Vancouver was founded in 1886 , and is named after British naval captain George Vancouver . Captain Vancouver explored the area around Vancouver and Vancouver Island in the 1790s . The island and the city are both named after Royal Navy Captain George Vancouver , though the city of Vancouver , Washington , on the north bank of the Columbia River opposite Portland , Oregon , is only indirectly named for Captain Vancouver ; that cityâ s name was adapted from Fort Vancouver , which had been the headquarters of the Columbia District of the Hudson 's Bay Company and the largest settlement in the Pacific Northwest until the Oregon Treaty of 1846 .