Editing Canada (section)

==Etymology==<!--linked-->
The name ''Canada'' comes from the [[Iroquois]] word, ''kanata'', meaning "village" or "settlement".<ref>{{cite web|title=Origin of the Name, Canada|url=http://www.pch.gc.ca/pgm/ceem-cced/symbl/o5-eng.cfm|publisher=Canadian Heritage|year=2008|accessdate=2011-05-23}}</ref>
In 1535, indigenous inhabitants of the present-day [[Quebec City]] region used the word to direct French explorer [[Jacques Cartier]] to the village of [[Stadacona]].<ref name="maura"/> Cartier later used the word ''Canada'' to refer not only to that particular village, but also the entire area subject to [[Donnacona]] (the chief at Stadacona); by 1545, European books and maps had begun referring to this region as ''Canada''.<ref name="maura">{{cite journal|last=Maura|first=Juan Francisco|year=2009|title=Nuevas aportaciones al estudio de la toponimia ibérica en la América Septentrional en el siglo XVI|journal=Bulletin of Spanish Studies|volume=86|issue=5|pages=577–603|doi=10.1080/14753820902969345}}</ref>

In the 17th and early 18th century, ''Canada'' referred to the part of [[New France]] that lay along the [[Saint Lawrence River]] and the northern shores of the [[Great Lakes]]. The area was later split into two British colonies, [[Upper Canada]] and [[Lower Canada]]. They were re-unified as the [[Province of Canada]] in 1841.<ref>{{cite book
|title = Naming Canada: Stories of Canadian Place Names
|edition = 2nd
|first = Alan | last = Rayburn
|publisher = University of Toronto Press
|year = 2001
|isbn = 0802082939
|pages = 1–22}}
</ref>
Upon [[Canadian Confederation|Confederation]] in 1867, the name ''Canada'' was adopted as the legal name for the new country, and ''Dominion'' (a term from [[Psalm]] 72:8) was conferred as the country's title.<ref>{{cite book|last=O'Toole|first=Roger|title=Holy nations and global identities : civil religion, nationalism, and globalisation|year=2009|publisher=Brill|isbn=9789004178281|editor=Hvithamar, Annika; Warburg, Margit; Jacobsen, Brian Arly|page=137|chapter=Dominion of the Gods: Religious continuity and change in a Canadian context}}</ref> As Canada asserted its political autonomy from the United Kingdom, the federal government increasingly used simply ''Canada'' on state documents and treaties, a change that was reflected in the renaming of the national holiday from [[Dominion Day]] to [[Canada Day]] in 1982.<ref name="buckner">{{cite book|title=Canada and the British Empire|editor= Buckner, Philip|publisher=Oxford University Press|year=2008|pages=37–40, 56–59, 114, 124–125|isbn=019927164X}}</ref>