Adopted 5 April 1938 on 92L-K, as labelled on British Admiralty Chart 581, 1867 et seq, and on BC Lands' map 2C, 1919 et seq. Re-approved 3 December 1946 on C.3587.

Source: BC place name cards, files, correspondence and/or research by BC Chief Geographer/Geographical Names Office.

After John Sebastian Helmcken, M.R.C.S., medical officer in the service of the Hudson's Bay Company from 1850 to 1886. Born in London, 1825. Arrived in Victoria as medical officer of the ship Norman Morrison, 1850. In connection with the naming of the island, Dr. Helmcken related the following anecdote to the writer: "In the year 1850 I was on board the company's steamer Beaver going to Fort Rupert, and we were passing along Johnstone Strait against a flood tide. As this island was approached, which stands in the middle of the channel, the tide rapidly increased in strength, owing to the island in the way, till the Beaver had extremely hard work to make any headway, the vessel sheering about in the swirling current. I asked the captain the name of the island near where we were struggling along. Captain Dodd replied, 'It has no name, but I will call it after you, doctor, for it is like you, always in opposition.' The island has since been known by my name." Speaker Rock, off the east end of the island, is also named after Dr. Helmcken, as he was speaker of the Provincial Legislature when the rock was examined in 1864 by Captain Pender. Married at Victoria, on 27 December 1852, Cecilia, daughter of Governor Douglas, who died in Victoria 4 February 1865. [Dr. Helmcken was] residing in Victoria, 1907.

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)

After Dr. John Sebastian Helmcken (1825-1920), who arrived in Victoria from England in 1850. After a dangerous and arduous assignment to Fort Rupert, he returned to Victoria where in 1852 he married Cecilia, daughter of Governor Douglas. Helmcken took an active part in the political life of the young colony as a staunch supporter of his father-in-law. He was a member of the first Legislative Assembly of Vancouver Island in 1855, of which he subsequently served as speaker. After first opposing British Columbia's membership in the Canadian confederation, Dr. Helmcken came around to support it, and he was offered, but declined, a seat in the federal senate. He preferred to devote himself to his family and his medical practice.

Source: Canadian Geographical Names Database, Ottawa