"Strait of Georgia" adopted 6 March 1913 on Ottawa file 0025, as labelled on British Admiralty Chart 2689, 1865 et seq, and on BC map 2A, 1913, and on International Boundary Commission map 1, 1913.

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

In 1791 Eliza had called this "Gran Canal de Nuestra Señora del Rosario la Marinera" abbreviated as Canal del Rosario on Spanish charts. The following year, Captain Vancouver gave the name "Gulphe of Georgia" to this inland sea, in honour of His Majesty King George III. (Vancouver's Chart of the Coast of Northwest America to accompany his published journals confines the Spanish name to the channel between Texada Island and the mainland - today's Malaspina Strait). By 1800, spelling was modernized to "Gulf of Georgia". Renamed "Strait of Georgia" by the British Admiralty in 1865 - "strait" being a more accurate description of this feature.

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

Extends 110 miles from San Juan Islands (Washington State) in a northwesterly direction to Cape Mudge on the southern tip of Quadra Island (BC Pilot, Vol I, 1933, p.168; BC Pilot, Vol I, 1965, p.135.)

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

"Gulf of Georgia was changed to Strait of Georgia by Captain Richards, RN, in 1865, after he had been appointed chief hydrographer..."
"The name of King George was a significant and potent one among the Indians of this coast in the days of the fur traders because, owing to his long reign, he was so frequently mentioned by British subjects and others that in the native mind his name became synonymous with power and authority, so much so that all Britishers were called King George Men, and their ships King George Ships, in contradistinction to those of other nationalities with whom the natives came in contact. Other traders were styled Boston Men, because they nearly all then belonged to American vessels which were fitted out and hailed from Boston, New England."

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)