The name of the province was changed to Newfoundland and Labrador by an amendment to the constitution of Canada in December 2001 at the request of the provincial legislature.

The flag design is that of etchings on Beothuk and Innu decorative pendants worn hung from a cord around the neck.

With the blue, red and white colours applied, the design has an intentional overall resemblance to the Union Jack, as a reminder of historic connections with the British Isles.

The red triangles and the gold arrow form a trident, symbolizing the province's association with the fisheries and other resources of and under the sea.

While 19th century photographs show red ensigns flown at Moravian mission stations and Hudson's Bay Company trading posts along the Labrador Coast.

Between 1907 and 1931, however, the red ensign gained wide enough use, both at sea and on land by civilians and government alike, that it was considered to be the national flag.

[3] The badge in the ensigns consists of Mercury, the god of commerce and merchandise, presenting to Britannia a fisherman who, in a kneeling attitude, is offering the harvest of all the sea.

Above the device in a scroll are the Latin words 'Terra Nova', and below the motto Hæc Tibi Dona Fero or "These gifts I bring thee."

These colours gave rise to the green (at the hoist) white (in the centre) and pink (on the fly) tricolour flag which was more easily manufactured than the official banner.

It also appears on the crests or escutcheons of some armorial bearings portrayed in the Public Register of Arms, Flags and Badges of Canada.

The Newfoundland Natives' Society was established to help native-born and other long-time residents of Newfoundland in dealings with colonial government officials, big business owners who were not always residents and the many newcomers to the colony who considered themselves to be much higher in social standing than the locals even though the vast majority of locals were of the same British Isles ancestry as the new arrivals.

The origins of the "Pink, White and Green" were obscure but recent scholarship has determined it was first used in the late 1870s or early 1880s by an aid and benefit organization, the Newfoundland Fishermen's the Star of the Sea Association, which was established by the Roman Catholic Church in 1871.

Newspaper reports indicate a "native flag" was displayed in public ceremonies alongside the Union Jack when the Prince of Wales visited St. John's in 1860, but that was the Native Flag of "Red, White and Green" rather than the "Pink, White and Green" (sic) since the Star of the Sea Association did not exist until 1871.

The Newfoundland Natives' Society, which was claimed in the legend as being a Protestant society which used a pink flag, actually contained Catholics as well as Protestants, including a Catholic president (Dr Edward Kielly) at the supposed time of the inception of the "Pink, White and Green".

[6] In another version of the legend, originating around 1900, it was claimed that the green represented newly arriving Irish settlers to Newfoundland and pink was again taken from the Natives' Society flag, but this time the Natives' Society was said to be a Roman Catholic group representing Catholics already living in Newfoundland.