settlement was known as York, sharing the same name as the county it was situated in. The settlement was renamed when Lieutenant Governor John Graves Simcoe called for the town to be named after the Prince Frederick, Duke of York and Albany. To differentiate from York in England and New York City, the town was known as “Little York”.[3] In 1804, settler Angus MacDonald petitioned the Parliament of Upper Canada to restore the original name of the area, but this was rejected.[3] The town changed its name back to Toronto when it was incorporated into a city.