"Kitkatlah Islands" adopted in the 1930 BC Gazetteer, as establised on BC Map 3M, 1924 and on British Admiralty Chart #2453, date not cited; confirmed 6 March 1952 on Hydrographic Services Chart #3773, "Grenville Channel - Baker Inlet to Ogden Channel." Name changed to "Kitkatla Islands" 6 June 1952 on Hydrographic Services Chart #3747, "Browning Entrance."

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

Kitkatla is the anglicized form of a Tsimshian term that can be translated as “people of the salt” or “those who live by the sea.” The Gitxaala (or Giktxaala) First Nation, who are believed, about 1787, to have been the first members of the Tsimshian cultural group to make contact with European visitors, were often referred to in the fur-trading era as the Sebassa, after the hereditary name of the a prominent chief. Kitkatla village, also known as Lack Klan, is one of the oldest continuously inhabited communities on the BC coast; its population in the early 2000s was about 450, and commercial fishing was the primary livelihood. Nearby Kitkatla Creek is named for this First Nation as well.

Source: Scott, Andrew; "The Encyclopedia of Raincoast Place Names"; Harbour Publishing, Madeira Park, 2009, page 312-313.