Incorporated as a District Municipality 16 November 1965, called District of Hudson's Hope; name confirmed in the 1966 BC Gazetteer. Incorrectly spelled "Hudson Hope" on 94A/4, edition 2. Correct spelling (ie. with apostrophe) re-confirmed 15 October 1982.

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

Rocky Mountain Portage House was the first fort built in what is now BC, built by Simon Fraser in 1805 as a base for Northwest Company explorations to the west. Taken over by Hudson's Bay Company in 1821, as an outpost of Fort St John then abandoned for a time in 1825 to punish Indians for the 1823 Fort St. John massacre. Re-established 1874, and seems to have been known as Hudson's Hope or Hope of Hudson (Butler, W., "The Wild North Land," Montreal, 1874, p. 235, 242; and Selwyn, Canadian Geological Survey Report 1875-76.) Various theories for name: prospector with hopes of finding gold; Hudson's hopes of finding northwest passage; "a small enclosed valley, esp. 'a smaller opening branching out from the main dale, and running up to the mountain ranges; the upland part of a mountain valley'; a blind valley." "an inlet, small bay, haven." used until the late 19th century; place names ending in "hope" common in Scotland and northern England (New English Dictionary [later Oxford English Dictionary].)

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

The post was known as early as 1873 as "Hudson's Hope" or the "Hope of Hudson." The origin of the name is unknown. Sir William Butler, who passed this way in 1873, tells an anecdote in which it figures as an HBC outpost, thus giving support to those who maintain the name was an ironic comment on the HBC's action in putting a seasonal trading post here, administered from Fort St. John. On the other hand, another school of thought maintains the Hudson of "The Hope of Hudson" was a hypothetical prospector who panned here for gold. A very old meaning of "hope" is a small inlet, valley or haven.

Source: Akrigg, Helen B. and Akrigg, G.P.V; 1001 British Columbia Place Names; Discovery Press, Vancouver 1969, 1970, 1973.