08/29/2026
🌿 Let's play Re-Name the lake...again!! Proposing name changes to bodies of water is the new diversion from all the problems in the world right now. But if renaming the lake after a 15th century Italian explorer (Amerigo Vespucci) isn't doing it for you, 🙄 here's another option.
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The name Ontario is derived from the Wendat (Huron) word Ontarí'io, which is often translated as "great lake". In Colonial times, Lake Onzario was also called Cataraqui, a French spelling of the Mohawk Katarokwi. The name Ontarí'io is most often translated from Wyandot as "beautiful lake", and other translations exist.
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Different Indigenous nations used specific terms and spellings in their languages:
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Wendat (Huron): Ontarí'io ("great lake" or "great water").
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Haudenosaunee (Iroquois): Kanadario ("sparkling water" or "beautiful great lake").
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Anishinaabemowin (Ojibwe): Niigani-gichigami.
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Mohawk: Katarokwi (anglicized as Cataraqui), which was also used for the area.
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Here is a proposed change to the proposed Lake America name change, using the Haudenosaunee Confederscy name Kanadario.
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The Haudenosaunee Confederacy, also known as the Iroquois, are a confederacy of Iroquoian-speaking indigenous peoples in northeast North America. They were known by the French during the colonial years as the Iroquois League, and later as the Iroquois Confederacy. They have also been called the Six Nations (Five Nations before 1722).
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In 2010, more than 45,000 enrolled Six Nations people lived in Canada, and over 81,000 in the United States. They retain sovereignty over seven reserves in Canada and eleven reservations in the United States, divided between seventeen First Nations and nine Tribal nations.
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