diff --git a/CHANGELOG.md b/CHANGELOG.md
index 01f54cf339..536a90487a 100644
--- a/CHANGELOG.md
+++ b/CHANGELOG.md
@@ -21,6 +21,8 @@ Increment the:
   [#2378](https://github.com/open-telemetry/opentelemetry-cpp/pull/2378)
 * [API] Add InstrumentationScope attributes in TracerProvider::GetTracer()
   [#2371](https://github.com/open-telemetry/opentelemetry-cpp/pull/2371)
+* [BUILD] enum CanonicalCode names too generic... conflict with old C defines
+  [#2385](https://github.com/open-telemetry/opentelemetry-cpp/pull/2385)
 
 Important changes:
 
@@ -48,6 +50,13 @@ Breaking changes:
   * The experimental `CMake` option `WITH_REMOVE_METER_PREVIEW` is removed,
     use option `WITH_ABI_VERSION_2` instead.
 
+* [BUILD] enum CanonicalCode names too generic... conflict with old C defines
+  [#2385](https://github.com/open-telemetry/opentelemetry-cpp/pull/2385)
+  * Header file `opentelemetry/trace/canonical_code.h` is unused,
+    and is now removed.
+  * This header should not be included directly in an application.
+    If this is the case, please remove any remaining include directives.
+
 ## [1.12.0] 2023-10-16
 
 * [BUILD] Support `pkg-config`
diff --git a/api/include/opentelemetry/trace/canonical_code.h b/api/include/opentelemetry/trace/canonical_code.h
deleted file mode 100644
index fd722891d6..0000000000
--- a/api/include/opentelemetry/trace/canonical_code.h
+++ /dev/null
@@ -1,141 +0,0 @@
-// Copyright The OpenTelemetry Authors
-// SPDX-License-Identifier: Apache-2.0
-
-#pragma once
-
-#include <cstdint>
-
-#include "opentelemetry/version.h"
-
-OPENTELEMETRY_BEGIN_NAMESPACE
-namespace trace
-{
-enum class CanonicalCode : uint8_t
-{
-  /**
-   * The operation completed successfully.
-   */
-  OK = 0,
-
-  /**
-   * The operation was cancelled (typically by the caller).
-   */
-  CANCELLED = 1,
-
-  /**
-   * Unknown error. An example of where this error may be returned is if a Status value received
-   * from another address space belongs to an error-space that is not known in this address space.
-   * Also errors raised by APIs that do not return enough error information may be converted to
-   * this error.
-   */
-  UNKNOWN = 2,
-
-  /**
-   * Client specified an invalid argument. Note that this differs from FAILED_PRECONDITION.
-   * INVALID_ARGUMENT indicates arguments that are problematic regardless of the state of the
-   * system (e.g., a malformed file name).
-   */
-  INVALID_ARGUMENT = 3,
-
-  /**
-   * Deadline expired before operation could complete. For operations that change the state of the
-   * system, this error may be returned even if the operation has completed successfully. For
-   * example, a successful response from a server could have been delayed long enough for the
-   * deadline to expire.
-   */
-  DEADLINE_EXCEEDED = 4,
-
-  /**
-   * Some requested entity (e.g., file or directory) was not found.
-   */
-  NOT_FOUND = 5,
-
-  /**
-   * Some entity that we attempted to create (e.g., file or directory) already exists.
-   */
-  ALREADY_EXISTS = 6,
-
-  /**
-   * The caller does not have permission to execute the specified operation. PERMISSION_DENIED
-   * must not be used for rejections caused by exhausting some resource (use RESOURCE_EXHAUSTED
-   * instead for those errors). PERMISSION_DENIED must not be used if the caller cannot be
-   * identified (use UNAUTHENTICATED instead for those errors).
-   */
-  PERMISSION_DENIED = 7,
-
-  /**
-   * Some resource has been exhausted, perhaps a per-user quota, or perhaps the entire file system
-   * is out of space.
-   */
-  RESOURCE_EXHAUSTED = 8,
-
-  /**
-   * Operation was rejected because the system is not in a state required for the operation's
-   * execution. For example, directory to be deleted may be non-empty, an rmdir operation is
-   * applied to a non-directory, etc.
-   *
-   * A litmus test that may help a service implementor in deciding between FAILED_PRECONDITION,
-   * ABORTED, and UNAVAILABLE: (a) Use UNAVAILABLE if the client can retry just the failing call.
-   * (b) Use ABORTED if the client should retry at a higher-level (e.g., restarting a
-   * read-modify-write sequence). (c) Use FAILED_PRECONDITION if the client should not retry until
-   * the system state has been explicitly fixed. E.g., if an "rmdir" fails because the directory
-   * is non-empty, FAILED_PRECONDITION should be returned since the client should not retry unless
-   * they have first fixed up the directory by deleting files from it.
-   */
-  FAILED_PRECONDITION = 9,
-
-  /**
-   * The operation was aborted, typically due to a concurrency issue like sequencer check
-   * failures, transaction aborts, etc.
-   *
-   * See litmus test above for deciding between FAILED_PRECONDITION, ABORTED, and UNAVAILABLE.
-   */
-  ABORTED = 10,
-
-  /**
-   * Operation was attempted past the valid range. E.g., seeking or reading past end of file.
-   *
-   * Unlike INVALID_ARGUMENT, this error indicates a problem that may be fixed if the system
-   * state changes. For example, a 32-bit file system will generate INVALID_ARGUMENT if asked to
-   * read at an offset that is not in the range [0,2^32-1], but it will generate OUT_OF_RANGE if
-   * asked to read from an offset past the current file size.
-   *
-   * There is a fair bit of overlap between FAILED_PRECONDITION and OUT_OF_RANGE. We recommend
-   * using OUT_OF_RANGE (the more specific error) when it applies so that callers who are
-   * iterating through a space can easily look for an OUT_OF_RANGE error to detect when they are
-   * done.
-   */
-  OUT_OF_RANGE = 11,
-
-  /**
-   * Operation is not implemented or not supported/enabled in this service.
-   */
-  UNIMPLEMENTED = 12,
-
-  /**
-   * Internal errors. Means some invariants expected by underlying system has been broken. If you
-   * see one of these errors, something is very broken.
-   */
-  INTERNAL = 13,
-
-  /**
-   * The service is currently unavailable. This is a most likely a transient condition and may be
-   * corrected by retrying with a backoff.
-   *
-   * See litmus test above for deciding between FAILED_PRECONDITION, ABORTED, and UNAVAILABLE.
-   */
-  UNAVAILABLE = 14,
-
-  /**
-   * Unrecoverable data loss or corruption.
-   */
-  DATA_LOSS = 15,
-
-  /**
-   * The request does not have valid authentication credentials for the operation.
-   */
-  UNAUTHENTICATED = 16,
-};
-
-}  // namespace trace
-OPENTELEMETRY_END_NAMESPACE
diff --git a/api/include/opentelemetry/trace/span.h b/api/include/opentelemetry/trace/span.h
index ffd145a30d..8fb371d48c 100644
--- a/api/include/opentelemetry/trace/span.h
+++ b/api/include/opentelemetry/trace/span.h
@@ -10,7 +10,6 @@
 #include "opentelemetry/nostd/span.h"
 #include "opentelemetry/nostd/string_view.h"
 #include "opentelemetry/nostd/type_traits.h"
-#include "opentelemetry/trace/canonical_code.h"
 #include "opentelemetry/trace/span_context.h"
 #include "opentelemetry/trace/span_metadata.h"
 
diff --git a/exporters/ostream/include/opentelemetry/exporters/ostream/span_exporter.h b/exporters/ostream/include/opentelemetry/exporters/ostream/span_exporter.h
index baa4e860b1..05c8a89982 100644
--- a/exporters/ostream/include/opentelemetry/exporters/ostream/span_exporter.h
+++ b/exporters/ostream/include/opentelemetry/exporters/ostream/span_exporter.h
@@ -55,7 +55,7 @@ class OStreamSpanExporter final : public opentelemetry::sdk::trace::SpanExporter
   mutable opentelemetry::common::SpinLockMutex lock_;
   bool isShutdown() const noexcept;
 
-  // Mapping status number to the string from api/include/opentelemetry/trace/canonical_code.h
+  // Mapping status number to the string from api/include/opentelemetry/trace/span_metadata.h
   std::map<int, std::string> statusMap{{0, "Unset"}, {1, "Ok"}, {2, "Error"}};
 
   // various print helpers
diff --git a/ext/include/opentelemetry/ext/zpages/threadsafe_span_data.h b/ext/include/opentelemetry/ext/zpages/threadsafe_span_data.h
index fdc244255b..bd1f716ad8 100644
--- a/ext/include/opentelemetry/ext/zpages/threadsafe_span_data.h
+++ b/ext/include/opentelemetry/ext/zpages/threadsafe_span_data.h
@@ -12,7 +12,6 @@
 #include "opentelemetry/nostd/string_view.h"
 #include "opentelemetry/sdk/trace/recordable.h"
 #include "opentelemetry/sdk/trace/span_data.h"
-#include "opentelemetry/trace/canonical_code.h"
 #include "opentelemetry/trace/span.h"
 #include "opentelemetry/trace/span_id.h"
 #include "opentelemetry/trace/trace_id.h"
diff --git a/ext/include/opentelemetry/ext/zpages/tracez_data.h b/ext/include/opentelemetry/ext/zpages/tracez_data.h
index 4594fbe057..5f36a6b047 100644
--- a/ext/include/opentelemetry/ext/zpages/tracez_data.h
+++ b/ext/include/opentelemetry/ext/zpages/tracez_data.h
@@ -12,13 +12,11 @@
 #include "opentelemetry/nostd/span.h"
 #include "opentelemetry/nostd/string_view.h"
 #include "opentelemetry/sdk/trace/span_data.h"
-#include "opentelemetry/trace/canonical_code.h"
 #include "opentelemetry/trace/span_id.h"
 #include "opentelemetry/trace/trace_id.h"
 #include "opentelemetry/version.h"
 
 using opentelemetry::ext::zpages::ThreadsafeSpanData;
-using opentelemetry::trace::CanonicalCode;
 using opentelemetry::trace::SpanId;
 using opentelemetry::trace::TraceId;
 
diff --git a/ext/include/opentelemetry/ext/zpages/tracez_data_aggregator.h b/ext/include/opentelemetry/ext/zpages/tracez_data_aggregator.h
index 62c944b704..5bc7e847db 100644
--- a/ext/include/opentelemetry/ext/zpages/tracez_data_aggregator.h
+++ b/ext/include/opentelemetry/ext/zpages/tracez_data_aggregator.h
@@ -19,9 +19,6 @@
 #include "opentelemetry/nostd/span.h"
 #include "opentelemetry/nostd/string_view.h"
 #include "opentelemetry/sdk/trace/span_data.h"
-#include "opentelemetry/trace/canonical_code.h"
-
-using opentelemetry::trace::CanonicalCode;
 
 OPENTELEMETRY_BEGIN_NAMESPACE
 namespace ext