Adopted 3 March 1949 on C.3844, as labelled on British Admiralty Chart 2426, 1872 et seq, and as identified in the 1930 BC Gazetteer.

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

"Named in 1868 by Captain Pender, RN, after Robert Cunningham, an old and well-known resident of the northern coast of British Columbia. Born on New Year's Day, 1837, at Tullyvally, county Tyrone, Ireland, and arrived on this coast on Christmas Day, 1862. His first service was with Mr. Duncan, to assist whom he had been sent out by the Church Missionary Society of England. He left the society in 1864 and entered the service of the Hudson's Bay Company, being employed at Port Simpson, in which service he remained until 1869. He then commenced business on his own account, and in conjunction with Thomas Hankin, a young Englishman, established a store, forwarding and commission business at what is now known as Inverness cannery, North Passage, Skeena River, known in those days as Woodcock's Landing. Business prospered and the headquarters of the firm removed to the Port Essington [as named by Vancouver] where Cunningham pre-empted the present townsite in 1871. The firm of Cunningham and Hankin was dissolved in 1877. Cunningham afterwards erected a salmon cannery at Port Essington, and later a saw-mill, which have been most successful. Died at Victoria 8 April 1905."

Source: Walbran, John T; British Columbia Coast Names, 1592-1906: their origin and history; Ottawa, 1909 (republished for the Vancouver Public Library by J.J. Douglas Ltd, Vancouver, 1971)