in 1535, Jacques Cartier went down the St. Lawrence River. As he did the Iroquois pointed out the route to a the village of Stadacona, (Now Quebec City) and used the word "kanata," their word for...
Back when explorers from Europe first settled in the Country (1535), the First Nations people called their land 'Kanata' or 'Akanada'. The same was modified to 'Canada' and is still used today.
Canada derives from the Huron word "kanata," meaning "village" or "settlement." It was first applied to Quebec, but was later used to describe the whole region.