Parry Passage adopted 7 March 1933, as labelled on British Admiralty Chart 2168, 1856 et seq, and on Trutch's 1871 map of British Columbia, etc. "Parry Passage (not Cox Passage)" identified in the 1930 BC Gazetteer. Parry Passage confirmed 2 June 1949 on C.3868.

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

"Parry channel [sic], called after the late Sir E. Parry...." (Sailing Directions, Queen Charlotte Islands - Western Coast of North America, 1853, p.9; remarks by George H. Inskip, Master, RN. British Library accession #10496.i.29.)

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

"During the first British Admiralty survey of the region in 1853 Commander James Prevost of the "Virago" named the passage after his close friend, Sir William Edward Parry, the noted Arctic Explorer. Previous to this the waterway had been known by several other names: William Douglas called it Cox's Channel after one of the outfitters of the "Iphigenia," commanded by Douglas in 1788 and 1789; Joseph Ingraham of the American brig "Hope" prepared a sketch map during 1791 and 1792 showing the passage as Cunneyah's Streights [sic] after the chief of nearby Kiusta village; Jacinto Caamano in 1792 named it Puerto de Floridablanca after Conde De Floridablanca.... The first accurate charts of the waterway were prepared in 1791 when Captain Etienne Marchand, master of the 300-ton French ship "La Solide" anchored in Cloak Bay. Marchand's officers spent a week in Parry Passage making a detail survey and prepared a chart."

Source: Dalzell, Kathleen E; Queen Charlotte Islands - Book 2: of places and names; Prince Rupert: Cove Press, 1973