How did Kamloops BC get its name?

Answer 1

After completeing draft plans of the town site the all important matter of a name had to be considered. The site planners really liked the story of how a white settler who had arrived thirty years earlier greeted a group of native people looking like a brown bear in where the group shouted "brown bear". The site planners wanted to use the native term for brown bear but the term seemed a little to difficult for the average white person to pronounce so they opted for grizzly bear instead since it is also considered a brown bear. So the native term for grizzly bear is 'kelowna'. So there you have it.
kelowna got its name from the aboriginal word meaning bear

Answer 2

It is a derivation of the Native Indian word Tk'emlups, which means "meeting place" because the North Thompson and the South Thompson rivers meet in the dead centre of Kamloops.