Muchalat Arm adopted in the 18th Report of the Geographic Board of Canada, 31 March 1924. Form of name changed to Muchalat Inlet 2 December 1947 on C.3645, as first recommended by Hydrographic Service in March 1934, and again in 1947.

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

"Guaquina or Muchalat Arm" identified on Robert Brown's map, showing the results of the Vancouver Island Exploring Expedition, 1864.

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

Named after the Muchalaht people, who are a branch of the Nuu-chah-nulth cultural group. The Muchalaht are “those who live beside the Muchalee River”; Muchalee is believed to be the original Nuu-chah-nulth name for the Gold River valley. The Mowachaht, or “people of the deer”, who occupied the more westerly portions of Nootka Sound, were traditional enemies of Muchalaht, and many battles were fought over Gold River’s rich sockeye salmon resourses. The Muchalaht were reduced in numbers by the endless attacks and retreated inland, but they eventually intermarried with their enemies and moved to Yuquot on Nootka Island. The two tribes, now allied, moved in 1968 to Ahaminaquus, where the Gold River joins the sea and the main Muchalaht village had once been situated. By then the region was the site of intense logging activity; the Tahsis Company had its main camp at the mouth of the Gold River by 1955, and the East Asiatic Company built a pulp mill there in 1965. In 1996, tired of pollution, noise and truck traffic, the Mowachaht/Muchalaht moved again, to Ts’xanah, just north of the village of Gold River. The inlet was once known as Muchalat Arm and, even earlier, as Guaqina Arm (see Guaqina Point). Spanish visitors to Nootka Sound in the 18th century called it Fondo de Guicananish and Brazo de Guaquinaniz – names that probably refer to famed Nuu-chah-nulth chief Wickaninnish. Muchalat Lake and Muchalat River are also named for the Muchalalht First Nation.

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