Chandannagar, formerly known as Chandernagore or Chandernagar (French: Chandernagor), (Bengali: চন্দননগর Chôndonnôgor) is a small city and former French colony located 30 kilometres (19 mi) north of Kolkata, in West Bengal, India. It is head quarters of a subdivision in Hooghly District. It is one of the 6 municipal corporations in West Bengal. It is a part of the area covered by Kolkata Metropolitan Development Authority. Located on the Hooghly River, the city has been able to maintain a separate identity different from all other cities and abide by her own characteristics. The total area is a meagre 19 square kilometres (7.3 sq mi) having a population of over 150,000. Chandannagar is connected to Kolkata by railway, roadways and river and it takes about an hour to reach there by car.

The name Chandannagore is possibly derived from the shape of the bank of the river Ganges which is bent like a half moon (in Bengali, Chand means moon and Nagar implies city). In some old documents the spelling of Chandannagar was Chandernagore which probably came from Chandra Nagar. To mention, Chandra is the Bengali of Moon. Others believe it might have been taken from the flourishing trade and business of sandal wood (Bengali:Chandan) at that time. One more reason behind the name is, in Chandernagore there is a temple of Goddess 'Chandi'. So somebody believes that it might come from there. But earlier people knew the place by the name Farasdanga as it was a French colony (Bengali: Farasi means French, danga means land).