The municipality of Kildonan was originally formed from the municipality of Kildonan and St. John’s (incorporated in 1876) after the passing by the Provincial Government of the Municipal Incorporation Act of 1873. The municipality of Kildonan and St. John’s was renamed Kildonan after the Provincial Act of 1880, with jurisdiction over land on both the east and west sides of the Red River. The name “Kildonan” dates from 1817, when the Earl of Selkirk created the Parish of Kildonan while visiting the colony he had established in 1812. The name refers to the Strath of Kildonan on the Sutherland estate in Scotland from whence a number of his settlers had come.