ELI5: Explain Like I'm 5

Royal eponyms in Canada

Okay, so imagine you have a name, right? Like Emma or Liam. Every year, a new baby is born and they get a new name, just like you did.

Well, in Canada, they have a special way of naming things that are important, like buildings, streets, and even periods of time. They use something called “royal eponyms”.

Now, a royal eponym is just a fancy way of saying that something is named after someone who is really important. And in Canada, that someone is usually a queen or a king. You know, like Queen Elizabeth or King George.

So when someone important dies, like a king or a queen, Canada likes to honor their memory by naming something after them. Like, they might name a street “Queen Elizabeth Drive” or a building “King George Hospital”. It’s a way of showing respect and remembering the good things that the person did.

Sometimes, Canada even uses royal eponyms to name periods of time. For example, they might call a certain time period “The Victorian Era”, which was named after Queen Victoria who ruled a long time ago.

So, just like you have a name, important things in Canada have names too, and sometimes those names are the names of really important people like the kings and queens who ruled Canada a long time ago.