Cloverdale (Post Office & Station) adopted in the 1930 BC Gazetteer. Form of name changed to Cloverdale (Post Office) 11 February 1936 on 92 G/2. Form of name changed to Cloverdale (community) 15 December 1982 on 92 G/2; changed to Cloverdale (Urban Community) 16 November 1995 - this is now incorporated within Surrey municipal boundary.

Source: BC place name cards, or correspondence to/from BC's Chief Geographer or BC Geographical Names Office

Cloverdale Station (GNR) was opened c1891. Cloverdale Post Office was opened May 1892, J. McMillan postmaster, located about 1 mile west of Clover Valley Post Office, which had opened in 1883.

Source: BC place name cards, or correspondence to/from BC's Chief Geographer or BC Geographical Names Office

"Cloverdale was so named by the railway engineers when the NW & SRR was constructed." (H.T. Thrift, 11 February 1927)

Source: Nelson, Denys; Place Names of the Delta of the Fraser River; 1927, unpublished manuscript held in the Provincial Archives

From Clover Valley, the name given the district by William Shannon (1843-1928), early settler. "A few days after arriving in the valley in the year 1875, I had occasion to write a letter and was in doubt as to how to head it. I looked out at the wild clover which grew luxuriantly everywhere and at once thought that the best and most appropriate name was 'Clover Valley'. A short time after that, I had the honour of naming the post office, as I was the means of obtaining that facility from the government, as well as the post offices of Mud Bay and Langley Prairie. My brother and I purchased 960 acres of land from the government and I also took up a homestead. My nephews, the Shannon brothers, now own the land I purchased from the government." [Shannon was a pioneer in various parts of BC as a trader, gold miner, farmer, lumberman and Vancouver real estate agent.]

Source: Nelson, Denys; Place Names of the Delta of the Fraser River; 1927, unpublished manuscript held in the Provincial Archives