Prior to October 22, 2011 it was a parish municipality and its name was Saint-Joseph-de-Ham-Sud.

Colonized in the middle of the 19th century, the township of Ham-Sud, established in 1851, takes its name from a village in the county of Essex in England.

One of its first inhabitants, Joseph Dion, would eventually see his first name honoured through attribution to the mission in 1869.

The parish municipality, installed two years later, would also take this denomination, Saint-Joseph-de-Ham-Sud.

[3] The Mont-Ham Regional Park is located in Ham-Sud.