When Spanish explorers arrived on the west coast of Canada, they named many of the features of what is now the Strait of Georgia. Bowen Island was called Isla de Apodaca (after the Mexican town of Apodaca, in northeast Nuevo León state – itself named after a benevolent bishop, Salvador de Apodaca y Loreto) by the Spanish Captain José María Narváez in July, 1791. In 1860 Cpt. George Henry Richards renamed the island after Rear Admiral James Bowen master of HMS "Queen Charlotte".