BC has 20 Long Lakes, 18 Summit Lakes, 16 Bear Creeks and exactly 5 Mud Lakes. Ontario has 75 Mud Lakes on its own. Those counts come from the federal Canadian Geographical Names Database, which lists 41,287 official place names in British Columbia, and more than a quarter of them (10,783) are creeks.
I downloaded the BC and national files from Natural Resources Canada and went looking for patterns: the names BC repeats most, the ones it owns outright, the spooky ones (Halloween is two weeks out), the snacks, the bears, and the odd numbered names along the old Cariboo gold-rush road. There's a map you can flip between themes, a search box for any word, and a quiz at the end.
Official place names in BC41,287#3 in Canada, after Quebec and Ontario
Creeks10,78326% of all BC names
Most common nameLong Lake20 in BC, 207 in Canada
Spooky names7331 with Devil in them
BC's most common place names
Whoever named BC's creeks ran out of ideas early and often. 10,783 official names are creeks, 5,933 are lakes and 4,265 are a Mount or a Mountain. Points, islands, peaks and bays fill out the top 10.
What BC names: the 10 most common feature typesOfficial BC place names by generic term, out of 41,287
Now the exact names. Long Lake is BC's most repeated place name, with 20. It's also Canada's: 207 Long Lakes nationwide, 66 of them in Ontario. After that BC goes its own way. Summit Lake (18), Bear Creek (16) and Boulder Creek (15) are names where BC has more than any other province (Hidden Lake is a tie with Ontario, 12 each).
BC's 21 most common place namesEvery name used 11 or more times in BC. How many times each exact name appears in BC, in all of Canada, and which province has the most
Notice the mood of the list. Hidden Lake, Lost Lake, Echo Lake. BC's surveyors were either poets or people who'd been walking for a very long time. My read: it's the second one.
Canada's 10 most common place namesExact-name counts across all provinces and territories, and how many BC has
Canada as a whole is a land of Long Ponds and Mud Lakes. Long Pond (199) is almost entirely a Newfoundland and Labrador thing. Mud Lake (183) is mostly Ontario and Nova Scotia, and BC has only 5. Quebec has 131,994 official names, more than anywhere else, so its French names (Lac Long, Lac Rond) crowd the national top 10 too.
Names BC owns
Some names are so BC that the rest of the country barely uses them. Copper Creek is the clearest case: there are 14 in Canada and 12 of them are here. Metal and rock names (Copper, Gold, Granite, Red Mountain) and road-distance names (Four Mile, Six Mile, Nine Mile) fill most of this list. My read: the people naming BC's backcountry were mostly looking for ore or counting miles to the next roadhouse.
Names BC has (almost) all to itselfBC's share of every place in Canada with that exact name. Names with 8 or more in BC, where BC has the most.
Red Mountain (8 of 9)88.9%Copper Creek (12 of 14)85.7%Cherry Creek (8 of 11)72.7%Four Mile Creek (10 of 14)71.4%Evans Creek (9 of 13)69.2%Six Mile Creek (9 of 13)69.2%Porter Creek (9 of 14)64.3%Nine Mile Creek (11 of 18)61.1%Gold Creek (9 of 15)60.0%Granite Creek (9 of 15)60.0%
Pick a theme. Every dot is one official name. Spooky names and bears turn up in every corner of the province. The mile markers are the fun one: look for the string of dots running north through the Cariboo, from 70 Mile House past 100 Mile House to 150 Mile House near Williams Lake.
Map: BC's place names, by themeSwitch the theme, then tap or hover over a dot for the name, type of feature and land district.
73 names with devil, ghost, hell, skull, coffin, witch and friends
Tap a dot to see what it is and where. Grey squares are reference towns.
With Halloween two weeks away, I counted every official BC name with one of 11 spooky words in it: devil, ghost, hell, skull, coffin, skeleton, phantom, witch, satan, demon and monster. There are 73. I left Deadman, Grave and Graveyard names out on purpose, because some of those mark real deaths and burials, and Hell Diver Lake is named for a bird. Devil wins easily with 31: Devils Thumb, Devils Elbow, Devils Couch and a Devils Den Lake. To be fair to the Devil, a few of those are Devils Club Creeks and a Devils Club Mountain, which share a name with devil's club, the spiky shrub that anyone who has grabbed one on a trail remembers.
BC's spookiest wordsOfficial BC place names containing each word (plurals and possessives count). Indian Reserve names excluded.
There are 10 Ghost names (Ghost Lake twice, Ghost Mountain twice, Ghost Peak, Ghost Pass), 5 Skulls, 4 Skeletons and 5 Coffins, plus Mount Satan, Satan Peak and Monster Peak. The best known of the lot is Hells Gate in the Fraser Canyon, which is in the database three ways: the canyon, a locality and a tunnel.
The mile houses
BC has 191 official names with a distance in miles in them, and the best of them line up through the Cariboo. The District of 100 Mile House says the town is named for being 100 miles from Lillooet, which was Mile 0 of the Cariboo Wagon Road during the gold rush. The town's own history page describes it as one of the stopping points along the gold-rush trail.
The Cariboo's mile housesOfficial names ending in 'Mile House', south to north
From 70 Mile House at 51.30°N to 150 Mile House at 52.11°N, the numbers go up as you drive north, which is what you'd expect if they all count from the same Mile 0. 100 Mile House is now a District Municipality and kept the name. Most of the other mile names are creeks scattered across the province: Nine Mile Creek appears 11 times in BC and Four Mile Creek 10 times.
Snacks, drinks and a bird
BC's map is a little thirsty. There are 21 places named Whisky or Whiskey, and 3 with Tea. Coffee gets 6, including Coffee Crater and a rock called The Coffee Pot. Bacon shows up 7 times, Pancake 3 times (there's a Pancake Glacier) and Potato 4 times. One Donut Lake rounds it out.
Snacks and drinks on the mapOfficial BC place names containing each word. The 4 Whisky-jack names are left out: that's a bird.
One correction before anyone writes in: the 4 Whisky-jack names (Whiskey-jack Marsh, two Whisky-jack Creeks, Whisky-jack Falls) are named after the bird, the Canada jay, not a drink. I left them out of the count. And yes, BC has a Polar Bear Lake and a Polar Bear Peak. The bear layer on the map has all 104 bear and grizzly names.
Search for any word
Type a word and the box finds every official BC place name with it, then puts them on the mini map. 14 names have Vancouver in them, including Vancouver Island twice (once as Île de Vancouver) and a Vancouver Rock way up the coast at 52.35°N. I checked my own name too: there are 6 Dan names, including a Dan Lake at 59.91°N, just shy of the Yukon border.
Is your word on the map?Search 41,268 of BC's 41,287 official place names for a word: your first name, your street, your dog, your favourite snack.
14 official BC place names with Vancouver
Île de Vancouver Island
Metro Vancouver Regional District Regional District
Here's where this turns into real estate. A lot of Lower Mainland neighbourhoods are named after a creek, lake, hill or river that's still on the official map. Here are a dozen where the EstateBlock neighbourhood name includes a feature from the database. Together they had 313 active listings on Oct 17, 2026.
Neighbourhoods named after an official BC featureEstateBlock neighbourhoods whose name includes a creek, lake, hill, river, cove, mountain or prairie in the CGNDB, with active listings on Oct 17, 2026
7 questions, all answered by the data above. Pick one; the answer shows straight away.
1. What's the most common place name in BC?
Answer
Long Lake: 20 of them. Summit Lake (18) and Bear Creek (16) come next. BC has just 5 Mud Lakes.
2. Canada has 183 Mud Lakes. How many are in BC?
Answer
5. Ontario has 75. BC prefers its lakes long, lost or hidden.
3. BC has 12 of Canada's 14 places with which name?
Answer
Copper Creek: 12 of 14. Gold Creek is 9 of 15.
4. Which shows up in more BC place names?
Answer
Whisky, 21 to 3, even after dropping the Whisky-jack names. Coffee has 6.
5. 100 Mile House is 100 miles from what?
Answer
Lillooet, Mile 0 of the Cariboo Wagon Road, according to the District of 100 Mile House.
6. Which spooky word appears in the most BC place names?
Answer
Devil, in 31 names (Devils Thumb, Devils Elbow, Devils Club Creek). Ghost has 10 and Skull 5.
7. About what share of BC's official place names are creeks?
Answer
10,783 of 41,287, or 26%. Lakes are next at 5,933.
How I did this
On 2026-10-17 I downloaded Natural Resources Canada's Canadian Geographical Names Database files for British Columbia and for all of Canada (the CSV versions; the download URLs are saved with the research for this post). The BC file has 41,287 name records for 41,215 features (a few features have more than one official name). The national file has 366,207 names once I drop undersea features. Counts are of official name records, so they show what's in the database. Provinces don't all record the same kinds of features, so treat the province comparisons as a fun read, not a census.
"Most common" counts exact names. Word counts match whole words in a name, ignoring accents and capitals, and count plurals and possessives (Devils, Devil's). For the themed lists and the map I left out Indian Reserve names, because a joke list is no place for them. I also left 19 historical names that contain slurs out of the search box and the map. The jokes here are about lakes, creeks and surveyors, not people. Coordinates are the database's own points for each feature. Neighbourhood matches compare EstateBlock's neighbourhood names to features near those cities. Neighbourhood boundaries are EstateBlock's, and listings are active listings, not sales.
Contains information licensed under the Open Government Licence – Canada.
FAQ
What is the most common place name in BC?
Long Lake. The Canadian Geographical Names Database lists 20 Long Lakes in British Columbia, then Summit Lake (18) and Bear Creek (16). Long Lake is also Canada's most common place name, with 207.
How many place names are there in BC?
The federal database lists 41,287 official place names in British Columbia, the third most after Quebec and Ontario. 10,783 of them are creeks and 5,933 are lakes.
Why is it called 100 Mile House?
According to the District of 100 Mile House, the town is 100 miles from Lillooet, which was Mile 0 of the Cariboo Wagon Road during the gold rush. The official map also has a 70 Mile House, 105, 111, 114, 122, 127 and 141 Mile House, and 150 Mile House, numbered higher the farther north they are.
Are there spooky place names in BC?
Yes: 73 official names contain words like devil, ghost, skull, coffin, hell or witch. Devil is the most common (31 names), and one of the best known is Hells Gate in the Fraser Canyon.
