[1] Settlers were recorded at Cap(e)lin Bay, what is now Calvert, as early as the 1670s.

It is said to have been named for the large number of capelin that were fished by its early settlers.

As several other Newfoundland communities had similar names, and in light of the necessities of the postal service, the Newfoundland Nomenclature Board, in the early 20th century, made efforts to reduce duplication of place names.

It responded favourably to a 1922 petition collected by the parish priest of Ferryland, Father Alfred Maher to change the name of the settlement in honour of Sir George Calvert, First Baron Baltimore, and founder, in the early seventeenth century, of the Colony of Avalon at what is now nearby Ferryland.

[5] Loyola Sullivan, the former provincial Minister of Finance and Member of the House of Assembly for Ferryland District, and former Canadian ambassador for Fisheries Conservation, is from Calvert.