ANSE LE BLANC (D.)—Le Blanc Cove, settled in 1769 and named after Charles Le Blanc, an early settler. Anse being the French for cove and Blanc the French for white; the English named the place White Cove.
ANTHONY’S NOSE (COL.)—A point on the Shubenacadie River where the coral and shell cliff, nearly fifty feet high, reminded some early settlers of a man’s nose and two robust cheeks. They called it St. Anthony’s Nose—now Anthony’s Nose.
ANTIGONISH (ANT.)—The Micmac Indian spelling of this word is "Nalegelkooneech." Dr. Rand says the Micmac meaning of the word is: the place where branches are torn off the trees by bears getting beech nuts. Several writers say the name is from an Indian word meaning “River of fish,” but Dr. Rand’s derivation is likely the correct one.
Antigonish County is divided into four Townships—Antigonish, Tracadie, St. Andrews, and Arisaig.
On Nicholas Deny’s map of 1672 he calls it "River d’Anticonnachie." In 1685 the name appears on Father Jumeau’s map as Artigonieche. In 1733 it appears as Antigonich. In 1744 Bellin spells it Antigoniche. In 1755 it first appears as Antigonish, the present form. Father Pacific gives a Micmac spelling of Antigonish as "Alitgonieljg" and says the meaning is “broken branches” which partly agrees with Dr. Rand’s interpretation. French settlers were in Antigonish as early as 1762. An English officer Timothy Hierlihy was in the country in 1775. He and eighty others received a very large grant of land in 1784.
The name "Antigonish" as applied to the County, replacing its former county name of "Sydney," first appears in 1863, when it was changed by an Act of Parliament.
The Antigonish town of today was one time known as "Dorchester," the name of the township of which Antigonish is the shire town.
In Antigonish is the St. Francis Xavier College, a Diocesan Institution opened as Arichat College, at Arichat, C. B., in 1853, transferred to Antigonish and established as a college under its present name in 1855; University powers created by an Act of Legislature in 1866. Named after Saint Francis Xavier, the Patron Saint of Canada.
ANTON (COL.)—Formerly known as Polly Bog, changed to Anton in 1880 by an Act of Parliament.
ANTRIM (H.)—So named after the Ulster Town or County in Ireland of that name.
APAGWIT (G.)—A small island in the Gut of Canso. An
