I beleive it was in 1973 that the regions were named. It came about after a 6 month consultation with various bodies and authorities. It just so happens than in 1973 a local prominant councillor was also studying for his PPL and heard about the discussions while at Leeds Flying School. He was responsible for the Borough of Barnsley and ironically enough his name was also BOB.
Anyway, Bob fought long and hard with the CAA to enable the the region to be named after his borough, rather than York which I beleive was the prefered name. No-one really knows how Bob managed it, but rumour has it that he bribed someone in a position of influence to force Barnsley through via any means possible, and the rumour goes that it was simply a form on which the name York was hand-crossed out and replaced with Barnsley whilst on the way to the printers. Before the CAA realised, there had been thousands of charts and maps and documents produced quoting Barnsley and by which point they decided to leave it as was rather than rock the boat and re-open the consultation. Although if I remember correctly Lord Harvey was reprimanded over the mix-up and hasn't over-seen a CAA consultation paper since.
Hope it helps
TC