Reported to be adopted 10 August 1944 on C.3585 in association with Nanoose Bay (community).

Source: BC place name cards, or correspondence to/from BC's Chief Geographer or BC Geographical Names Office, file B.1.44.

Nanoose Bay refers to the community, Nanoose Harbour to the body of water. The word is a corruption of the name of the original Island Halkomelem inhabitants of the region, the Snaw Naw As, who have a reserve on the harbour. This Lantzville-Nanaimo First Nation is related to the Snuneymuxw of the Nanaimo region; its members were frequently known as Nonooas in earlier times. BC historians Helen and Philip Akrigg give two possible translations for the name: “a collection of families at one place” or “pushing inward” (referring to the shape of Nanoose Harbour). White agricultural settlement began in the area in the 1880s; several small communities and a large sawmill sprang up. The harbour is HQ for the controversial Canadian Force base used by the US Navy to test torpedoes and other naval weaponry in the nearby Strait of Georgia. In 1999, after a series of protects and attempts by the province to prevent nuclear-powered vessels entering the region, the federal government expropriated 217 sqkm of ocean floor and signed a long-term agreement allowing the US to continue testing. Nanoose Creek and Nanoose Hill (formally known as Notch Hill) also derive their names from the Snaw Naw As people, as does Nonooa RK in Nanoose Harbour.

Source: Scott, Andrew; "The Encyclopedia of Raincoast Place Names"; Harbour Publishing, Madeira Park, 2009, pp. 418.