Whytecliff (Post Office) adopted 7 December 1937 on 92G/6. Form of name changed to Whytecliff (Post Office & Station) 12 December 1939 on 92/SE. Name changed to Horseshoe Bay (Settlement) 28 July 1945 on C.3579, being the preferred local name, and as identified on "Plan of survey of preemption and purchase claims", 19 May 1892. Form of name changed to Horseshoe Bay (Post Office, Station & Steamer Landing) 3 April 1959 on 92G. Form of name changed to Horseshoe Bay (Community) 15 April 1982 on 92 G/6.

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

Surveyed as White Cliff City in 1909 for Sir Charles Tupper and Col. Albert Whyte. Whytecliff Post Office was opened 1 June 1920, in association with the railway station of the same name. Name changed to Horseshoe Bay Post Office 9 April 1942.

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

"The Admiralty Survey Expedition that charted Howe Sound gave the name "White Cliff Point" to the tip of the peninsula south of Horseshoe Bay, on account of the white appearance of the weathered cliffs just there. That name has been printed for years on the Admiralty charts of Howe Sound. When a certain Colonel Albert Whyte bought a lot of land around Horseshoe Bay he went after immortality, called the name of his property "Whytecliff" and persuaded the PGE to mis-spell the station name that way. (letter from Mr. Porter, per Mr. George Brealley, both of West Vancouver, 15 January 1927)."

Source: Nelson, Denys; Place Names of the Delta of the Fraser River; 1927, unpublished manuscript held in the Provincial Archives