Adopted 11 February 1936 on 92 G/2, as labelled on British Admiralty Chart A1922, 1858 et seq, and on BC map 2B, 1914.

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

An early cartographic error, the island being named after Francis Noel Annance, one of the three Hudsons Bay Company clerks who accompanied Chief Factor James McMillan when the latter sailed up the Fraser River in the Cadboro in 1827, to found Fort Langley. Annance had also been with McMillan on the reconnaissance survey of the Fraser River in 1824 (letter December 1957, file V.2.50). Correctly identified as "Annance's Island" on 1849 and 1853 editions of British Admiralty Chart 1922; mis-spelled "Annacis Island" on 1858 edition of same chart, and on all subsequent charts. Biography of Francis Annance published in The Beaver, April/May 1993 (copy on file F.1.34)

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

Also called "Innish Murphy" c1859, referring to Patrick O'Brian Murphy who squatted on this island for a time; Murphy was murdered [on the island?] in 1861. William Palmer Foster, original pre-emptor of Lot 312, 3 August 1864, called this Murphy Island; however upon his application for an additional 480 acres 6 March 1872, he referred to this as Annacis Island.

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