Adopted 10 August 1944 on Chart #3565 as established on BC Lands Map 2C, 1919. Named by Captain Vancouver in 1792 after Zachary Mudge (1770-1852), his first lieutenant on H.M.S. Discovery.

Source: BC place name cards & correspondence, and/or research by BC Chief Geographer & Geographical Names Office staff, file D.2.44

The cape, known for its treacherous offshore conditions, was named after Zachary Mudge (1770-1852), 1st Lieutenant on Captain George Vancouver's Her Majesty's Ship (HMS) Discovery in 1792. Vancouver and naturalist Archibald Menzies, who left a detailed description, visited a village on the cape - Tsqulotn or Tsa-kwa-luten, meaning "playing field" - that was occupied at that time by the Coast Salish people. Mudge returned to England that year, from Nootka Sound via China, with official dispatches, but was back on the BC coast in 1795 as 1st Lieutenant to Captain William Broughton in Her Majesty's Ship (HMS) Providence. In 1805, as Commander of Her Majesty's Ship (HMS) Blache, he surrendered to a French squadron after his vessel had been badly damaged in skirmish, an act for which he was honourably acquitted of blame at a court martial. He attained the rank of admiral in 1849. Mudge Inlet (qv) was named for his grandson, Henry Colton Mudge. Dionisio Alcala-Galiano and Cayetano Valdes named this feature Punta de Magallanes on their 1792 exploration of the Strait of Georgia. Cape Mudge village, now the main community of the We-wai-kai people, a branch of the Lekwiltok (Kwakwaka'wakw) First Nation, is known today as Yaculta (qv). A lighthouse station was built on the cape in 1898.

Source: Scott, Andrew; "The Encyclopedia of Raincoast Place Names"; Harbour Publishing, Madeira Park, 2009, pp. 106.