J. Norman Collie and A. L. Mumm named this mountain and the nearby pass during a climbing expedition in 1911. According to P-NofA (1928), it was named for Bessie Gunn of Lac Ste. Anne. She became the wife of M. C. McKeen, MLA for Lac Ste. Anne. The reports of the ABCBS note that, in Collie’s account in the February 1912 issue of the Alpine Journal, Mount Bess was named by one of the guides on the expedition, John Yates. The connection between Yates and Bessie Gunn was not noted.