British Columbia Warning: You are not logged in. Your IP address will be publicly visible if you make any edits. If you log in or create an account, your edits will be attributed to your username, along with other benefits.Anti-spam check. Do not fill this in! ==Etymology== The province's name was chosen by [[Queen Victoria]], when the [[Colony of British Columbia (1858β1866)]], i.e., "the Mainland", became a British colony in 1858.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Martin |first=Ged |year=1978 |title=The Naming of British Columbia |journal=Albion: A Quarterly Journal Concerned with British Studies |volume=10 |issue=3 |pages=257β263 |doi=10.2307/4048132 |jstor=4048132}}</ref> It refers to the [[Columbia District]], the British name for the territory drained by the [[Columbia River]], in southeastern British Columbia, which was the namesake of the pre-[[Oregon Treaty]] [[Columbia Department]] of the [[Hudson's Bay Company]]. Queen Victoria chose ''British'' Columbia to distinguish what was the British sector of the Columbia District from the United States' ("American Columbia" or "Southern Columbia"), which became the [[Oregon Territory]] on August 8, 1848, as a result of the treaty.<ref>{{Cite book |last1=Akrigg |first1=Helen B. |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=bXWRSgAACAAJ |title=British Columbia Chronicle, 1847β1871: Gold & Colonists |last2=G.P.V. |publisher=Discovery Press |year=1977 |isbn=9780919624030 |edition=illustrated |access-date=November 22, 2015 |archive-date=May 13, 2016 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160513061117/https://books.google.com/books?id=bXWRSgAACAAJ |url-status=live }}</ref> Ultimately, the ''Columbia'' in the name ''British Columbia'' is derived from the name of the ''[[Columbia Rediviva]]'', an American ship which lent its name to the [[Columbia River]] and later the wider region;<ref>{{cite web |last=Munroe |first=Susan |date=February 12, 2019 |title=Why is the Western Region of Canada Called British Columbia? |url=https://www.thoughtco.com/british-columbia-508559 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20191212235259/https://www.thoughtco.com/british-columbia-508559 |archive-date=December 12, 2019 |access-date=May 17, 2017}}</ref> the ''Columbia'' in the name ''Columbia Rediviva'' came from [[Columbia (name)|the name ''Columbia'' for the New World or parts thereof]], a reference to [[Christopher Columbus]]. The governments of Canada and British Columbia recognize {{lang-fr|Colombie-Britannique|label=none}} as the French name for the province.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Colombie-Britannique |url=https://apps.gov.bc.ca/pub/bcgnws/names/49333.html/ |access-date=December 12, 2022 |website=BC Geographical Names}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |last= |first= |date=August 7, 2020 |title=Lois constitutionelles de 1867 Γ 1982 (rapport de 1990) |url=https://laws.justice.gc.ca/fra/ConstRpt/TexteComplet.html |access-date=December 12, 2022 |website=[[Department of Justice (Canada)|Department of Justice]] - Government of Canada}}</ref> Summary: Please note that all contributions to Christianpedia may be edited, altered, or removed by other contributors. If you do not want your writing to be edited mercilessly, then do not submit it here. You are also promising us that you wrote this yourself, or copied it from a public domain or similar free resource (see Christianpedia:Copyrights for details). Do not submit copyrighted work without permission! Cancel Editing help (opens in new window) Discuss this page