Hello Sanirajak and Kinngait! 2 Nunavut communities take Inuktut names

Two Nunavut communities have official approval from the territorial government to change their names from English to Inuktut. 

"I signed a document for two communities in Nunavut allowing them to revert to their original place names," Community and Government Services Minister Lorne Kusugak said in the Legislative Assembly on Thursday.

"Starting now, Hall Beach will be known as Sanirajak, and what was called Cape Dorset, starting this morning will be called Kinngait," he said. 

The two communities very recently known as Hall Beach and Cape Dorset already held plebiscites on the name changes.

The name changes were voted for by community members, and endorsed by hamlet councils, but the changes had to be made official through cabinet approval. 

In a plebiscite for the name change held in Sanirajak last year, two thirds of voters supported the move, Amittuq MLA Joelie Kaernerk said last week. He asked then when communities could expect to see the names approved by the government.

The name Kinngait — which means "where the hills are" — took 80 votes in that community's plebiscite, topping the 61 votes cast in favour of keeping Cape Dorset as the name, and 51 votes in favour of the name Sikusilaq.

Voter turnout was low. Kinngait has a population of approximately 1,441, and Sanirajak a population of about 848.

Naujaat was the community in Nunavut that last changed its name, in 2015, when it was known as Repulse Bay.