My grandmother loved to tell the story of how the Ompompanoosuc River, in Vermont, got its name.

A European explorer came to the area and found a young girl, asking the name of the river. The young Native girl, desperate to get medical help for her father, I believe the local chief, but she didn't really understand English. She knew the explorer was English, though, so she cried out "ompampanoosuc" -- "My papa is sick!" The traveler didn't catch on, though, so it's been immortalized as Ompompanoosuc.

Canada was named because when the locals were asked the name of the place the explorers landed, they replied with the local name -- "The Village". This became the name for all of the land in the northern third or so of the continent, instead of the more accurate few square kilometers (or miles), and possibly even less than that, ignoring the vast multitude of different cultures, people, and languages in the new (to Europeans) place.