Kildala Arm adopted in the 5th Report of the Geographic Board of Canada, 30 June 1904. Confirmed 5 March 1953 on Chart 3743.

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

"Kildala Arm is from the Haisla word meaning "a long way ahead"."

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

Kildala is the [Indigenous] name, meaning "long river" (from "Social Life of Owikeno Kwakiutl" by Ronald Olsen; University of California Press, 1954/University of California Anthropological Records, Vol 14 No.3.) [note that Kilbella River (draining into Rivers Inlet, 250+km south of here) is identified as an Oweekeno First Nation name, meaning "long river" located beside Chuckwalla River - "short river".]
This confusion over the spelling of First Nation names may explain why the cannery (and later the logging camp) situated at the mouth of Kibella River was named Kildala; the Wuikinuxv/Oweekeno Reserve at [the same location] is spelled Kiltala. (from "Encyclopedia of Raincoast Place Names" by Andrew Scott; Harbour Publishing 2009.)

Source: included with note