Athalmer (village) adopted in the 18th Report of the Geographic Board of Canada, 31 March 1924; form of name changed to Athalmer (Post Office) in the 1930 BC Gazetteer; form of name changed to Athalmer (Community) 15 December 1982 on 82 K/9.

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

Athalmer Post Office was opened 1 November 1899, J.J. Lake, postmaster.

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

This place was originally known as "Salmon Beds"; here the Indians caught salmon as they came up the river. "Athalmer", the old form of his family name, was suggested by Hon. Frederick Whitworth Aylmer, CE, of Golden, who laid out the townsite in the 1880's. His family roots can be traced to the days when King Alfred's brother, Ethelred, ruled the Saxon's - 200 years before the Norman conquest of 1066. Athelmer or Athalmer, the name of Ethelred's son, means "most noble"; eventually the early-English "the" was replaced by the equivalent Roman "y", transforming the family name to Aylmer.

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

Slight variations about the significance: The Golden politician and civil engineer who laid out the Athalmer townsite in the 1880's, the Honourable Frederick W. Aylmer, aware that his surname derived from the Anglo-Saxon "athol" (noble), and combining that with "mere" (lake), called the settlement after himself and his ancestors....OR....Athalmer was an old form of his family name.

Source: Canadian Geographical Names Database, Ottawa