Adopted 31 March 1924 in the 18th Report. Also Kootenay River.

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

From the Kootenay (Kootenai,Kootanae, Coutonai, Kutenai) pepople, whose name is derived from "co" meaning "water" and "Tinneh," meaning "people". Father de Smet and other early travellers sometimes referred to them simply as "the Lake Indians". The tribe was also known to them as the "Flatbow Indians," and hence we have early references to Flatbow Lake and the Flatbow River. When David Thompson travelled down the Kootenay River in 1808 he named it McGillivray's River, after Duncan and William McGillivray, his superiors in the North West Company.

Source: Canadian Geographical Names Database, Ottawa

"Named after the Kootenay (Kootenai, Kootanae, Coutonai, Kutenai) [people]. This name is probably derived from the Blackfoot pronunciation of these [Indigenous peoples'] name for themselves - Ktunaxa. The meaning of the word in not known - the often quoted "water people" is based on a false etymology."

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