When the Louvre was robbed in October, I went online to learn more details – but not about the theft itself.
Given that we’re talking about crown jewels, I figured the gems were pilfered or extracted through exploitation somewhere along the way. I didn’t care much about another chapter in their journey. What intrigued me was the origin of something else: the name of the museum.
Museums house great treasures, but so does language. Familiar names of places can be artifacts too. So it was with the Louvre, I learned.
There are a few theories of how the name emerged. One says it’s a corruption of the Latin lupara, derived from lupus, meaning wolf. The location of the museum may once have been a land of wolves or a wolf hunting ground.
Another explanation links Louvre to leovar, a word in the Germanic language of Frankish. Leovarmeant “fortified place” or “watchtower”, which makes sense as the Louvre was built as a medieval fortress in the late 12th century.
Let’s have fun with etymology and explore another 10 instances of streets, squares neighbourhoods, regions and countries whose names hide stories. If you have a love of language, here’s a Louvre of language.
1. Piccadilly Circus, London: The Piccadilly intersection and public space evolved from Piccadilly Hall, built by 17th-century tailor Robert Baker. He was famous for selling ruffled collars, known as piccadills.
2. Abbey Road, London. The throughfare in St. John’s Wood is, of course, known for its zebra crossing, the name of the classic album by The Beatles and being the home of their studio, EMI. The abbey name has religious connotations, as it references a former monastery established in the area in the 12th century.
3. Rodeo Drive, Beverly Hills. Known for it’s high-end shops, it’s one of the most expensive streets in world. The name derived from a Spanish-Mexican land grant in the 1830s: Rancho Rodeo de las Aguas, meaning “roundup of the waters”, as this is where to two canyon streams met. Bonus trivia: Beverly Hills was named after Beverly Farms, a neighbourhood in Beverly, Massachusetts, which in turn was named after the town of Beverley (with a third “e”), England. That name came from Beoferlic or Beverlac in the 10th century, referencing the nearby colonies of beavers.
4. Times Square, Manhattan. Named after the New York Times, which moved its headquarters there in 1904. The area was formerly known as Longacre Square (after the carriage district in London), and in the 19th century was filled with horse traders, stables and carriage works.
5. Australia. In the 16th century, European geographers had postulated a continent in the southern hemisphere. Their theory was based on the idea that land in the northern hemisphere had to be balanced with a land mass in the south. In Latin, the phrase terra australis incognita means “unknown southern land”, and was used on maps (see at the top). This hypothetical place turned out to exist (the ancestors of the Aboriginals started to come there, oh, only 50,000-65,000 years ago), and took on the name Australia.
6. Istanbul, Turkey. At one time, Constaninople was the only major city in the area. The local Greeks referred to it by eis ten Polin, meaning “to the city” in medieval Greek. That phrase evolved into the word Istanbul, which eventually replaced Constantinople.
7. Canary Islands. This archipelago in the Atlantic, and an autonomous community of Spain, has nothing to do with the bird. Canary here refers to another animal. Islas Canarias comes from the Latin Canariae Insulae, meaning “Islands of the Dogs”. The ancient Romans had noticed the local population of big dogs (in Latin, dog is canis) as well as monk seals, which they called sea dogs.
8. Liberty Village, Toronto. Not quite as famous as these other spots, but an intriguing history in my city. The area was the site of Toronto Central Prison and the Andrew Mercer Reformatory for Women. The latter, which opened in 1880, housed women who were deemed “unmanageable” or “incorrigible”, and whose offences ranged from begging in public, to interracial relationships, to promiscuous behaviour and living a life of vice. When inmates were released, they walked out onto Liberty Street – their first steps of freedom.
9. Lachine, Quebec. This part of Montreal comes from la Chine (China). Explorer René-Robert Cavelier de La Salle obtained a seigneury in the area, and in 1669 sold most of his estate to finance a voyage that he hoped would take him from the Great Lakes to China. The locals mocked him, sarcastically calling his estate la Chine.
10. Saint-Louis-du-Ha!-Ha!, Quebec. Don’t laugh at Ha! Ha!, because it has nothing to do with something funny. A ha-ha, of French origin, described an unexpected geographic obstacle, with the exclamation points emphasizing the surprise. Saint-Louis-du-Ha!-Ha! is the only town in the world with two exclamation points. Another village actually has one: Westward Ho! in southwest England.
All of these examples remind us of how place names lift their meaning from something else, sometimes long forgotten and stolen by time, other times just not widely know. Our maps are dotted with little jewels of language, displayed in plain sight.
Stuart Foxman is a Toronto-based freelance writer, who helps clients’ products, services, ideas and organizations to come alive. Connect with me here on LinkedIn, or check me out at foxmancommunications.com where I share these blogs too. More original posts coming regularly about communications, information, motivation, writing, branding, creativity, media, marketing, persuasion, messages, learning, etc.
November 5, 2025