The Wasatch Formation was first named as the Wasatch Group by Ferdinand Vandeveer Hayden in the 1873 edition of his original 1869 publication titled Preliminary field report of the United States Geological Survey of Colorado and New Mexico: U.S. Geological and Geographical Survey of the Territories, based on sections in the Echo and Weber Canyons, of the Wasatch Mountains. In the language of the native Ute people, Wasatch means mountain pass or low pass over high range. According to William Bright, the mountains were named for a Shoshoni leader who was named with the Shoshoni term wasattsi, meaning blue heron.