Adopted 6 April 1950 on 92NW, as labelled on BC Lands' map 2D, 1919. Origin/significance not recorded.

Source: BC place name cards, or correspondence to/from BC's Chief Geographer or BC Geographical Names Office, file C.1.49

Spelled "Philipps Arm" on British Admiralty Chart #580, 1862.

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

For a small, out-of-the-way inlet, Phillips Arm has seen a fair amount of bustle over the years. It was once a rich fishing area, home to Kwiakah people, a Kwakwala-speaking First Nation whose name means "to club". Then, in the mid-1890s, came the prospectors, who turned the inlet into a hotbed of activity second only to Texada Island in the region. Dozens of claims were staked along the shoreline and beside the Phillips River, which flows southwest through Phillips Lake into the head of the arm. Several gold mines were established, the largest of which was the Doratha Morton, on Fanny Bay, which processed ore onsite with cyanide to extract the precious metal. A large forestry camp was located on the inlet in the 1970s, with a post office that operated 1973-82. In the early 1990s some innovative dirigible logging was done in the vicinity. A decade later, aquaculture operations were flourishing on the arm. But nobody, unfortunately, seems to know who Phillips was.

Source: Scott, Andrew; "The Encyclopedia of Raincoast Place Names"; Harbour Publishing, Madeira Park, 2009, pp. 459-460.