Many Canberra suburbs are named after past Prime Ministers and other prominent Australians, but that's not the case for the city's town centres.

In the early days of Canberra, the territory was split into divisions, which went on to become town centres.

They were designed, according to one ACT master plan, to be the "community and commercial hubs" for suburbs in the greater district.

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Canberra has multiple town centres, including Tuggeranong, Belconnen, Woden, Gungahlin, and Weston Creek.

This week's question, from Gary Brown, focuses on one – Woden, in Canberra's south.

"All I know … is that it's the name of an old Norse god, I mean Wednesday is named after Woden," he said.

"I'm quite curious as to why an old Norse god would get its name attached to a part of Canberra."

Gary wanted three things answered: "I want to know who named the area Woden, when it was done, and why they chose such a name?"

Dave's discovery

Woden homestead from the album of Mrs W.A.S Dunlop, 1900-1914. ( Supplied: National Library of Australia. )

Part of the answer was already online.

David Reid runs a local history blog called Dave's ACT, which grew out of his doctor's orders.

"I was advised by a doctor to do a little bit more walking, and … I found it a bit boring walking around the block," David said.

Instead, he began revisiting parts of Canberra that he hadn't seen since he was a kid, and realised that each location was steeped in history.

"I just started writing down some notes as I went along, and that turned out to be the blog," he said.

At one point, David researched Canberra's old homesteads, and it led to a post about Woden and its namesake.

"It was named by a fellow named Murray, who owned the property at the time," David explained.

"He named the property after either the old English or Norse god of war, patron of learning or god of wisdom.

He was reportedly quite a studious man, and his lifetime pursuit was the seeking of knowledge."

As we talked, David stressed that he wasn't a professional historian, so to find out more about the Woden homestead, we contacted Jeff Brown, the Surveyor-General of the ACT.

Woden, Odin or possum?

The ACT's Surveyor-General Jeff Brown is a regular Curious Canberra source. ( Supplied: Jake Badior )

Jeff is also the co-chair of the ACT Place Names Committee and agreed with David's findings, citing historian Gwendolyn Wilson and linguist Dr Harold Koch.

"Woden was named in October 1837 by Dr James Murray, when he purchased the property which was previously unnamed," he said.

"It's thought that that was named … after the old English god of wisdom, Woden, and that is actually believed to be sourced from the Norse god which was actually Odin, who was the god of wisdom and magic."

Like David, Jeff spoke of the property owner's personality and profession.

"He was a well-educated [man], and he'd been … a doctor with the army, the English army, before he came to Australia and took up the property here," he said.

But Dr Harold Koch questioned whether we could be certain about Woden's connection to a Norse god in Aboriginal Placenames: Naming and re-naming the Australian Landscape.

"Unless there is documentary evidence, such as a diary entry, to confirm this origin, I believe we should treat it with scepticism, especially since it does not match the pattern of other European name bestowals," he wrote.

Dr Koch suggested that an Aboriginal origin should be given equal consideration.

"A plausible Aboriginal source of the name 'Woden' is the word for 'possum', wadyan (or possibly wadhan)," he wrote.

"Which is attested ten times for languages of Aboriginal people extending from Yass through Queanbeyan and the Monaro to Omeo in Victoria."

He also wrote: "If 'Woden is indeed derived from an Aboriginal language, it is possible that its spelling was influenced by that of the Germanic god's name (as the spelling of 'Canberra' was probably influenced by the English placename 'Canbury')."

A view of Woden from the top of Mount Taylor. ( ABC Canberra: Hannah Walmsley )

The Surveyor-General explained how Woden became the name of the greater Woden Valley, and the town centre.

"That comes from the districts being decided back in 1927 … a lot of the districts were based on the property names of the times."

In addition to Woden, this naming convention also applied to Belconnen, Tuggeranong and Gungahlin.

Jeff explained that many town centres were named before a policy was in place, prioritising Australian place-names.

"That was done very early, even before there were many Prime Ministers to recognise in a way!"

Gary wasn't the only person to ask Curious Canberra about the meaning of Woden.

While it's listed in the ACT Government's place-names search engine, the Surveyor-General says there's a reason little else is known about its origins.

"Because it's not a formal name under the current legislation, it's not as greatly researched ... as it would be for district [suburb] names or other road names," he said.

Our questioner, Gary, was surprised by what we found.

"So it all comes from the choice made by a settler, many moons ago?"

"It's solved a query for me, I couldn't understand how an old Norse god would get a group of suburbs named after him," he said.

Editor's note: This story was updated on Monday September 4 to include more details about the possible Aboriginal origins of the name.