On August 22, 1891, the Edmonton Bulletin reported that, "The Sturgeon river settlers had been requesting a post office since May 3, 1884. They had wanted to call it Wilson Valley at first, then Sturgeon and finally Naoma (Namao)." It opened on April 12, 1892. According to Wilfred McLean, Dan [McKinley, who took up one of the first Sturgeon homesteads in the early 1880s] insisted on the name; "[He] had associated with the Indians for quite a few years and knew quite a few
Cree words.", The name is derived from the Cree word (), meaning "
sturgeon". On May 19, 1892, Postmaster J. Johnstone wrote that Nemao' is the correct spelling of the name of the post office in the Sturgeon river settlement." == Demographics ==