The village (like its West Kootenays namesake) was called after William Parsons Sayward, a successful Victoria lumber merchant who was born in Maine in 1818 and came to Victoria from California in 1858.
The village bore the same name as its West Kootenays counterpart, named after William Parsons Sayward, a successful Victoria lumber merchant born in Maine in 1818 and who moved to Victoria from California in 1858.