Pedder Inlet was confirmed 6 November 1934 for Department of National Defence map 415b, Metchosin. Name changed to Pedder Bay 6 January 1948, as originally listed in the 18th report of the Geographic Board of Canada, 31 March 1924.

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

Pedder Bay and Pedder Inlet (mud flats at the head of the bay) are labelled on Captain Kellet's 1846 chart, #1906, and on J.D. Pemberton's 1855 map South-Eastern Districts of Vancouver Island, and on other early hydrographic charts. The single name "Pedder Bay" is applied to the entire feature on modern maps and charts.

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

Named in 1846 by Captain Kellett, after Lieutenant William Pedder, his acquaintance when both were in Hong Kong at the time the island was ceded to the British. Lieutenant Pedder was Hong Kong harbourmaster in 1844.

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

"The origin of this name is obscure, no information being obtainable from any of the old residents in the vicinity. The bay was named by Captain Kellett in 1846 and probably, so the writer concludes, after a friend of Captain Kellett's in Hongkong whose acquaintance he made when on the China station in the Starling, 1840-42, during which time the island was ceded to the British. Pedder's wharf at Hongkong is a well-known landing place and has been for upwards of 50 years. The bay was named by Quimper in 1790, Rada de Eliza, after Lieutenant Francisco Eliza, by whose orders Quimper made his exploring cruise from Nootka in the Pricess Royal."

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)