I'm working on an alternate history where the French end up taking over pretty much all of North America, but there are plenty of places where we don't know the French name for, mostly because they never got there, but what do you think the French would have named like British Columbia when they got there? Like I just want to know what you think French Colonial names would be
What Would The French Have Named Places In North America
- Thread starter GregTheWolf144
- Start date
The French used the same name pools as the English
- Botched indigenous names (Québec)
- Descriptive geographical names : Pays d’en Haut (Highland), Grande Rivière (Great River), Monts rocheux (Rocky Mountains)
- Dedications names (with various fort and Nouveau prefixes and ville et terre suffixes id needed)
- Royalty : Bourbon, Louisville, Dauphin, Nouveau-Berry (dukes of Berry, Anjou, Orléans, Angoulême being traditional princes’ titles)
- Ministers and other patrons : Colbert, Seignelay, Louvois, Phélypeaux, Pontchartrain, Maurepas,...
- Towns of origin : Vincennes, Dieppe,..
the only difference could be the way French noble titles work. Unlike in Britain, a titled nobleman must actually own a land with that title ´s name. Lands changed names according to their owner desired title (often his family name or a lordship formerly in family ownership). You could see some places named after the more important people of the colony.
Well, there were a few French kings named Philip ... but assuming the monarchy runs sames as OTL the last Philip would have been a really long time before the colonization of North America, and so would be kind of unlikely. And, also, it would be one "l" (Philipines - looks weird written that way).
The big problem is that they had so many damned Louis (Louises?). Maybe after a queen? (Marieterre? Does that work as a word? Terre de Marie? Or would it be like Louisiana and be Mariana?)
Maybe after a monarchical nickname? The way Virginia is supposed to be for Elizabeth, the Virgin Queen? Louis XIV was the Sun King, so maybe Soleiana?
The big problem is that they had so many damned Louis (Louises?). Maybe after a queen? (Marieterre? Does that work as a word? Terre de Marie? Or would it be like Louisiana and be Mariana?)
Maybe after a monarchical nickname? The way Virginia is supposed to be for Elizabeth, the Virgin Queen? Louis XIV was the Sun King, so maybe Soleiana?
Philip was a traditional second son name among the french royals, with Charles (Henry disappeared after 1610). However, junior princes were known by their titles and not their names. Hence La Nouvelle-Orléans and not Philippeville. But a TL could mess with the OTL genealogy and create a long line of kings Philippe or Charles.
For a Queen, Terre de Marie works for a region, Bourg-Marie, Villemarie for a town. You could always have Sainte-Marie, but the royal administration, unlike the spanish one, was not keen on religious names. Anne is more tricky, as it’s not easy to find a pleasant sounding combination. Annapolis is not awful, if a little pedant 😃.
For a Queen, Terre de Marie works for a region, Bourg-Marie, Villemarie for a town. You could always have Sainte-Marie, but the royal administration, unlike the spanish one, was not keen on religious names. Anne is more tricky, as it’s not easy to find a pleasant sounding combination. Annapolis is not awful, if a little pedant 😃.
George Washington
Banned
Louis(fill in blank here) if they name after kings and royals like the English (eg Carolina, Georgia) then Louisiana might refer to everything
French would NEVER use the name Maria (unless the very unlikely case in which Louis XV would marry as OTL and felt the need to name something after his wife). Anything dedicated to Louis XIV’s wife would be called after Marie Therese NOT simply Marie. Something named after Louis XIV’s mother Anne also is pretty likely
Grey Wolf
Donor
Sault Ste. Marie, Ontario - Wikipedia
French colonists referred to the rapids on the river as Les Saults de Ste. Marie and the village name was derived from that. The rapids and cascades of the St. Mary's River descend more than 20 ft (6 m) from the level of Lake Superior to the level of the lower lakes. Hundreds of years ago, this slowed shipping traffic, requiring an overland portage of boats and cargo from one lake to the other. The entire name translates to "Saint Mary's Rapids" or "Saint Mary's Falls". The word sault is pronounced [so] in French, and /suː/ in the English pronunciation of the city name
At the time a village, now one of the largest cities.
Grey Wolf
Donor
Fort names often became city names in time; this one is different because the French lost and the pattern of settlement became from the East not from France
en.wikipedia.org
The name of the fort honored Louis, duc de Chartres, son of the Regent of France.
Fort de Chartres - Wikipedia
The name of the fort honored Louis, duc de Chartres, son of the Regent of France.
Grey Wolf
Donor
Baton Rouge basically took something native, and Frenchified it
en.wikipedia.org
French explorer Pierre Le Moyne d'Iberville led an exploration party up the Mississippi River in 1698. The explorers saw a red pole marking the boundary between the Houma and Bayagoula tribal hunting grounds. The French name le bâton rouge ("the red stick") is the translation of a native term rendered as Istrouma, possibly a corruption of the Choctaw iti humma ("red pole");[17] André-Joseph Pénicaut, a carpenter traveling with d'Iberville, published the first full-length account of the expedition in 1723. According to Pénicaut,
The settlement of Baton Rouge by Europeans began in 1721 when French colonists established a military and trading post.
Baton Rouge, Louisiana - Wikipedia
French explorer Pierre Le Moyne d'Iberville led an exploration party up the Mississippi River in 1698. The explorers saw a red pole marking the boundary between the Houma and Bayagoula tribal hunting grounds. The French name le bâton rouge ("the red stick") is the translation of a native term rendered as Istrouma, possibly a corruption of the Choctaw iti humma ("red pole");[17] André-Joseph Pénicaut, a carpenter traveling with d'Iberville, published the first full-length account of the expedition in 1723. According to Pénicaut,
The location of the red pole was presumably at Scott's Bluff, on what is now the campus of Southern University.[18] It was reportedly a 30-foot-high (9.1 m) painted pole adorned with fish bones.[19]
The settlement of Baton Rouge by Europeans began in 1721 when French colonists established a military and trading post.
Louisiana is an english name (Lousiane being the original french). Both Bourbonie or Orléanie are very odd-sounding to a french ear. Maybe a learnes settler try Borbonia (a latin form) and it evolves in Bourbonia, but straight out Bourbonia is too « wrong usage » for the times.
Actually Sault Sainte-Marie was originaly names Le Sault de Gaston, after Louis XIII’s brother. The Jesuits renamed it Sainte-Marie, a religious name brought from outside the royal administration.SnipSault Ste. Marie, Ontario - Wikipedia
At the time a village, now one of the largest cities.
All the areas in USA and Canada, except for the extreme north, that the French didn't have OTL. With the ones they had OTL, I can just use those names, but there's plenty they didn't
Grey Wolf
Donor
Like Acadie - I'm never sure if the English term is Arcadia or Acadia?
Interesting though in that this is essentially an ancient place name reused,, so I guess the French could do more of that as well? Elysee?
Grey Wolf
Donor
I believe totem poles were quite common in the NW Pacific coast. I could envisage a French place name from the look of one of these, or from its native name for a specific settlement?
Did the French do any of what we would now see in modern USA where native names are Anglicised - Potomac, and all those other examples I was going to cite but which have just escaped my brain!