What's in a name? How York Region communities got their monikers
Learn name origins of Markham, Stouffville, Richmond Hill, Vaughan, East Gwillimbury

YorkRegion.com
April 10, 2018
Ali Raza

Do you know why your town or city is named what it is?

While many residents take interest in their respective communities, they often don't know the origins of their communities' names. Like many places in Ontario, several York Region place names stem from the time of Upper Canada's first lieutenant-governor, John Graves Simcoe.

Here are the etymologies of five communities in York Region.

Whitchurch-Stouffville
Even some of the town’s residents think Whitchurch-Stouffville is a mouthful to say, but the name for the geographically large municipality on the east side of York Region has a lot of history. Stouffville was originally Stoufferville, named after the village’s founder, Abraham Stouffer, who came to Ontario from Pennsylvania in 1804. Whitchurch Township was named in honour of the village of Whitchurch in Herefordshire, England — the birthplace of Elizabeth Simcoe, wife of the lieutenant-governor.

Markham
Markham, like many places in York Region and Ontario, has its name origins in decisions made by Simcoe. Established in 1791, Markham was named after William Markham, Simcoe’s friend and the then-Archbishop of York in England.

Vaughan
The area was settled by the British in 1792. What a sparse group of villages soon become the Township of Vaughan in 1850. Vaughan was named after British commissioner Benjamin Vaughan. He was known for signing a peace treaty on behalf of the British Empire with the United States in 1783.

East Gwillimbury
East Gwillimbury and West Gwillimbury (now part of Bradford West Gwillimbury) take their names from Simcoe’s wife Elizabeth's maiden name — Gwillim. The area was settled in 1793, when Simcoe thought the area would be an ideal portage route and defence point between Toronto (formerly known as York) and Georgian Bay.

Richmond Hill
First settled in 1787, Richmond Hill was known as Miles’ Hill by 1801. It was originally named after Abner Miles and his son, James, who were prominent settlers in the area. In the 1820s, Miles’ Hill was renamed Richmond Hill. No one knows the exact reason, but it is believed it was named after British North America governor general Charles Lennox, the fourth Duke of Richmond, visited on July 13, 1819.