The American city of Vancouver, Washington, is not named after the Canadian city of Vancouver, British Columbia.
However, both cities are named after British naval officer Captain George Vancouver who led the expedition between 1791 and 1795 to chart North America’s northwestern Pacific Coast regions.
The American city is older than its Canadian counterpart, having been incorporated as the city of Vancouver 29 years earlier in 1857. The city’s origins are in the settlement of Fort Vancouver which was established on the Columbia River as a fur trading post of the Hudson’s Bay Company in 1824.
