A "Haligonian" is a person or thing from Halifax, the capital city of Nova Scotia, a province on the east coast of Canada. The city amalgamated with the city of Dartmouth (across the harbour) and a few other municipalities on April 1, 1996 to form the Halifax Regional Municipality (or the "HRM"). In 2006, the HRM had a population of 372,679 people, making it the largest city in North America east of Quebec City and north of Boston.

There is also a Halifax in the county of West Yorkshire, northern England, with a population of 82,056 (2001 census). People and things from that locality are also Haligonians, though I'm not sure if they use the word as commonly as we do. There are other municipalities also named Halifax in the USA and probably other places, but this page isn't about them.

The city in Nova Scotia was named after George Montague-Dunk, 2nd Earl of Halifax, but he, of course, drew his title from the UK locality mentioned above. According to William Arthur in his 1857 book, An Etymological Dictionary of Family and Christian Names With an Essay on their Derivation and Import, quoted on the Ancestor Search web site, the name for the UK city of Halifax is derived from the Saxon words "Halig" and "faex", meaning "holy hair". Apparently there was an unfortunate incident with a virgin and a beheading and her hair was later revered as holy. Go figure.

Interestingly, apparently the village of Halifax was also called "Horton", from another Saxon word for hair, "Haer" and "ton" (a town) and, indeed, the Earl of Halifax's family seat was Horton House, in Horton, Northamptonshire.

It should be noted that the official religion in Halifax, NS is Tim Horton's, with places of worship on almost every corner—in fact, often right across the street from each other.

Anyway, those wondering why a person from Halifax is a Haligonian instead of a Halifaxian should look to the Saxon word "Halig" (holy). I guess folks from these parts are all quite holy.