Incorporated as City of Prince Rupert 3 March 1910. Confirmed in the 17th Report of the Geographic Board of Canada, 1922, and 28 June 1946 on C.3702.

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

Named in 1906 by the officers of the Grand Trunk Pacific Railway on the establishment of the western terminus of the Company's transcontinental line, after Prince Rupert, the first governor of the Hudson's Bay Company. The name was selected by open competition, the prize offered by the railway company for a suitable name being $250. Prince Rupert Post Office was opened 1 December 1906."
See also the municipality's own website.

Source: 17th Report of the Geographic Board of Canada, 31 March 1921 (supplement to the Annual Report of the Dept of the Interior, 1922, Ottawa)

Construction [for the railway terminus] began 7 May 1906 with the building of a tool shed, and the next day Mr. Pillsbury began the survey for the docks and Company houses. As soon as the camp was established they started clearing the foreshore for the building of the wharf....completed on July 1st. There was still no sign of a townsite, but in October 1907, the work of clearing land started. By the time the lots were all cleared and surveyed in May 1909, the town had acquired 1000 inhabitants. The Company buildings grouped around the dock were known as "Baconville", named after GTP's harbour engineer James H. Bacon. Most inhabitants were clustered at "Knoxville" on the mining claim of John Knox, and the remainder at "Vickersville", named after the police constable. With the establishment of an official townsite, the old [names] disappeared. (Large, R.G., The Skeena-River of Destiny, Mitchell Press, Vancouver).

Source: included with note

GTPR....stipulated that the [contest entries] not exceed 3 syllables and 10 letters. The winner out of some 5000 entries was that of Miss Eleanor MacDonald of Winnipeg, who suggested "Prince Rupert" after the first governor of the Hudson's Bay Company. Since Miss MacDonald's entry exceeded the set number of letters, the company awarded two other prizes to the contestants who had suggested "Port Rupert" which [did not exceed] the required number of letters.

Prince Rupert of the Rhine (1619 - 1682), cousin of King Charles II, was a dashing leader of the Royalist cavalry during the Civil War. After the Restoration he was an important person at court and headed the syndicate to which on 2 May 1670 the King granted a charter constituting them as "The Company of Adventurers of England Trading into Hudson's Bay."

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