The Backer Islands are a chain of small islands at the south side of Cranton Bay. The islands trend northwest for from the ice shelf which forms the southern limit of the bay. They were mapped by the United States Geological Survey from surveys and from U.S. Navy air photos, 1960–66, and named by the Advisory Committee on Antarctic Names for Walter K. Backer, a U.S. Navy chief construction mechanic at Byrd Station, 1967.