FOR THE LOVE OF TOWN NAMES

Heart’s Delight/heart’s Desire

There are two stories about the origin of the name. One is that it was named by a traveller who arrived in the cove and found his “Heart’s Delight” there. The second says that Heart’s Delight, Heart’s Desire and Heart’s Content were named after fishing vessels, the Heart’s Delight, the Heart’s Desire and the Heart’s Content, which fished out of the surrounding harbour in the 17th and 18th centuries. Heart’s Delight was settled in the late 18th century. The earliest reference to Heart’s Delight in the Trinity parish records is the birth of Elizabeth Wolfrey, daughter of William and Elizabeth, in 1785.

Heart’s Content

Although the origin of the name is just speculation, a variation of it (Hartes Content) was recorded by John Guy in 1612. Originally a summer fishing station, by the late 1600s it was a year-round settlement populated mainly by English West Country fishermen, who also later developed a shipbuilding industry. Besides being one of Newfoundland’s oldest enduring fishing settlements, it is prominent in the history of international communications. In July 1866, the Great Eastern, the largest steamship then afloat, made the first successful landing of a transatlantic submarine telegraph cable at Heart’s Content.

Cupids

Earlier variants: Cupers Cove (Guy 1612), Cupurts Cove, Cubitts Cove, Coopers Cove, Cupids Cove (English Pilot, 1689). The exact etymology of the name Cupids is at present unknown, although Seary (1971) offers a partial explanation that the name Cupers Cove possibly indicates that coopering was practiced on the site or that the name might be a possessive derived from the surname Cowper or Cooper.

Source: Larry Dohey, director of programming and public engagement The Rooms Corporation