The name of Kannur district has derived from the location of its headquarters at Kannur town. The old name was `Cannanore` which was the anglicized form of the Malayalam word Kannur. Some people say that `Kannur` is a derivation from Kanathur, an ancient village, which name survives even today in one of the wards of Kannur Municipality. Another version is that Kannur means the place of Lord Krishna as because Kannan means Lord Krishna and Ur means place, In this context, it is worth mentioning that the deity of the Katalayi Sreekrishna temple was originally installed in a shrine at Katalayi Kotta in the southeastern part of the present Kannur town.

Physiography:
The location of Kannur district can be defined very easily as it lies between latitudes 11° 40` to 12° 48` North and longitudes 74° 52` to 76° 07` East. The district is bound by the Western Ghats in the East i.e. Coorg district of Karnataka State, Kozhikkode and Wayanad districts in the South, Lakshadeep sea in the West and Kasaragod in the North.

The district can be divided into three geographical regions such as highlands, midlands and lowlands. The highland region comprises mainly of mountains. The plantations that grow in this area are mainly coffee, rubber, tea, cardamom and other spices. Timber trees like teak, veetty, etc grow in plenty in this region. The midland region, lying between the mountains and the low lands, is made up of undulating hills and valleys. This is an area of intense agricultural activity whereas the lowland is comparatively narrow and comprises of rivers, deltas and seashore. This is mainly the region of coconut and paddy cultivation.

Climate:
The district has overall a humid climate with a tyrannical hot season that starts from March to May. This is followed by the Southwest monsoon, which, continues till the end of September. October and November months are mainly the post-monsoon or retreating monsoon season. The North East monsoon that follows extends up to the end of February, although the rain generally ceases after December. During the months of April and May, the daily maximum temperature is about 35° Celsius. Temperature is comparatively low in December and January and this comes about 200 Celsius. On some of the days the night temperature may go down to 16° Celsius. The annual average rainfall is 3438 mm and more than 80 percent of it occurs during the period of south -west monsoon. The rainfall during July is very heavy and the district receives 68 per cent of the annual rainfall during this season.

Flora and fauna:
Kannur district is very rich in vegetation. Except in some coastal regions there is Natural vegetation normally present in the forests. But, despite generally favorable climatic conditions, vegetation is not at all uniform in the district.

In restricted regions, with their own microclimate plant formations assume different characters. Thus, plant communities, ranging from psammophytes and mangroves to evergreen forests can be seen in this district The coastal region is a comparatively narrow zone, characterized by secondary soil which is rather loose and sandy. The sterile sandy tract supports only a poor vegetation of the psammophyte type. Plants are few and mostly leveled to the ground. Erect species are small and short.

Owing to very poor water holding capacity of the soil, these plants are provided with special xerophytic adaptations. Another distinguishable feature of this area is the mangrove vegetation. These are found at the waters of rivers and backwaters. The vegetation of the coastal region has changed a lot with the human interference. Major part of the district comes under midland region with numerous hills and dales. It presents a rolling surface gradually ascending and merging into the slopes of Western Ghats. Soil is secondary with underlying rock of laterite or disintegrated grass.

Typical flora of this forest area consists of a mixture of evergreen and deciduous trees. Undergrowth consists of a variety of annuals and perennials. The mountains are a continuation of the midland region, gradually ascending to the main ridge of the Western Ghats. Soil that is present in the western slopes is a ferruginous red and sandy loam. Vegetation over the whole forest area, Irregular distribution of teak, localized areas of bamboo dominance, change of good quality forest into open grasslands, etc are characteristic feature of this Kannur district.

Geology:
The geological formations in the district are of Archean and recent age. Archean formations comprise of greisses and charrockiates. While recent formations are alluvium and laterite. Archeans occupy the midland and highland regions of the district. This has rock types of basic charrockiates and hornblende-biotite greiss. Laterite, alluvium, lime-sheds, lignified woods, etc cover the remaining portions in the coastal area. Archean formations like foliated horn-blende-biotite greiss, which is gray or white in color is one of the main rock types in the northern portion of the district. Recent formations like laterite are developed on a limited scale along the coastal areas.

Administration:
Kannur district came into existence as an administrative unit on first January 1957, when the former Malabar district and Kasaragod taluk of Madras State were reconstituted into three revenue districts, viz; Kannur, Kozhikode and Palakkad. At the time of its formation, the district consisted of seven taluks, viz, Kasaragod, Hosdurg, Thaliparamba, Kannur, Thalassery, North Wayanad and South Wayanad. Subsequently, the South Wayanad taluk was included in Kozhikode district with effect from 15th March 1957. Later, on first November 1980, Wayanad district was formed carving out South Wayanad and North Wayanad taluks. Two northern most taluks of Kannur district, viz; Kasaragod and Hosdurg were separated on 24th May 1984 for the formation of Kasaragod district.

Now Kannur district has three taluks, viz., Kannur Thaliparamba and Thalassery. The taluks are subdivided into 129 villages.

Out of the total population of Kannur district, which is 2251727, 1098838 are males and 1152889 are females. A total of 1106251 comprise the rural population while 1145476 are the urban population.