[2] Captain Vasiliav of the Imperial Russian Navy (IRN) reported an Eskimo village here around 1821, naming it "Naugiek".

[6] Naknek first appeared on the 1880 U.S. Census as one of two unincorporated Inuit villages called "Paugwik.

The community appeared on Ivan Petroff's 1880 Census map as "Kinghiak", but did not include a separate population.

[9] There is confusion as to whether the villages listed on the 1890 census, Pakwik (population 93) and Kinuyak (AKA Kinghiak) (population 51) were on either the south or north side of the river, but credited "Kinuyak" here for Naknek, which also included an unnamed native village on Naknek Lake.

25.9% of all households were made up of individuals, and 4.0% had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older.

Naknek is served by the Bristol Bay Borough School District.

[13] Naknek Elementary and Bristol Bay Middle/High School are housed in the same building and serve about 100 students.