Adopted in the 18th Report of the Geographic Board of Canada, 31 March 1924, as labelled on British Admiralty Chart #589, 1862 et seq. "Nuchatlitz Inlet (not Ferrer Inlet)" confirmed in the 1930 BC Gazetteer.

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

Labelled Ensenada de Ferrer on Spanish charts, from 1791 surveys by Espinosa and Zeballos, "perhaps in honor of Vincente Ferrer, who lost his frigate in a shipwreck in 1793."

Source: Wagner, Henry R; "The Cartography of the Northwest Coast of America"; University of California Press, Berkley, 1937

Vancouver anchored here May 23, 1793, but no mention of this waterbody by name in his journal, so likely first identified on charts as Nuchatlitz Unlet by Captain Richards, RN, when surveying these waters in 11860-61. Named for the Nuchatlitz people whose principle village is Nuchatl, on the north side of the inlet; in turn Nuchatl means "people of the place having mountains behind (their) village."

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

Nuchatlitz ("mountain house") - a Nootka tribe occupying the village of Nuchatl and other [villages] on Nuchatlitz and Esperanza inlets.
Spelled variously Neu-chad-lits (Jewitt, 1849), Noochahlaht (Sproat, 1868), Nutca'tlath (Boas, 1890), etc.

Source: Handbook of Indians of Canada, published as an Appendix to the 10th Report of the Geographic Board of Canada, 1912.

"Named after the First Nation inhabitants of the region, the Nuchatlaht, a member group of the Nuu-chah-nulth Tribal Council. The name has been translated as 'people of a sheltered bay' and 'people from a place with a mountain behind the village.' The Nuchatlaht traditionally occupied several villages on the NW side of Nootka Island but moved in the late 1980s to Oclucje, a site at the head of Espinosa Inlet... Nuchatlitz Inlet was originally named Ensenada de Ferrer by Dionisio Alcala-Galiano and Cayetano Valdes in 1792... Nuchatlitz Ck is named after the inlet." (p. 432)

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