The Ferguson River originates on the eastern bank of Ferguson Lake within the northern Hearne Domain, Western Churchill province of the Churchill craton, the northwest section of the Canadian Shield in Nunavut's Kivalliq Region. The river was first traversed by Canadian Arctic explorer Joseph Burr Tyrrell's Geological Survey of Canada 1894 canoe expedition that included Robert Monro Ferguson, Scottish sportsman and aide-de-camp to Lord Aberdeen, Governor General of Canada. Ferguson became the namesake of the river and the lake.(Hodgins, 1994, pg. 109)