"Nootka Sound (not Nutka nor Mazzarredo)" adopted in the 18th Report of the Geographic Board of Canada, 31 March 1924, as long identified on early British Admiralty charts and maps. Extent confirmed 21 July 1972 on 92E, C3662, C3663, C3664 and C3665.

Source: BC place name cards, files, correspondence and/or research by BC Chief Geographer/Geographical Names Office.

Entrance is 5 miles wide, between Maquinna and Escalante Points; extent includes Tahsis Inlet, Tlupana Inlet and Muchalat Inlet. (Admiralty Pilot, vol. I, 1923, and sketch from Hydrographic Service, July 1972, file N.2.33)

Source: BC place name cards, files, correspondence and/or research by BC Chief Geographer/Geographical Names Office.

"On my arrival in this inlet, I had honoured it with the name King Geoge's Sound; but I afterward found it is called Nootka by the natives." (Captain James Cook, 1778.)

Source: included with note

Nootka Sound was 'discovered' by Juan Perez in 1774, who named the harbour here San Lorenzo. He was followed by Captain Cook in April 1778, who bestowed the name King George's Sound, then changed the name to Nootka Sound because he [Cook] thought "Nootka" was the Indigenous name for the inlet. In this Cook was mistaken; the most likely explanation for Cook's mistake is that supplied by the missionary priest Father Brabant, who lived for many years among these Indigenous people: what the white men heard was "noot-ka-eh," the imperative of the Indigenous verb "nootksitl," meaning "Go Around!".

Source: BC place name cards, files, correspondence and/or research by BC Chief Geographer/Geographical Names Office.

The important coastal name Nootka, which arose from a confused incident in the 1770s, is representative of the origins of many so-called First Nations names, which are, in fact, often clumsy misinterpretations, by early white visitors, of aboriginal words. Capt James Cook was the first European to visit Nootka Sound, in 1778. He initially called it King George’s Sound under the impression that Nootka was the First Nations name. It is not known precisely how this misapprehension came about. Pioneer missionary Augustin Brabant was one of the first to suggest that the Nuu-chah-nulth work ‘nootka-a,’ meaning “go around,” is what local residents were replying when Cook attempted with a great deal of body language, no doubt – to find out the name of the place. They may have been directing him to an anchorage or safe passage, or simply responding to his gestures. And this the historic site of first serious cultural exchanges in the Pacific North West between Europeans and Americans – a place made additionally famous by the conflict soon to ensue between British and Spanish colonizers – received its name as the result of a blunder. The Nuu-chah-nulth inhabitants of the region were for almost two centuries known officially as the Nootka. The Spanish claim to the Pacific North West was based on the fact that Juan Perez, in 1774, had probably been the first to see (but not land) Nootka Sound, which he named Puerto de San Lorenzo. Later Spanish explorers altered the nae to Puerto de San Lorenzo de Nuca (also Noca, Nutka and Nutca). Nootka Island they named Isla de Mazarredo, after noted Spanish admiral José María de Mazarredo y Salazar. The main summer village of Chief Maquinna and the Mowachaht (a branch of the Nuu-chah-nulth), located at Friendly Cove on the southeast end of Nootka Island, was called Yuqout (qv), meaning “windy place.” A cannery, pilchard reduction plant and boat-repair facility named Nootka (site of a sport-fishing lodge in early 2000s) were located just north of Yuquot, 1917-50. A post office called Nootka was also operated in the area, 1909-55.

Source: Scott, Andrew; "The Encyclopedia of Raincoast Place Names"; Harbour Publishing, Madeira Park, 2009.