Adopted in the 18th Report of the Geographic Board of Canada, 31 March 1924, as labelled on BC map 1H, 1917. Reapproved 21 December 1944 on 104 NE, and 17 January 1951 on 104O.

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

A tuya is a flat-topped, steep-sided volcano that erupted through a glacier, melting the surrounding ice and forming a lake. These are readily identifiable, although somewhat rare. The International Geologist Dictionary cites examples of tuyas in northern BC (west of Tuya Lake) as definitive of the type, although there are also tuyas in Iceland.

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

The geological term, tuya, may be derived from the Tahltan word for these features, but it is not known if Tuya Lake or Tuya River was the original application of the Tahltan name. Thuya (Danish: flat-topped conifer); Ta (Norwegian: melting, thawing); Tauen (German: melt, thaw); Taje (Czech: thaw); and from Palgrave"s Tahltan Dictionary: tu'a (baby daughter); tu (water); ya (sky). Ivan Polivka, Cassiar-area resident, offers the following speculation: was Tuya the massif which held water on its' more or less flat top (in the sky) ?

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