[3] The name is derived from the Breton prefix pen (meaning head, chief, end or point) and the -ic suffix after the Ic river that runs through the village into the English Channel.

The town has several nicknames, including City of Spray and, more recently, The Beauty Spot of the Cotes d'Armor.

The port received 150 to 160 ships annually with activity divided between fishing in Newfoundland (island) and coastal trading vessels importing salt, wine, northern timber, flour and vegetables.

Confronted with the threat of German submarines during World War I, the rising costs of weapons and increasingly stringent fishing regulations and competition from steam trawlers and schooners, ports of the region began to collapse.

Between 1906 and 1956, Binic was served by the railway department of Côtes-du-Nord (renamed Côtes-d'Armor in 1990), with a station on the esplanade of the Banche, built by engineer Briochain Louis Auguste Harel of Noah.