Simcoe's legacy: The names of York Region communities
Learn name origins of Aurora, Newmarket, Georgina, King and York Region

YorkRegion.com
April 24, 2018
Ali Raza

This is the second series of etymologies in York Region. In our first series, we revealed the origins of the names of Whitchurch-Stouffville, Markham, Vaughan, East Gwillimbury, and Richmond Hill.

But there are plenty more places in York Region whose names are uttered frequently but their origins remain obscured.

Here are the etymologies of five additional communities in York Region — and yes, Lt.-Gov. John Graves Simcoe was responsible for naming some of them.

Aurora

Yonge Street first cut through the area that is now Aurora in 1794. In 1795, the first house was built on Yonge Street and Catherine Avenue. By 1804, the hamlet was known as Machell’s Corners after merchant Richard Machell settled on Yonge Street and Wellington Street. The name Aurora came from the first postmaster and first reeve Charles Doan, who renamed the village.

Newmarket

Newmarket was named Newmarket because of — you guessed it — a market. First settled in 1801, by 1814 the settlement in the area grew alongside Aurora and Holland Landing, adding several homes and residences. A market held in the current downtown gave rise to the name Newmarket.

Georgina

Georgina, as many may have guessed, is named after King George III (reigned 1760 to 1820). It was originally the proposed name for London, Ont, but Simcoe decided to name the area south of the lake instead in the late 1790s.

King

King Township isn’t actually named after King George III or any other monarch. Simcoe named the township in 1800 after John King (1759-1830), the English under-secretary for the home office from 1794 to 1801. First settled as small farming villages, the area became a township in 1850.

York Region

Today, the Regional Municipality of York includes Markham, Richmond Hill, Vaughan, King, Aurora, Whitchurch-Stouffville, Newmarket, East Gwillimbury, and Georgina. But when the settlement of York was first established in 1793, it was farther south to where Toronto stands today. The surrounding areas — including York, Peel, Halton, Toronto, parts of Durham, and Hamilton, were originally known as York County. As each municipality became its own region, York Region stuck for the lands north of Steeles Avenue. Simcoe named the first settlement York after the second son of King George III — Prince Frederick, Duke of York and Albany.