Adopted as a Post Office 31 December 1930 in the 1930 Gazetteer of Canada at the West end of One Eye Lake. Confirmed t 6 April 1950 on Map 92NW. Location changed to the Southeast end of One Eye Lake 5 October 1960 on Map 92N . Status changed to Community 14 January 1983 on Map 92N/15.

Source: BC place name cards & correspondence, and/or research by BC Chief Geographer & Geographical Names Office staff, file C.1.49 and M.1.55.

The names of both the community of Kleena Kleene and of the Klinaklini River (as well as the canyon, glacier, and lake near the river) are derived from a word in the Kwak’wala language of the Kwakwaka’waka First Nation. The word ‘t’lina’ is pronounced ‘GLEET-na’ and means “eulachon (or oolichan) grease (or oil).” The grease was considered a delicacy by First Nations peoples throughout British Columbia. It was extracted from the small, oil-rich eulachon fish by the First Nations bands on the Pacific Coast and shipped along the famous “grease trails” to be traded in the Interior. Kleena Kleene is 180 kilometers due west of Williams Lake. Its first non-Aboriginal residents arrived in the early 1900s. The Klinaklini River flows southwest from Kleena Kleene to Knight Inlet.

Source: Thorburn, Mark; "British Columbia Place Names"; Dragon Hill Publishing Ltd., Canada, 2009, pages 148-149.