If you know a little about Vancouver's history, you likely know the name came from Capt. George Vancouver, a British naval officer and explorer who sailed through the area in the 1790s.
But that's not the whole story.
Vancouver's family name can be traced back to a northern Dutch town on the German border with very little in common with the Canadian metropolis.
It's called .
It's from there that the ancestors of George Â鶹´«Ã½Ó³»came; at one point they were the van Coevordens, which is essentially saying they were "from Coevorden." At a talk given in Coevorden by Michael Francis (a central figure in Expo 86) in 1986, he .
The name Coevorden originated from the Dutch words for "cow crossing"; it's not unheard of for towns to be named that way (Oxford in England, for one). And there is, in fact, a river at Coevorden, just like Â鶹´«Ã½Ó³»(though it's significantly smaller than the Fraser).
So to extend the translation, Â鶹´«Ã½Ó³»means "from the cow crossing."
The earliest reference to the town, according to , is in the name of a man called Fredericus van Coevorden in 1036. In 1407 it was officially made a city and for a long time held an important role as a fortified city and military stronghold (at points both the Spanish and French held it), but that waned in the 18th century.
Now it's a town of around 36,000, still with military connections (there's a storage facility there) and using its proximity to Germany as the impetus for a multinational business park.
For those thinking of visiting the town, a travel blogger suggests the museum and castle as the top spots to see. They put together a .
The community itself has plenty of older buildings, including a middle ages castle in the middle of the town. For Expo 86 a replica was built here, in Vancouver. It's now in Richmond, which is a whole different story.
While most Â鶹´«Ã½Ó³»residents likely don't know much about Coevorden, the Dutch town hasn't forgotten the connection. In 2010, during the Winter Olympics, the town sent a delegation here to host an event and pitched the idea of the area it's in host a future Olympic Games (that plan was abandoned and L.A. was eventually chosen).
They also have a .
