Adopted in the 2nd Report of the Geographic Board of Canada, 30 June 1900, as labelled on George Dawson's map "West Kootenai" published in 1890 by Geological Survey of Canada.

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

Named after "the hanging judge", Sir Matthew Baillie Begbie (1819-1894), Chief Justice of British Columbia. Educated at Cambridge and called to the bar in 1844; appointed "Judge in Our Colony of British Columbia" by Sir E.B. Lytton in September 1858; sworn into office upon his arrival at Langley 19 November 1858. Appointed Chief Justice of mainland British Columbia 1869; appointed Chief Justice of British Columbia 1870, serving until his death, 11 June 1899. Knighted 26 November 1874.

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

"Sir Matthew Baillie Begbie, Chief Justice of British Columbia.....who by firmness, impartiality, and sheer power of personality maintained British law and order when the mining camps of the Cariboo and other gold mining areas were flooded with American riff-raff fresh from the lynch-law camps to the south. The son of a colonel in the Royal Engineers, Begbie was a highly civilized man who spoke both French and Italian, and had a taste for music. He received his MA from Cambridge in 1844 and in the same year was called to the bar at Lincoln's Inn. Ater some years as an impoverished young lawyer and a man-about-town in London, he decided to emigrate, possibly as a consequence of a disappointment in love...." (see Akrigg for further biographical details and anecdotes)

Source: Akrigg, Helen B. and Akrigg, G.P.V; British Columbia Place Names; Sono Nis Press, Victoria 1986 /or University of British Columbia Press 1997