Canard aircraft wings why?

Early French aircraft with canards resembled a duck while in flight, and the name stuck. (Duck in French = Canard)

One of the early aircraft with the horizontal plane located in front of the main wing was Louis Bleriot's (the man who first flew across the English channel) Model V 'Canard'.

The configuration does look a bit like a duck with a long neck (as opposed to the aft-tailed airplane, where the mass of a forward located engine makes is such that the wings are located very much in the front) and adding to this is the fact that ducks used their flattened bill to control their flight.

There are also stories that reported to a picture of an early canard configuration being published in a newspaper and being billed "un canard" (a hoax), but even if it is possible, it is unlikely that readers knew aerospace well enough to decide that this configuration was not a likely one.

The wing is named after the configuration of the aircraft, which without tail surfaces resembles a duck in flight.

The French got to name things because they actually exhibited and improved their aircraft instead of hiding them away in secrecy and litigation. That is why when the US finally showed up for WWI, they were forced to fly French and British machines.