Abbotsford was incorporated as a Village Municipality 22 February 1924. "Abbotsford, not Abbottsford (village)" adopted in the 18th Report of the Geographic Board of Canada, 31 May 1924. Amalgamated with Sumas District Municipality, and together re-incorporated as Abbotsford District Municipality 17 November 1972.

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

Labelled on John Charles Maclure's map, deposited 9 July 1891. Abbottsford [sic] Post Office was opened 1 January 1892, Frank Munro postmaster; spelling adjusted to Abbotsford Post Office 1 November 1922. Incorporated as a Village municipality 22 February 1924.

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

After Harry Braithwaite Abbott (1829-1915). Born at Abbotsford, Quebec, the son of the Rev. J and Harriet Abbott. He entered the service of the CPR in 1882, as manager of construction of the Sault Ste. Marie branch; superintendent of CPR construction westward 1884-86; general superintendent CPR Pacific Division 1886-97 (from: BC Yearbook by R.E. Gosnell, 1911, and Who's Who in Western Canada, 1911.)

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

Named by J.Charles Maclure (see Clayburn) in 1889, original owner & subdivider of the property here, after the name of Sir Walter Scott's seat at Roxburgshire, Scotland: Abbotsford (July 1922 communication from the sons of J.C. Maclure, to Abbotsford & District Board of Trade, thence to Mr. Fleet Robertson, BC Representative to the Geographic Board of Canada)

Source: Provincial Archives of BC "Place Names File" compiled 1945-1950 by A.G. Harvey from various sources, with subsequent additions

J.C. Maclure, who chose the original townsite, is sometimes said to have named the town after Abbotsford, the baronial mansion which Sir Walter Scott built with the profits from his novels. In a letter of 1924, however, Maclure declared that when the town was laid out in 1889 he named it after Harry Abbott, General Superintendent of the Pacific Division of the Canadian Pacific Railway. Abbott, in his day a great man in the province, was a brother of Sir John Abbott, Prime Minister of Canada, 1891-92. [the text of Maclure's 4 July 1924 letter (cited above) is contained in "Place Names of the Delta of the Fraser River" by Denys Nelson, 1927 - an unpublished manuscript held in the Provincial Archives.]

Source: Akrigg, Helen B. and Akrigg, G.P.V; British Columbia Place Names; Sono Nis Press, Victoria 1986 /or University of British Columbia Press 1997