Most cities nicknamed "Queen City" earned the title through history, geography, or civic ambition. Regina, Saskatchewan is different. Its name is the title — "regina" is Latin for queen — and that distinction makes it one of the most literally royal place names in North America.
In our recent roundup of Queen Cities of North America, Regina stood out as the only city on the list whose royal identity is baked into the name itself. This post goes deeper on the story behind that name — and what it means to the people who call Regina home.
From "Pile of Bones" to Queen City
Before it was Regina, the site was known as "Oskana kâ-asastêki" in Cree — meaning "the place where bones are piled" — a reference to the buffalo bones left behind by Indigenous hunters on the open plains. When the Canadian Pacific Railway was being routed across the prairies in the early 1880s, the settlement that grew along the line needed a name worthy of a capital city.
Princess Louise Caroline Alberta — daughter of Queen Victoria and wife of the Governor General of Canada — is credited with suggesting the name "Regina" in 1882. It was a deliberate act of imperial naming: a Latin word meaning queen, chosen to honour Queen Victoria herself. The city became the capital of the Northwest Territories that same year, and later the capital of the newly formed province of Saskatchewan in 1905.
The transformation from Pile of Bones to Regina is, in its own way, a very Canadian story — pragmatic origins, formal ambitions, and a name that carries more weight than it first appears.
If you're reading this around the third Monday of May, there's a fitting coincidence at work: Victoria Day — the Canadian statutory holiday that honours Queen Victoria's birthday — is celebrated nowhere more appropriately than in a city named in her honour. Regina and Victoria Day were made for each other.
A Capital on the Plains
Regina sits in the heart of the Canadian prairies, surrounded by some of the flattest and most fertile land on earth. There are no mountains, no ocean, no dramatic natural features to anchor the city's identity. What Regina has instead is sky — enormous, uninterrupted sky — and the particular pride that comes from building something significant in a place that offers no geographic shortcuts.
The city is home to the Saskatchewan Legislative Assembly, the Royal Canadian Mounted Police training academy (the RCMP Depot Division has been here since 1885), and Wascana Centre — one of the largest urban parks in North America, larger than Central Park in New York City. These aren't incidental details. They're the infrastructure of a city that has always punched above its weight.
The YQR Airport Code
Regina's airport code is YQR — and like all Canadian airport codes, it carries the Y prefix that marks it as distinctly Canadian. The Q and R don't spell anything obvious, but for Reginans, YQR has become a quiet shorthand for home: a three-letter identity that travels well, looks good on a hat, and means something to the people who recognize it.
That's exactly why we make YQR gifts. Airport codes have a way of distilling a city's identity into something compact and wearable — and for a city whose name already carries as much meaning as Regina's, the code adds another layer of belonging.
Shop our full range of Regina YQR gifts, including:
- Hats and caps
- Hoodies and sweatshirts
- Coffee mugs and water bottles
- Pillows and blankets
- Prints and wall art
- Baggage tag design travel gifts
A Gift for Someone Who Loves Regina
Regina is the kind of city that inspires genuine loyalty. People who grow up there tend to carry it with them — through university, through moves to Vancouver or Toronto or Calgary, through years abroad. And people who move there often find themselves surprised by how much it gets under their skin.
A YQR gift is a way of honouring that connection. Whether you're shopping for a Reginan who's moved away, someone heading to the city for the first time, or a lifelong prairie resident who's never needed a reason to love where they live — airport code merchandise makes the feeling tangible.
All of our products are made to order, which means no overstock, no waste, and a gift that was made specifically for the person receiving it.
The Queen City, Properly Named
Cincinnati earned its Queen City title through commerce. Charlotte earned it through royal naming. Buffalo earned it through geography. But Regina is the only city in North America where the name itself does the work — where every time someone says the city's name, they're invoking the Latin word for queen.
That's a distinction worth celebrating. And it's one more reason why YQR belongs on a hat.
Explore all Regina YQR gifts at YHM Designs, or read our full guide to Queen Cities of North America.
