"Cordova Bay (not Cormorant Bay)" adopted in the 9th Report of the Geographic Board of Canada, 30 June 1910, as submitted to Geographic Board 18 October 1905 by BC Representative Wm. F. Robertson, in turn as had been proposed to Robertson by Capt. John Walbran, 16 October 1905.

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

The HBC had called this Cordova Bay since about 1842, but Captain Kellet charted it as Cormorant Bay in 1846; labelled Cormorant Bay on British Admiralty Chart 2840, 1861 et seq; Capt. Walbran instigated the change back to Cordova Bay in 1905; still identified as Cormorant Bay on BC map 18, 1912 and on BC map 2A, 1913; corrected on subsequent editions.

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

On 30 June 1790 sub-lieutenant Manuel Quimper of the Spanish navy anchored in [today's Esquimalt Harbour] and named it "Puerto de Cordova" after Don Antonio Maria Bucareli y Ursua Henestrosa Lasso de la Vega Villacis y Cordova, the 46th viceroy of Mexico. The name was transferred to its present location, anglecized as Cordova Bay, c1842 by officers of the Hudson's Bay Company,

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