The first mention of the city's name appears at the end of the 16th century. The name "Nadym" appears on Russian maps from the end of the 17th century, and the river Nadym was noted in published form at the turn of the 17th and 18th Centuries in the "Drawing Book of Siberia" by Russian geographer, cartographer and topographer, Semyon Remezov and sons, composed in 1699–1701. On the map of Tobolsk province of 1802, Nadym was already marked as having significant population. Today it's located 32 kilometers from the mouth of the river Nadym, referred to as Nadym mound.