There are several variations of the game that we’ve run across over the years such as Brazilian, British, Italian, Cuba, Boat, and even one called Hand and Foot Canasta.
It gets its name because in the card game, you try to get a basket-full (or 7) cards of the same rank in order to obtain points for a canasta. The word Canasta means “basket” in Spanish. It was invented in Uruguay in 1939 and first spread to South America before becoming popular in the United States in the 1950s. Canasta, the card game, is a variant of Rummy.
