These features were discovered in helicopter flights from the U.S. Navy Bellingshausen Sea Expedition in February 1960, and were named by the Advisory Committee on Antarctic Names. The inlet was named for Lieutenant Commander Joseph R. Morgan, U.S. Navy, a hydrographic and oceanographic officer of U.S. Navy Task Force 43 during this expedition. The cliffs were named for geologist Charles E. King, a member of the Ellsworth Land Survey which worked at the cliffs in the 1968–69 season. The point is named after A.E. Ryan, Chief Photographer's Mate in the Eastern Group of U.S. Navy Operation Highjump, which obtained aerial photographs of Thurston Island and adjacent coastal areas, 1946–47.
