 "Sainte Marie" (Saint Mary) was the name of the river and "Saults" referred to the rapids.Whereas the modern "saut" means simply "(a) jump", "sault" in the 17th century was also applied to cataracts, waterfalls and rapids.This resulted in such place names as Grand Falls/Grand-Sault, and Sault-au-Récollet on the Island of Montreal in Canada; and Sault-Saint-Remy and Sault-Brénaz in France.