Edward VII Peninsula was discovered on 30 January 1902 by the British National Antarctic Expedition (BrNAE) (1901–1904) under Robert Falcon Scott, who named it King Edward VII Land for King Edward VII of the United Kingdom. The coastline was further explored by the Nimrod Expedition under Ernest Shackleton in 1908–09, and the first landfall was made by a party of the Japanese Antarctic Expedition led by Shirase Nobu in 1912. The region was renamed "Edward VII Peninsula" after the peninsular character of the region was determined by exploration conducted by the Byrd Antarctic Expedition (1933–1935) and the United States Antarctic Service (USAS) Expedition (1939–1941).