It can be speculated that Pinsent's Arm was named after either Mr. Pinsent, Judge of the Labrador coast until 1874, or Andrew Pinson of the English firm of Noble & Pinson. Pinson was the managing partner and spent twenty years in the late 1700s on the Labrador coast. Nearby is Square Islands, the rugged and somewhat barren summer place of the people of Pinsent's Arm.