Valdes Island adopted 30 June 1904, as labelled on British Admiralty Chart #1917, 1865 et seq.

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

Valdes [sic] Island named by Captain Richards, RN, in association with nearby Galiano Island, after commander Cayetano Valdés of the Spanish Navy; in 1792 Valdés explored and charted many of the islands and waterways between Vancouver Island and the mainland with Dionisio Alcala Galiano. [note that on his 1798 chart, Captain Vancouver applied the name "Valdes" to what has since been renamed Quadra Island; the 1865-1903 editions of British Admiralty chart #1917 labels "Valdes Island" in both locations.]

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

"Named by Captain Richards, HMS Plumper, in 1859. After Commander ("capitan de fragata") Cayetano Valdes, of the Spanish navy, commanding, in 1792, the exploring vessel Mexicana, and who in 1791 had been 1st lieutenant with Malaspina in the corvette Descubierta. In the summer of 1792 Valdes, in the Mexicana, under the orders of Galiano, assisted in the examination of the channels between what is now Vancouver Island and the mainland...."

Source: Walbran, John T; British Columbia Coast Names, 1592-1906: their origin and history; Ottawa, 1909 (republished for the Vancouver Public Library by J.J. Douglas Ltd, Vancouver, 1971)

The Hul'qumi'num name is Láyksen; this island is the traditional homeland of the Lyackson First Nation.

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

Trincomalee Island was the Hudson's Bay Company's name for Valdes Island. (from SHALE: Journal of the Gabriola Historial & Museum Society; Nick Doe editor)

Source: included with note