Adopted in the 9th Report of the Geographic Board of Canada, 30 June 1910, as labelled on Trutch's 1871 map of British Columbia, etc. "Chilcotin Lake (not Chezakut Lake)" confirmed in the 1930 BC Gazetteer. Re-approved 13 March 1947 on 93/SW.

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

After the Chilcotin or, as Simon Fraser called them, the "Chilk-hodins"....

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

Means "country of young man's river". The syllable "ko" in such words as Chilcotin, Chilko, Tatlayoko, means "river" (article by Don Munday, published in Canadian Alpine Journal, vol XXIX, 1942-43, p.160).

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

The name can be translated as "ochre river people". Ochre here refers not to the colour but to the mineralized substance (usually red or yellow) much prized by the [Indigenous People] for use as a base for paint or dye.

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