Alternate Names for Vancouver Island

Did Spanish explorers realize its island nature?

Well, Juan de Fuca (in the 16th century) definitely didn't get far enough to realize it was an island, although Malaspina (in the 18th century) may have realized that it was...

Possible alternate names: (in relative order of likelihood)
- Juan de Fuca Island (after the explorer who discovered the Juan de Fuca Strait)
- Malaspina Island (after a later Spanish explorer who explored the area - he was a contemporary of George Vancouver)
- Anian Island (the 'Strait of Anian' was a legendary Northwest Passage which separated the 'Island of California' from the rest of North America - Juan de Fuca originally thought he had discovered the Strait of Anian when he first entered the OTL Strait of Juan de Fuca, and the name 'Strait of Anian' could have stuck, and then the island could have been named after the Strait)
- Nootka Island (Nootka Sound was the most important 18th and early 19th century anchorage on *Vancouver Island, and thus the island could have been named after it)
- Galiano Island (after the Spanish explorer Galiano who was the first to circumnavigate *Vancouver Island)
- Quadra Island (after the leader of the Spanish settlement at Nootka Sound)
- Salish Island (after the Salish people who inhabited the area - this would likely be a 20th/21st-century re-naming like the OTL *Salish Sea, or the pre-colonial name Haida Gwaii being used for what used to be called the Queen Charlotte Islands)
- King George Island (after King George III who was King of the UK at the time - goes well with the nearby 'Queen Charlotte Islands')


Just curious, why are you interested in alternate names? Are you working on a TL involving the area? If you need any geographical info or info about the Coast Salish peoples, I have first-hand knowledge of both, feel free to PM me.
 
You mean after the city? Like rename the island when the city was founded?? Because the island was named long before queen victoria was around

I think what they're getting at is that Vancouver City isn't on Vancouver Island, and the main city on the island is Victoria.
 
Why not "New Caledonia"(an idea I originally had for a potential TL project; dormant, but still in the works)? After all, Scotland is on an island, and the name was already used in a nearby area, right?
 
Why not "New Caledonia"(an idea I originally had for a potential TL project; dormant, but still in the works)? After all, Scotland is on an island, and the name was already used in a nearby area, right?

That's the point, it was already a name for inland British Columbia at the time. Why use the same name twice, much less so close together?
 
That's the point, it was already a name for inland British Columbia at the time. Why use the same name twice, much less so close together?

So in parallel Vancouver Island should be New Hibernia- in my New Albion timeline the northern mainland up to the Bering Straits was New Caledonia, so New Hibernia was the name I gave to the Queen Charlottes.
 
So in parallel Vancouver Island should be New Hibernia- in my New Albion timeline the northern mainland up to the Bering Straits was New Caledonia, so New Hibernia was the name I gave to the Queen Charlottes.

That's a good one, too! It would make things even more interesting, IMO, if said island developed a large, dominant Irish community later on..... :D:cool:
 
Vancouver Island was named after British naval Captain George Vancouver who explored & mapped the region between 1791 to 1794.

Gascoyne Island after Bamber Gascoyne Lord of the Admiralty in 1791

Dundas Island or Melvile Island after Henry Dundas Viscount Melville Lord of the Admiralty in 1794.

Nootka Island after the Nootka sound.

Kwakiuti Island or Quakkitti Island or some various on the name of the local first people.
 
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