This township in Parry Sound District was named in 1874 for William Lount (1840-1903), Liberal member for Simcoe North in the Legislative Assembly of Ontario, 1867–71, and for Toronto Centre in the House of Commons, 1896–7. He was subsequently appointed a judge in the High Court of Ontario. William Lount was a nephew of Samuel Lount, who led a party of reformers in the Rebellion of 1837 and was put to death the following year.