Chemainus Bay adopted in the 9th Report of the Geographic Board of Canada, 30 June 1910, not "Horse Shoe Bay", nor "Horseshoe Bay" as labelled on British Admiralty Chart 579, 1865 et seq.

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

Name first given to the district by Thomas George Askew, settler in 1856, referring to "Tsiminnis" a legendary figure who led the migration of an [Indigenous] tribe from the Alberni area to the head of Horse Shoe Bay (later re-named Chemainus Bay).

Source: Provincial Archives of BC "Place Names File" compiled 1945-1950 by A.G. Harvey from various sources, with subsequent additions

Chemainus means "bitten breast" (Report of Cowichan Historical Society, published in The Cowichan Leader, 22 February 1934).

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

From the Island Halkomelem word meaning 'bitten breast'. The horseshoe shape of the bay reminded [Indigenous People] of the bite that a frenzied shaman would inflict upon a spectator during certain tribal ceremonies.

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

"From 'Tsa-mee-mis,' for the local band which christened itself 'Bitten Beast' [sic] after a scar in the landscape."(T.W. Paterson, "Mapmakers Have Been Unkind to the Original Name-Givers," Cowichan Valley Citizen, 16 November 2005.)

Source: included with note