Tatlayoko Lake

The first comprehensive map of British Columbia was produced under the authority of Joseph Trutch, and was published in 1871.^[2] This map gives the name as Ta tlah co Lake, which is similar to the Tsilhqot'in name Telhiqox. A few years later, George Dawson surveyed the geology of the area, and his 1878 report to the Geological Survey of Canada used the spelling Tatlayoco.^[3] Maps of British Columbia published in the 1880s and 1890s continued to use minor variations of Tatlahco Lake,^[4] while many geological publications used Dawson's spelling of Tatlayoco.^[5][6]

The existence of many different spellings for a geographic location was not unusual for that era, and the Geographic Board of Canada was established in 1897 to standardize these spellings. Their "Rules of Nomenclature" included the following:^[7]

• The name that is published first will be preferred
• If an indigenous name is used, the spelling should approximate the true pronunciation
• The name should not include any redundant or unpronounced letters
• Any hard "c" should be replaced with a "k"

The Geographic Board of Canada was unaware that the lake was named Tatlahco, which they erroneously thought was a name for a tributary to the Bella Coola River.^[8] They were only aware of Dawson's spelling of Tatlayoco, which they adopted as the official name in 1911, after changing the hard "c" to a "k".^[9] The name therefore came to be spelled Tatlayoko, despite the fact that Tatlahco was published first, is a better approximation of the original Tsilhqot'in word, and reflects the actual pronunciation of the name (TA-tla-ko).^[10] According to the Rules of Nomenclature, Tatlahco should have been respelled Tatlako.

• List of lakes of British Columbia