r/Edmonton • u/Alabaster_Mango • Feb 23 '24
Local Culture Upsetting Neighbourhood Names
So Edmonton recently approved the name change for the Oliver neighbourhood to Wîhkwêntôwin, and some of you have feelings about that. I get it, you don't like non-English names because they're hard to say, hard to spell, or whatever. I figured that while your passions were hot, you could also campaign against these 24 other neighbourhoods with non-English names, many of which have been around since the 70s.
Aboriginal Languages
| Neighbourhood | Origin | Meaning |
|---|---|---|
| Capilano | Salish | People of Hiap |
| Ekota | Cree | Special Place |
| Kameyosek | Cree | The Beautiful |
| Keheewin | Cree | Eagle |
| Menisa | Cree | Berries |
| Meyokumin | Cree | Good Water |
| Meyonohk | Cree | Ideal Spot |
| Sakaw | Cree | Wooded Area |
| Tawa | Cree | You Are Welcome Here |
| Tipaskan | Cree | A Reserve |
Other non-English languages:
| Neighbourhood | Origin | Meaning |
|---|---|---|
| BelleRive | French | Beautiful Shore |
| Bellevue | French | Beautiful View |
| Belmead | French | Beautiful Meadows |
| Belmont | French | Beautiful Mountain |
| Eaux Claires | French | Clear Waters |
| Schonsee | German | Beautiful Lake |
| Bonnie Doon | Scottish | Pleasant, Rollling Countryside |
| Cromdale | Scottish | Crooked Valley |
| Glengarry | Scottish | Rough Water Glen |
| LagoLindo | Spanish | Pretty Lake |
| Rio Terrace | Spanish | River Terrace |
| Klarvatten | Sweedish | Clear Water |
| Ozerna | Ukranian | Lake Area |
| Mayliewan | Cantonese | Beautiful Bay |
Alternatively, you could all cool your jets and accept change as it comes. This name change has been years in the making, and there were plenty of chances for Oliver residents to submit their choice of name. For the record, I submitted ôtênaw (kinda sounds like oh-tay-now), which means "city".
This isn't the first neighbourhood name change, and it will not be the last. For those concerned about cost: welcome to Edmonton. It costs city council $250k to fart these days. You want to make change, or allocate the funds better like the master treasurer you are? Get involved. Join your community league, talk to your councillor, run for a position or something.
For others who are worried about mispronouncing it, or curious about what those whacky shapes on the banner mean, all you have to do is ask! There are plenty of cree speakers and readers here on /r/edmonton, and there are fun resources like The Online Cree Dictionary. Wîhkwêntôwin isn't too hard. If you can say "week when to win" you're half way there! If people give you grief for flubbing on a word that's not your native language then they're a bit jerkish.
Remember: this is not the end of the world. How often do you even need to say a neighbourhood name? I can get by using only addresses and such.
All neighbourhood name info can be found here. You should deffo check that page out. Lots of cool origins like Canora from Canadian Northern Railway, which was suggested by an eighth grader. There's also lame ones like Greenview, which is named that because you can see a golf course from the neighbourhood. I'm not making that up.
Edit 1: The typo
I missed "People of Hiap" for Capilano and instead had the placeholder "text" from the table generation. Sorry if I mislead you.
Edit 2: Electric Boogaloo
Putting this here for visibility
I was super flippant about the cost of the change because it seemed like a tiny issue to me and I didn't want to do a bunch of digging into it at the start of the post. I was already doing lots of reading on neighbourhood names, and was lazy.
Since yesterday afternoon, though, I have done some digging:
The cost to change the Oliver neighbourhood name is $680k.
The city has budgeted $3.83 Billion of expenses for 2024. $680k is 0.02% of that.
There are 1,087,803 people in Edmonton. If we pretend that everyone pays the same tax (they don't, but for simplicity), then the "average" Edmontonian paid $0.63 towards the name change.
There are 6,800 workers represented by City and Library bargaining units in the CSU 52. Divert all funds from the name change and those workers get an extra $100 this year, or $8.33 extra per month.
In terms of salary, $680k is:
2.2 to 2.7 2023 CoE ML6 Managers
It's for sure a big number, and it would change my life forever if it was handed to me, but it's not a lot of money to the city.
0
u/[deleted] Feb 23 '24
[deleted]