According to various sources, the native name of the bay was either Tu-che-kup or Noo-sohk-um. On Nov. 8 1824, John Work of the Hudson's Bay Company, while looking for potential sites for a trading post, recorded it as Soquamis Bay - a variation on the name of the Suquamish tribe which made its home on the western shore. The Wilkes Expedition surveyed the bay on May 10, 1841 and named it for James Madison, the 4th president of the United States.