Sooke (Post Office) adopted 6 November 1934 on 92B/5, as identified in the 1909 BC Gazetteer, and as labelled on BC map 2A, 1913, and as identified in the 1930 BC Gazetteer. Form of name changed to Sooke (Community) 28 February 1983 on 92B/5. Incorporated as a District Municipality, to be known as District of Sooke, per Letters Patent: Order in Council 1159, 2 September 1999, effective 7 December 1999. Boundary extension per OIC 1155, 2 December 2004, to include the Silver Spray development area on the east side of Sooke Inlet.

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

Sooke Post Office was established 8 August 1864; closed in 1866; re-opened 1 August 1872.

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

"[Sooke Inlet] was named in 1846 after the region's First Nation inhabitants by Captain Henry Kellet of HMS Herald, who made an early survey of the south end of Vancouver Island. The name of the Sooke people was initially pronounced soak and was spelled Soke or Soake by the area's pioneers; many other spellings have also been recorded, including Sâ'ok, Sock, Sok, and Tsohke. The preferred form today is T'sou-ke. The word supposedly derives from the name of a stickleback fish that was found at the mouth of the Sooke River. Spanish naval officer Manuel Quimper, who was the first European to explore the area, in 1790, called the inlet Puerto de Revillagigedo, after Juan Vicente de Güemes Padilla Horcasitas y Aguyo, 2nd Count of Revillagigedo and viceroy of New Spain, 1789-94." (p. 556)

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

Named in association with inlet and river, in turn named after the Indigenous people of Sooke living around the inlet and basin here. "Their name is said to originate from the stickleback fish once found at the river mouth, a name by which the First Peoples became known." (Sooke Region Museum, 1992). According to Robert Brown, whose Vancouver Island Exploration Expedition visited this area in 1864, the name of the Indians (and the name of the inlet and river) should be pronounced "soak", corroborated by early pioneers, who used the spelling "Soke" and "Soake".

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

"A Salish tribe speaking the Songish dialect....spelled variously Sâ'ok, Sock, Sok, Sokes, Sooke, Tsohke, etc. Population 30 in 1911." (Handbook of Indians of Canada, 1913; first published as Bulletin 30, Bureau of American Ethnology, 1910). The preferred modern spelling is T'Sou-ke.

Source: included with note