Brunette River flows from Burnaby Lake, through New Westminster, and into the Fraser. It was named in 1860 by William Holmes, Burnaby's first settler, who noticed the
river's particularly dark brown, or brunette, colour, due to nearby peat lands.1
1. G. P. V. Akrigg and H. B. Akrigg, British Columbia Place Names (Vancouver: UBC Press, 1997), 31.