Where did Pictou get its name? Is it the corruption of an old Micmac placename or descriptive word, as Dr, Patterson and other older provincial historians hold a combination of two French Words, “ pic tout “, as suggested by Canon A.E. Andrew in an article in the Advocate a number of years ago, or was Pictou originally named “Poitou “ (or Poictou” as the earlier spelling has it”) by the early French settlers along the northern coast of Nova Scotia after the old French province of the name ? An Interesting piece of information comes the week from William D. Munro, Who with his mother, Mrs. A.D. Munro , Arrived in Pictou recently from Montreal to spend the summer, as they have done now for many years, at their cottage at Brown’s Pont. Mr. Munro spent a week last February in New Orleans during that city’s famous Mardi Gras, and while there visited buildings and points of interest in the city. In “The Cabildo”, a large museum, he came across a large map of New France and Louisiana, dated 1725, and inscribed “ made for the French Company of the Indies”, on which Pictou is shown as “ Poitou”. Patterson says in his history that “in many documents of the early part of this century ( that is, the 19th century) the name is so spelled” , referring to the older spelling of the province of old france, “ Poictou”; and he goes on to state that many residents of early Pictou claimed that this form was the correct spelling and used it personally. It seems to have as good a claim as that made for the Indian words “ Booktook” and “Bucto”, meaning respectively “ harbor” and “ fire”. The odjection made to the first word is that it was never used as a placename by the micmacs without prefix , as “ Richibooktook” or “ Chedabooktool”, the modern Richibucto and Chedabucto. The objection to “bucto”, said to have been given to the harbor and its surrounding shores because of a surface vein of coal in the eastern part of the county fired by lightning centuries ago,is that the Micmac have an altogether different name for that locality, where one would think it would naturally be applied, instead of to a spot miles distant. As far as we can recollect from our past reading on the subject, “Poitou” or “ Poictou”, the province on the west coast of france from which many of the early voyagers and settlers came, has never previously been found on a map as the name Pictou, and this was a decided objection to the claim for this derivation of the name. Mr munro’s discovery, therefore, is very interesting, as it places the use of “ poitou” ( or “Poictou” as it was also spelled) back to the time of the first French settlemants along the coast. Whatever the origin of the name , the fact of the French name being found on a map at such an early date tends to strengthen its pretensions against those who seek in some Indian word the original name of Pictou.