How Toronto's Streets Got Their Names: A Hub of Stories
From Yonge and Bloor to Bathurst and Davenport, nine Toronto street names with sourced origins, one honest disagreement, and where to dig deeper.
Ultimate guide
History of Toronto: Names, Streets and Stories
The city's story told through its names: Toronto, Yonge, Spadina and beyond.
4 stories in this guide, from 1 desk: Archive Desk.
Every Toronto street name is a small story waiting to be told. This guide opens the city's history through names: how Toronto itself got its name, why Yonge Street is called Yonge, where Spadina comes from and how many other streets were christened. Each story is built from archives, museums and government sources.
The Canadian Encyclopedia says the name Toronto is derived from the Mohawk word tkaronto, which means where there are trees standing in the water, and that the word originally referred to The Narrows, near present-day Orillia. Simcoe named Yonge Street after Sir George Yonge, secretary of war in the British Cabinet and a family friend. The City of Toronto's Spadina Museum page says the museum is named from an Anishnaabemowin word, ishpadina, meaning highland or ridge.
Where the record is thin, we say so rather than reach for a tidy answer. Begin with the name of the city itself, then follow a street.
