An extra name has been recommended for a Vancouver elementary school near False Creek.

It’s indigenous, and it means “the place from which one can catch the tide”.

If approved by the school board on Wednesday (June 19), Crosstown Elementary School will have an additional name: šxʷwəq̓ʷəθət.

“The proposed name is in the language of hən̓ q̓ əmin̓ əm̓ , the ancestral language of the xʷməθkʷəy̓ əm (Musqueam) and səlil ̕wətaʔɬ (Tsleil-Waututh) people,” Jim Meschino, director of facilities, wrote in a report to the board.

According to Meschino, the name was proposed by Larry Grant, a Musqueam elder and consultant with UBC’s Musqueam Language and Culture Department.

Meschino stated that according to Grant, šxʷwəq̓ʷəθət “references a mode of transportation used by Musqueam people whereby they caught the tide as a shortcut from False Creek to Burrard Inlet”.

Meschino’s report indicated that Grant’s proposal had input from Jill Campbell, who is Grant’s colleague at the Musqueam Language and Culture Department.

Meschino and Chas Desjarlais, district vice principal for Indigenous education, will present the report to the board.

The school got its name from Crosstown, a high-density neighbourhood in downtown.

A staff report to the board in 2016 noted that Crosstown is a “connector to Yaletown, Downtown, Gastown and Chinatown”.

But the just having the name Crosstown didn’t seem to make the cut from the start.

Meschino’s report recalled that the Vancouver Elementary School Teachers’ Association wanted a name that “reflects Aboriginal cultural history”.

The District Parent Advisory Council suggested honouring “historical and cultural/ethnic heritage - including the First Nations community and outstanding individuals”.

While Crosstown was adopted for the school in 2016, the district planned to later consider an additional Indigenous name.

Meantime, education trustee Allan Wong filed a motion to change the name to Alexander Won Cumyow elementary school after a Chinese-Canadian activist.

Wong’s motion was defeated at a board meeting on January 29, 2018.

A naming committee, which included then school trustee and now City of Vancouver councillor Lisa Dominato, convened in the middle of that year to consider names.

According to Meschino, the committee shortlisted three names: Near the Sea, Near the Water, and By the Shore.

The pronunciation of šxʷwəq̓ʷəθət will be demonstrated at the school board’s meeting on June 19.