Etymology
It is unclear why the river is called the Canadian. On John C. Fremont's route map of 1845 the river's name is listed as "Goo-al-pah or Canadian River" from the Comanche and Kiowa name for the river.
The name may have been given to the river by early French hunters and traders, especially the Mallet brothers, who came from Canada. The upper part was called Rio Colorado by the Spanish. Some researchers think early explorers believed the river flowed into Canada. It does flow northeast through part of the Texas Panhandle. In 1929 Muriel H. Wright wrote that the Canadian River was named about 1820 by French traders who noted another group of traders from Canada had camped on the river near its confluence with the Arkansas River.
The name could be of Spanish origin from the word cañada (meaning "glen"), as the Canadian River formed a steep canyon in northern New Mexico and a somewhat broad canyon in Texas. A few historical records document this explanation. Edward Hale, writing in 1929, considered the French origin of the name most probable.
A more recent explanation comes from William Bright, who wrote that the name is "probably derived from Río Canadiano", a Spanish spelling of the Caddo word káyántinu, which was the Caddos' name for the nearby Red River.
Read more about this topic: Canadian River
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