Episode 2 of 2

Incorporation and Renaming

When: 1855
Where: Ottawa
Part of: Ottawa incorporated as a city

Bytown was renamed Ottawa and obtained city status in 1855, referencing the Ottawa River.

In 1855, Bytown was renamed Ottawa and obtained city status. The name was chosen in reference to the Ottawa River, whose name derives from the Algonquin word 'adawe', meaning 'to trade'. This transition marked the formal incorporation of the settlement as a city.

Sources

Ottawa Wikipedia, revision of 2026-10-01

Machine-drafted from the cited Wikipedia passages and checked by a reviewing model, not by a human editor. Every passage cites the revision it was written from; dates and places follow those passages.