What’s in a Name? Connected by

By Dale Jarvis

The modern community of Bristol’s Hope lies nestled

against the spruce-covered hills between Carbonear and Harbour Grace. Its name traces back to the colony of Bristol’s Hope, which was established in 1617 and reported as “a thriving spot” in 1631. By the end of the 1600s, the name had shifted to Musketta or Muskete Cove, and the itch-inspiring name Mosquito Cove persisted right up to 1910, when the old name of Bristol’s Hope was officially readopted.

The Bristolian part of the name is easily understood – the original colony was set up by John Guy (of Cupid’s fame) and the Society of Merchant Venturers, of the English city of Bristol. The “hope” part of the name is a form of the Old English word “hop,” meaning “a small enclosed valley,” which is a pretty good description of the landscape you will see if you go visit the beautifully restored Mosquito Schoolhouse in Bristol’s Hope. While Bristol’s Hope technically means Bristol’s Valley, Labrador’s Hopedale literally means “The Valley of Hope.” It was first an Inuit settlement named Arvertok – Inuttitut for “place of the whales.” In historic documents, it is also called Arbatok, and in revised spellings appears as Agvituk and Apvitok. That was until Moravian missionary Jens Haven supervised the construction of a mission house in the community, built of prefabricated timbers transported from Nain. The mission was christened with a German name, Hoffenthal, “Valley of Hope.” In English, that became today’s Hopedale.