"Pender Harbour" adopted 28 July 1945 on Chart #3579, as labelled on British Admiralty Chart 579, 1863 et seq. Name changed to k̲alpilin 21 June 2023 on 92F/9 as requested by shíshálh Nation .

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

Named in 1860 by Captain G.H. Richards, RN, after Daniel Pender, RN ( - 1891). Pender arrived on this coast as second master of the the survey vessel Plumper, 9 November 1857; served as master of the Plumper and the Hecate; commander of the Beaver (hired from Hudson's Bay Company for hydrographic work), 1863-70; assistant, Hydrographic Office, London, 1871-84.......

Source: Walbran, John T; British Columbia Coast Names, 1592-1906: their origin and history; Ottawa, 1909 (republished for the Vancouver Public Library by J.J. Douglas Ltd, Vancouver, 1971)

As one of the main hydrographic surveyors to work on BC’s coast, Lieutenant Danial Pender (d 1891) was responsible for naming hundreds of geographic features. He served in ‘HMS Porcupine’, a Royal Navy survey vessel, off the west coast of Scotland in the mid-1850s, then arrived in the PNW in 1857 as 2nd master of ‘HMS Plumper’, under Captain George Richards. In 1862, the RN hired the historic HBC paddle steamer ‘Beaver’ and put Pender in command; for the next seven years he carried on the hydrographic work with, as historian John Walbran pointed out, “the greatest zeal.” He was promoted to staff commander in 1869, the same year he married Amy Maria Gribbell, the sister of Victoria clergyman Frank Gribbell, at Esquimalt. The Penders returned to England in 1871, and Danial was appointed to the Admiralty hydrographic office, becoming the Royal Navy’s assistant hydrographer in 1879. He reached the rank of captain, retired, in 1884. Daniel Point, Mount Pender, and Pender Hill, all in the Pender Harbour vicinity, are also named for him, as are Pender Lake on North Pender Island, Mount Pender on Campania Island and, presumably, Pender Rock (on the south end of Cunningham Passage, off northwest Tsimpsean Peninsula, north of Prince Rupert). Pender Canal, an artificial feature, was dug in 1903 for the convenience of politician and steamship owner Thomas Paterson; two major archeological middens were revealed in the process. The area’s Hul’qumi’num (Coast Salish) name is Tl’e’ulthw, meaning “permanent houses.” Pender Harbour was named by Captain George Richards in 1860; it was once the site of Ka̒lpili̒n, a large Sechelt First Nation winter village. Today the harbour is home to several small, scenic, retirement and recreational communities.

Source: Scott, Andrew; "The Encyclopedia of Raincoast Place Names"; Harbour Publishing, Madeira Park, 2009.