Toronto's Name
The name Toronto originally referred to as The Narrows, a channel of water through which Lake Simcoe discharged into Lake Couchiching. This narrows was named tkaronto by the Mohawk, meaning where there are trees standing in the water. By 1680, Lake Simcoe appeared as Lac de Taronto on a map created by French court official Abbe Claude Bernou. By 1686, Passage de Taronto referred to a canoe route tracking what is now the Humber River. The Humber River became known as Riviere Taronto as the canoe route became more popular with French explorers, and by the 1720s a fort to the east of the mouth of the river was named Fort Toronto. The change of spelling from Taronto to Toronto is thought to originate on a 1695 map by Italian cartographer Vincenzo Coronelli