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Оглавление1500 California Place Names
ABALONE (ab uh LOH nee) POINT [Humboldt Co.]. The abalone, an edible shellfish, has given its name to several places in California. The term comes from Rumsen (Costanoan), in which awlun means “red abalone.”
ACALANES (ah kuh LAH neez) [Contra Costa Co.]. Refers to a Indian tribe of the Miwokan family, living south of San Pablo and Suisun Bays, whom the Spanish called Sacalanes. The term Los Sacalanes was reinterpreted as Los Acalanes in the 1830s. The tribe is now usually referred to as Saklan.
ACHUMAWI (ah choo MAH wee). An American Indian group of Shasta, Lassen, and Modoc Counties; also called the Pit River tribe. Their language is related to the neighboring Atsugewi. The alternative spelling Ahjumawi occurs in the name of Ahjumawi Lava Springs State Park [Shasta Co.].
ACRODECTES (ak roh DEK teez) PEAK [Kings Canyon N.P.]. Although the word resembles an Ancient Greek name, it does not exist in the ancient language; it is a zoological name, coined from Greek akros, “peak,” and dektēs, “biter,” to refer to Acrodectes philopagus, a rare species of cricket found only in the high Sierra.
ADELANTO (ad uh LAN toh) [San Bernardino Co.]. A name given in recent times; the Spanish word means “progress” or “advance.”
ADOBE (uh DOH bee) CREEK [Mendocino Co.]. The Spanish term adobe, found in many place names, refers to a claylike soil suitable for making bricks, to such bricks themselves, or to a building constructed from adobe bricks.
AGASSIZ (AG uh see), MOUNT [Kings Canyon N.P.]. Named for Louis Agassiz, a Swiss-American scientist of the nineteenth century.
AGNEW [Santa Clara Co.]. Named for Abram Agnew and his family, who settled in the Santa Clara Valley in 1873. The name was later applied to a state mental hospital at the site.
AGOURA (uh GOO ruh) [Los Angeles Co.]. Named for Pierre Agoure, a Basque who had a ranch here in the 1890s.
AGUA (AH gwuh). From the Spanish for “water”; the word occurs in many combinations to form place names, such as Agua Caliente (kal ee EN tee) [Sonoma Co.], “hot water” (i.e., hot springs); Agua Fria (FREE uh) [Mariposa Co.], “cold water”; Agua Dulce (DOOL see) [Los Angeles Co.], “sweet water”; and Agua Hedionda (hed ee AHN duh) [San Diego Co.], “stinking water” (probably referring to sulfur springs).
AGUANGA (uh WAHNG guh) [Riverside Co.]. From a Luiseño village name, awáanga, “dog place,” from awáal, “dog.”
AGUEREBERRY (AG er bair ee) POINT [Death Valley N.P.]. Named, using an alternative spelling, for “French Pete” Aguerreberry, a Basque miner who worked here around 1906.
AHA KWIN (uh hah KWIN) PARK [Riverside Co.]. From Mojave ’ahá, “water,” and aakwín-, “to bend.”
AHJUMAWI (ah joo MAH wee) LAVA SPRINGS STATE PARK [Shasta Co.]. Named for the Indian group (also spelled Achumawi), locally called the Pit River tribe, who are native to the area. Their name in their language, ajumaawi, “river people,” from ajuma, “river,” originally referred to the Fall River band of this tribe.
AHWAHNEE (uh WAH nee) [Yosemite N.P]. From Southern Sierra Miwok awooni, “Yosemite Valley,” from awwo, “mouth.”
AHWIYAH (uh WIE yuh) POINT [Yosemite N.P.]. From Southern Sierra Miwok awaaya, “lake” or “deep.” Mirror Lake was earlier called Ahwiyah Lake.
ALABAMA HILLS [Inyo Co.]. The term was applied by Southern sympathizers in 1863, after the Confederate raider Alabama sank the Union warship Hatteras off the coast of Texas.
ALAMAR (al uh MAHR) CANYON [Santa Barbara Co.]. From the Spanish for “place of poplar (or cottonwood) trees,” from álamo, “poplar (or cottonwood).”
ALAMBIQUE (al uhm BEEK) CREEK [San Mateo Co.]. From the Spanish for “still,” a place where liquor is distilled. Moonshiners, it seems, once worked in the area.
ALAMEDA (al uh MEE duh). Spanish for “grove of poplar (or cottonwood) trees,” from álamo, “poplar (or cottonwood),” or for a grove of shade trees in general. The term dates from 1794; it was applied to the city and to Alameda County in 1853.
ALAMILLA (ah luh MEE yuh) SPRING [Amador Co.]. Not from álamo. Rather, it was named by José María Amador in 1826, when he built his adobe house about a mile—a la milla, “at the mile”—west of the spring.
ALAMITOS (al uh MEE tuhs) BAY [Los Angeles Co.]. From the Spanish for “little poplars (or cottonwoods),” the diminutive of álamo.
ALAMO (AL uh moh) [Contra Costa Co.]. The town takes its name from Spanish álamo, “poplar (or cottonwood).” The Alamo River [Imperial Co.] is one of the many places in the desert regions named for the Fremont cottonwood (Populus fremontii), which promised water to the thirsty wanderer. Alamorio (al uh muh REE oh) [Imperial Co.] is on the Alamo River; the name is coined from álamo plus Spanish río, “river.” The plural form, álamos, occurs in the name of Los Alamos [Santa Barbara Co.].
ALBANY [Alameda Co.]. Named after the New York State birthplace of Frank J. Roberts, the town’s first mayor.
ALBERHILL (al ber HIL) [Riverside Co.]. Coined from the surnames of C. H. Albers and James and George Hill, owners of the land on which the town was built about 1890.
ALBION (AL bee uhn) [Mendocino Co.]. In 1579, Sir Francis Drake landed on the northern California coast and called it New Albion. This ancient name for Britain, from Latin albus, “white,” originally referred to the white cliffs of Dover. The term was applied to the Mendocino location in 1844.
ALCATRAZ (AL kuh traz) [San Francisco Co.]. From the Spanish for “pelican.” The island has been famous first as a federal prison, then as a site of American Indian activism, and now as a museum.
ALESSANDRO (al uh ZAN droh) [Riverside Co.]. Named in 1887 after the Indian hero in Helen Hunt Jackson’s romantic novel Ramona. Jackson perhaps confused Alessandro, the Italian equivalent of Alexander, with the Spanish Alejandro.
ALGODONES (al guh DOH nuhs) [Imperial Co.]. Derived from the name of a Yuman tribe that once lived on both sides of the Colorado River; they were called halchidóom by the neighboring Mojave tribe. (The term is not from Spanish algodón, “cotton.”)
ALHAMBRA (al HAM bruh) [Los Angeles Co.]. Laid out in 1874 and named for the Moorish palace in Granada, Spain, made popular by Washington living’s book The Alhambra. But Alhambra Valley [Contra Costa Co.] is a “prettying up” of Spanish Cañada del Hambre, “valley of hunger.”
ALISAL (AL uh sal) [Monterey Co.]. From the Spanish for “alder grove,” from aliso, “alder” (also sometimes applied to the sycamore). El Alisal, the Los Angeles home of the writer Charles Lummis, is now a museum.
ALISO (uh LEE soh) CREEK [Orange Co.]. From the Spanish for “alder (or sycamore).”
ALLEGHANY (AL uh gay nee) [Sierra Co.]. Named after the Alleghany Mine of the 1850s. The name goes back to the Delaware (Algonquian) name for the Allegheny River of Pennsylvania, perhaps meaning “beautiful stream.”
ALMADEN (al muh DEN) [Santa Clara Co.]. The site of a cinnabar mine, from which mercury was produced; it was named in 1846 after Almadén in Spain, the world’s largest such mine. California Indians used the cinnabar ore for body paint.
ALMANOR (AL muh nawr) LAKE [Plumas Co.]. Named after Alice, Martha, and Elinore, the daughters of Guy C. Earl, president of the power company that created this reservoir in 1917.
ALPINE [San Diego Co.]. The name was suggested in the 1880s by an early resident who said the district resembled her native Switzerland. Alpine County, also named for its mountainous terrain, was created in 1864 from parts of five adjacent counties; it had previously been considered part of Nevada. It now has the smallest population of any California county.
ALTA. The Spanish adjective meaning “high” or “upper” has always been a favorite in California place-naming, as in Alta California, “upper California,” the term that the Spanish used in distinction to Baja California. But many names were applied in American times, such as Altaville [Calaveras Co.]; Altamont [Alameda Co.], scene of a notorious Rolling Stones concert in 1969; and Alta Loma [San Bernardino Co.], meaning “high hill.” Altadena (al tuh DEE nuh) [Los Angeles Co.] was coined in 1886 from alta plus the last part of Pasadena, because of the town’s situation above Pasadena.
AL TAHOE [El Dorado Co.]. From the Al Tahoe Hotel, built in 1907 by Almerin R. Sprague and named for himself—Al(merin’s) Tahoe hotel.
ALTURAS (al TOOR uhs) [Modoc Co.]. Formerly called Dorrisville, the town was renamed in 1876 from the Spanish word meaning “heights,” from alto, “high.”
ALVARADO (al vuh RAH doh) [Alameda Co.]. Named in 1853 in honor of Juan Bautista Alvarado, governor of California from 1836 to 1842. A major street in Los Angeles also bears his name.
ALVISO (al VEE soh) [Santa Clara Co.]. Named in 1849 for Ignacio Alviso, who had come to the area from Mexico with the Anza expedition in 1776.
AMADOR (AM uh dohr) COUNTY. Named in 1854 for José María Amador, who came to California as a soldier in the Spanish garrison of San Francisco and became a big landowner. Amador City was founded in 1863 and named after the county.
AMARGOSA (am er GOH suh) RIVER [Death Valley N.P.]. From Spanish amargoso, “bitter” (an alternate form of amargo); the name was recorded by Frémont in 1844 and probably refers to alkaline water.
AMAYA (uh MAH yuh) CREEK [Santa Cruz Co.]. On land owned around 1860 by two Californio brothers, Casimero and Darío Amaya.
AMBOY [San Bernardino Co.]. Named as one of a series of railroad stations in alphabetical order: Amboy, Bristol, Cadiz, Danby, Edson, Fenner, and Goffs. All these names were probably taken from locations “back east.”
AMERICAN RIVER [Placer, El Dorado, Sacramento Cos.]. The name was given by Sutter in the 1840s, because a ford in the river was called El Paso de los Americanos, “the crossing of the Americans,” by Spanish-speaking Indians, referring to Canadian trappers.
ANACAPA (an uh KAP uh) ISLANDS [Ventura Co.]. The term is from Chumash anyapax, “mirage, illusion,” recorded in 1792 by George Vancouver as both Eneeapah and Enecapa.
ANAHEIM (AN uh hime) [Orange Co.]. Named by German settlers after the Santa Ana River plus German Heim, “home.”
ANAHUAC (AH nuh wahk) SPRING [San Diego Co.]. From the Diegueño place name Iñaja, but confused with Anahuac (ah NAH wahk), a name that the Aztecs gave to their Mexican homeland.
ANGELES (AN juh luhs) NATIONAL FOREST [Los Angeles, San Bernardino Cos.]. So named in 1908, because the larger part of the forest is within Los Angeles County.
ANGEL ISLAND [San Francisco Bay]. A translation of Spanish Isla de los Ángeles, the name given in 1775.
ANGELS CAMP [Calaveras Co.]. Named during the Gold Rush for a miner named George or Henry Angel.
AÑO NUEVO (AN oh noo AY voh, AN yoh NWAY voh) POINT [San Mateo Co.]. From the Spanish for “new year,” so named by Vizcaíno on January 3,1603, because it was the first promontory sighted in the new year.
ANTELOPE VALLEY [Los Angeles Co.]. Named not for a true antelope, but for the pronghorn, which was once abundant in the state.
ANTIOCH (AN tee ahk) [Contra Costa Co.]. From a city in Syria, mentioned in the Bible; the name was selected by residents at a Fourth of July picnic in 1851.
ANZA-BORREGO DESERT STATE PARK [San Diego Co.]. Formerly called Anza Desert State Park, it was named for the explorer Juan Bautista de Anza, who crossed the area in 1774. It incorporates the Borrego Desert (from a Spanish word for “sheep”).
APTOS (AP tohs, AHP tohs) [Santa Cruz Co.]. A Spanish rendering, dating from 1791, of a Costanoan Indian village name, aptos, of unknown meaning.
ARBUCKLE [Colusa Co.]. Named in 1875 for the rancher T. R. Arbuckle, who had settled here in 1866.
ARCADIA [Los Angeles Co.]. Named around 1888 for a district in ancient Greece that was considered an ideal of rural simplicity.
ARCATA (ahr KAY tuh) [Humboldt Co.]. The town is in the territory of the Wiyot Indians, but its name is from the language of a neighboring tribe: Yurok oket’oh, “where there is a lagoon”—referring to Humboldt Bay.
ARENA (uh REE nuh), POINT [Mendocino Co.]. From Spanish arena, “sand”; named Barro de Arena, “sand bar,” by the British navigator George Vancouver in 1792.
ARGUELLO (ahr GWEL oh), POINT [Santa Barbara Co.]. Named in 1792 by George Vancouver after José Darío Argüello, then the Spanish commander at Monterey.
ARGUS RANGE [Inyo Co.]. The mining district was named for a giant in Greek mythology who had a hundred eyes.
AROMAS (uh ROH muhs) [Monterey Co.]. Spanish for “odors, aromas,” probably referring to hot sulfur springs.
ARRASTRE (uh RAS truh) CREEK [San Bernardino Co.]. In Mexican Spanish, the term refers to an apparatus used for crushing ore in gold-mining days. It occurs as a place name in several areas, sometimes spelled Arrastra or Arastra.
ARROWHEAD SPRINGS and LAKE [San Bernardino Co.]. Named in 1860 because of an arrowhead-shaped configuration in the earth near the springs.
ARROYO (uh ROY oh). The Spanish word for “creek, watercourse” forms part of many place names. Familiar combinations include Arroyo Seco (SAY koh) [Los Angeles Co.], “dry creek”; and Arroyo Grande (GRAN dee) [San Luis Obispo Co.], “big creek.”
ARROZ (uh ROHZ) [Yolo Co.]. Spanish for “rice,” a major crop of the area. A town in Glenn County is called Riz, the French equivalent.
ARTESIA (ahr TEE zhuh) [Los Angeles Co.]. Named for artesian wells dug here in the 1870s. Artesia is the Latin name for the town of Artois in France, where artesian wells occur.
ARTOIS (AHR toys) [Glenn Co.]. Previously called Germantown, it was renamed Artois during World War I, after the French city, which was the scene of fighting.
ASILOMAR (uh SIL oh mahr, uh SEE loh mahr) [Monterey Co.]. The artificial name, coined from Spanish asilo, “asylum, refuge,” plus mar “sea,” was given by the YWCA to the site in 1913.
ASTI (AS tee) [Sonoma Co.], Named in 1881 after the city in Italy, a wine-producing center.
ASUNCION (uh SUHN see uhn) [San Luis Obispo Co.]. The Spanish word Asunción refers to the Assumption of the Virgin Mary—her bodily transportation to heaven. The name was given in 1776. It has sometimes been confused with the Ascension (Ascensión in Spanish), which refers not to Mary but to Christ.
ATASCADERO (uh tas kuh DAIR oh) [San Luis Obispo Co.]. Spanish for “a place where one gets stuck in the mud,” from atascar, “to mire down”; the name has been used since the 1870s.
ATHERTON [San Mateo Co.]. Named in the 1860s for Faxon D. Atherton, on whose land the town was built. He was the father-in-law of the California novelist Gertrude Atherton.
ATSUGEWI (aht soo GAY wee). The name of an Indian group, also called the Hat Creek tribe, in Shasta and Lassen Counties; their language is related to Achumawi.
AUBURN [Placer Co.]. Named in 1849 by miners from Auburn, New York—which in turn was named for Auburn in England, the “loveliest village of the plain,” made famous by Oliver Goldsmith’s poem “The Deserted Village.”
AVALON (AV uh lahn) [Los Angeles Co.], This town on Santa Catalina Island was named in 1887 for an island in the King Arthur legend, represented as an earthly paradise of the western seas.
AVAWATZ (AV uh wahts) MOUNTAINS [San Bernardino Co.]. From Southern Paiute ávawats, “gypsum.”
AVENAL (AV uh nuhl) [Kings Co.]. From the Spanish for “oat field,” because of wild oats growing in the area; from avena, “oats.” The name of Avenal Creek is recorded from 1891, and the town was named in 1929.
AVI COROTATH (uh VEE kohr uh TAHTH) [San Bernardino Co.]. From Mojave ’avíi, “rock, mountain,” and kwalatáth-, “to be big and round.” It is also called Monument Peak.
AVILA (uh VIL uh, AV uh luh) [San Luis Obispo Co.]. Named for Miguel Ávila, a Spanish soldier who took up land here in 1839.
AVISADERO (uh vee zuh DAIR oh), POINT [San Francisco Co.]. The name for the tip of Hunters Point is from the Spanish for “place of advising or warning,” from avisar, “to warn.”
AZUSA (uh ZOO suh) [Los Angeles Co.]. Represents the name of a Gabrielino Indian village, ashúkshanga, of unknown meaning. Local folklore claims that the town was named because a general store (of later years) sold everything “from A to Z in the U.S.A.”
BADEN-POWELL (BAY duhn POH uhl), MOUNT [Los Angeles Co.], Named for Sir Robert S. S. Baden-Powell, founder of the Boy Scouts.
BAKER [San Bernardino Co.], Named in 1908 for R. C. Baker, president of the Tonopah and Tidewater Railroad.
BAKERSFIELD [Kern Co.]. Named in 1868 for a parcel of land, “Baker’s field,” belonging to Colonel Thomas Baker, a civil and hydraulic engineer.
BALBOA (bal BOH uh) [Orange Co.]. Named in 1905 for Vasco Núñez de Balboa, the first European to come upon the Pacific Ocean.
BALDWIN PARK [Los Angeles Co.]. Once the property of E. J. “Lucky” Baldwin, a financier who got his nickname after he bought silver-mine stock at two dollars a share, then sold it in 1872 for eighteen hundred dollars a share. In his latter years he was embroiled in sensational lawsuits, both marital and extramarital. Baldwin Lake [San Bernardino Co.] was also named for him.
BALDY. The term is often applied to bare peaks, such as Old Baldy [San Bernardino Co.], also called San Antonio Peak; the nearby community of Mount Baldy shares the name.
BALLENA (buh LEE nuh, buh YAY nuh) VALLEY [San Diego Co.], Applied in 1821, the name contains the Spanish word for “whale,” referring to the shape of a nearby hill.
BALLONA (buh LOH nuh) CREEK [Los Angeles Co.], From the Ballona land grant of 1839; probably a misspelling of Bayona, the name of a town in Spain.
BALLY; BOLLY; BULLY. All three forms are derived from Wintu buli, “mountain,” and form part of the names of several mountains in northern California. The English pronunciations BAL ee, BAH lee, and BUL ee all occur. In Wintu, Bully Choop means “mountain peak”; Winnibulli is “middle mountain,” and Yolla Bolly is “snow mountain.”
BANNING [Riverside Co.]. Named in 1885 for Phineas Banning, a pioneer developer in southern California; he operated the first stagecoach line between Los Angeles and San Pedro.
BARONA (buh ROH nuh) INDIAN RESERVATION [San Diego Co.]. Named in 1846 for Father Barona, a priest at San Diego Mission.
BARRANCA (buh RANG kuh). This Spanish word for “ravine, gulch” has entered English in California names such as Barranca Colorada (kahl uh RAD uh) [Tehama Co.], meaning “red ravine.”
BARSTOW [San Bernardino Co.], Originally called Fishpond, in 1886 it was renamed by the Santa Fe Railroad for its president, William Barstow Strong.
BATEQUITOS (bah tuh KEE tohs) LAGOON [San Diego Co.]. The Spanish name, meaning “little water holes,” was applied by Padre Pedro Font in 1776. It is the plural diminutive form of batequi, a word used in northwestern Mexico to mean “a hole dug in a dry streambed in order to find water.” The origin is Yaqui bate’ekim.
BEALVILLE [Kern Co.]. Named for General Edward F. Beale, who served in the 1860s as U.S. surveyor general of California; however, Abraham Lincoln complained that Beale made himself “monarch of all he surveyed.”
BEAR. The name of this animal occurs in hundreds of California place names, referring either to the grizzly, now extinct in California, or to the black bear (which is sometimes cinnamon colored). Bear River [Humboldt Co.] was so named because Lewis K. Wood of the Gregg party was badly mauled by a wounded grizzly here in 1850. Bear Lake [San Bernardino Co.] was named as early as 1845, but it is now called Baldwin Lake; the present Big Bear Lake is an artificial one created in 1884.
BEAUMONT (BOH mahnt) [Riverside Co.], French for “beautiful mountain”; the name was given in 1887.
BECKWOURTH (BEK werth) PASS [Lassen, Plumas Cos.]. For James Beckwourth (also spelled Beckwith), an African American mountain man, adopted member of the Crow Indian tribe, and trailblazer of the 1840s and 1850s; he came to California in 1844.
BEEGUM PEAK [Tehama Co.]. From a southern U.S. word for “beehive”; bees actually live here, in holes in the rock.
BEL-AIR [Los Angeles Co.]. Named for its developer, Alphonso Bell, in 1923, on the model of French bel air, “fresh air.”
BELL [Los Angeles Co.], Named in 1898 by James George Bell and his son Alphonso, founders of the town. The place also gave its name to the nearby community of Bell Gardens.
BELLFLOWER [Los Angeles Co.]. Named in 1909 after an orchard of bellflower apples (from French belle fleur, “beautiful flower”).
BELMONT [San Mateo Co.]. The name, based on Italian bel monte or French beau mont, “beautiful mountain,” was applied in the 1850s.
BELVEDERE (BEL vuh deer) [Marin Co.]. Italian for “beautiful view”; applied in 1890.
BENICIA (buh NEE shuh) [Solano Co.]. This was one of the given names of the wife of General Mariano Vallejo, applied in 1847.
BEN LOMOND (ben LOH muhnd) MOUNTAIN [Santa Cruz Co.]. Named for the mountain that overlooks Loch Lomond in Scotland; the name is redundant, since ben represents the Scottish word for “mountain.”
BERKELEY [Alameda Co.], Named in 1866, by the trustees of the new university, for the Irish philosopher George Berkeley, who wrote the line “Westward the course of empire takes its way.”
BERROS (BAIR ohs) [San Luis Obispo Co.]. Spanish for “watercress”; nearby Los Berros Creek has been so named since 1850.
BERRYESSA (bair ee YES uh) LAKE [Napa Co.]. For José Jesús and Sisto Berryessa, who took up land here in 1843. Berryessa Creek [Santa Clara Co.] is named for another family with the same surname.
BETTERAVIA (bet uh RAY vee uh) [Santa Barbara Co.], From French betterave, “sugar beet,” referring to the sugar-beet industry here.
BEVERLY HILLS [Los Angeles Co.]. Named in 1907 after Beverly Farms in Massachusetts, a vacation spot of then president William H. Taft.
BIDWELL STATE PARK [Butte Co.]. The park, as well as several other features in various counties, was named for John Bidwell, who in 1841 organized the first overland party of emigrants to California; the settlers trekked for twenty-four weeks and were forced to eat their mules.
BIEBER (BEE ber) [Lassen Co.]. Named in 1879 for Nathan Bieber, who ran a store here; a neighboring settlement was later called Nubieber.
BIG BEAR LAKE [San Bernardino Co.]. This artificial lake, created in 1884, borrowed the name of nearby Bear Lake, now called Baldwin Lake. Big Bear Lake is the name not only of the lake, but of an incorporated city; by contrast, Big Bear City is an unincorporated community.
BIG SUR RIVER [Monterey Co.]. From Spanish Río Grande del Sur, “big river of the south” (i.e., south of Monterey); there is also a Little Sur River.
BISHOP [Inyo Co.]. Named for the cattleman Samuel A. Bishop, who lived here in the 1860s.
BLACKHAWK [Contra Costa Co.]. Named after an American Indian chief who led native tribes of the Midwest against the whites in the early nineteenth century.
BLACK LASSIC PEAK [Trinity Co.], A black promontory named after nearby Mount Lassic, which was named in turn for Lassik, leader of an Athabaskan Indian tribe.
BLANCO (BLANG koh). The Spanish for “white” (fem. blanca); it occurs in many place names, such as Blanco Mountain [Mono Co.]; Pico (PEE koh) Blanco [Monterey Co.], meaning “white peak”; and Piedra (pee AY druh) Blanca [Ventura Co.], “white rock.”
BLUFF. The name is used in California as a generic term for a cliff or bank, as in Red Bluff [Tehama Co.], The stream called Bluff Creek [Humboldt, Del Norte Cos.] was so named in 1851.
BLYTHE [River side Co.], For Thomas H. Blythe, who in 1875 laid the plans for irrigation of the area.
BODEGA (boh DAYguh) [Sonoma Co.]. The bay was first sighted by Europeans in 1775, when the Spanish sea captain Juan Francisco de la Bodega y Quadra arrived here in his ship Sonora; the bay was later named for him.
BODIE (BOH dee) [Mono Co.]. The town was named for Waterman S. Body, who discovered ore deposits here in 1859; it is now a ghost town and historic landmark.
BOHEMOTASH (boh HEE muh tash) MOUNTAIN [Shasta Co.]. From Wintu bohema thoos, “big camp.”
BOLINAS (boh LEE nuhs) [Marin Co.]. First recorded in 1834 as Baulenes, the name of a Coast Miwok Indian band who lived in the area. However, Bolinas Creek [Alameda Co.] is named for Antonio Bolena, of Portugal, who owned land here in the 1870s.
BOLLIBOKKA (bah lee BAH kuh) MOUNTAIN [Shasta Co.]. From Wintu buli, “mountain,” and phaqa, “manzanita.”
BOLLY. See Bally
BOLSA (BOHL suh). The Spanish word for “pocket” is used in a geographical sense—for example, for a place semienclosed by water. It occurs in many combinations, such as Bolsa Chica (CHEE kuh) [Orange Co.], meaning “small pocket”; and Bolsa Knolls [Monterey Co.].
BONITA (boh NEE tuh) [San Diego Co.]. In 1884 Henry E. Cooper named his estate Bonita Ranch, and the name was later applied to the post office. Spanish bonita, “pretty” (feminine), is a diminutive of buena, “good.”
BONITA, POINT [Marin Co.]. The original Spanish was Punta Bonete, “bonnet point,” because of its shape; but after 1855 this was misinterpreted as containing Spanish bonita, “pretty.”
BONITA LAKE [Inyo Co.]. A name given by the California Department of Fish and Game, inspired by the scientific name for the golden trout, Salmo aguabonita, in which the species name is Spanish for “pretty water.”
BONNY DOON (bah nee DOON) [Santa Cruz Co.]. The name apparently comes from a song by Robert Burns, referring to the Doon River in Scotland.
BOONVILLE [Mendocino Co.]. Named in the 1860s for the storekeeper W. W. Boone. The place has become famous for Boontling, a “secret language” invented by the inhabitants. An example of Boonding is Kimmies japin’ broadies to the airtight, “Men are driving cows to the sawmill.”
BORREGO. This Spanish word for “sheep” (fem. borrega) occurs in many place names; in mountain and desert areas, it may refer to the bighorn sheep. Borrego (buh RAY goh) Desert [San Diego Co.] was so named as early as 1883; the area is now part of Anza-Borrego Desert State Park. An alternative spelling occurs in Borego Mountain [San Diego Co.].
BOUQUET (boh KAY, boh KET) CANYON [Los Angeles Co.]. A misinterpretation of Spanish El Buque, “the ship,” the nickname of a French sailor who settled there.
BRANCIFORTE (bran suh FOR tee) CREEK [Santa Cruz Co.]. The Pueblo de Branciforte was established in 1797, at the site of the present town of Santa Cruz, and named in honor of the viceroy of New Spain, Miguel de la Grúa Talamanco, Marquis of Branciforte. The name is now often pronounced bran chuh FOR tee, as if it were of Italian origin.
BRAWLEY [Imperial Co.]. Originally named Braly in 1902, for the landowner J. H. Braly. However Braly, fearing that the project would fail, asked that his name not be used; so the present spelling was substituted.
BREA (BRAY uh) [Orange Co.]. This Spanish word for “tar, asphaltum,” which oozes naturally from the ground at many places in southern California, also occurs in several other place names, such as the redundantly named La Brea Tar Pits [Los Angeles Co.].
BRENTWOOD [Contra Costa Co.]. Named in 1878 after Brentwood in Essex, England, the ancestral home of the landowner John Marsh. The name is also applied to the Brentwood district in Los Angeles.
BREYFOGLE (BRAY foh guhl) CANYON and BUTTES [Death Valley N.P.]. For Charles C. Breyfogle, a famous prospector of the area. The term breyfogling came to be used to refer to searching for lost mines.
BRIDALVEIL FALL and CREEK [Yosemite N.P.]. Apparently named by a journalist in 1856.
BRIDGEPORT [Mono Co.]. Settled around 1860, and probably named for a Bridgeport in the eastern United States.
BRISBANE [San Mateo Co.]. Named in 1908 for the journalist Arthur Brisbane.
BUCHON (buh SHAHN) POINT [San Luis Obispo Co.], From Spanish buchón, “goiter”; so named in 1769 when the Portolá expedition encountered an Indian village whose chief had a goiter.
BUELLTON [Santa Barbara Co.]. Named in 1916 for Rufus T. Buell, an early settler.
BUENA (BWAY nuh) PARK [Orange Co.]. Founded in 1887 and given its hybrid name (Spanish buena, “good”).
BUENAVENTURA. Represents Spanish buena ventura, “good fortune”—and, as a single word, Bonaventura, the name of an Italian saint called Bonaventure in English. During the early twentieth century, many Anglo explorers applied this name to a mythical river thought to flow through central California. The saint’s name in Spanish, San Buenaventura, was the original name of the city of Ventura.
BUENA VISTA [Monterey Co.]. The Spanish phrase meaning “good view” has been applied here and in many other places, such as Buena Vista Lake [Kern Co.].
BULLY. See Bally
BULLY CHOOP (bul ee CHOOP) MOUNTAIN [Shasta, Trinity Cos.]. Represents Wintu buli č’ uup, “mountain peak.”
BUMPASS (BUM puhs) HELL [Lassen N.P.]. This site of boiling mud pots and steam vents was named for Kendall V. Bumpass, a hunter, guide, and prospector of the 1860s.
BURBANK [Los Angeles Co.]. Named in 1887 for Dr. David Burbank, a Los Angeles dentist who was one of the subdividers.
BURIBURI (ber ee BER ee, byoo ree BYOO ree) RIDGE [San Mateo Co.]. The term is from a Costanoan Indian name, perhaps related to purris, “needle.”
BURLINGAME [San Mateo Co.]. Named in 1868 for Anson Burlingame (1822–70), orator and diplomat.
BURNT RANCH [Trinity Co.]. So named because in 1849 Canadian miners burned down an Indian village here.
BUTANO (BYOO tuh noh, BOO tuh noh) CREEK [San Mateo Co.]. It is claimed that butano is what Spanish Californians called a drinking cup made from an animal horn.
BUTTE (BYOOT). A term borrowed from French and used in the western United States for a small isolated elevation. Butte County was named for the Sutter Buttes or Marysville Buttes, which are in what is now Sutter County.
BUTTONWILLOW [Kern Co.]. A California name for the buttonbush, which somewhat resembles a willow; a tree here was used by cowboys as a landmark.
CABAZON (KAB uh zahn) [Riverside Co.]. From Spanish cabezón, “big head,” the name given to a local Cahuilla Indian leader.
CABRILLO (kuh BREE yoh, kuh BRIL oh) NATIONAL MONUMENT [San Diego Co.]. Commemorates Juan Rodriguez Cabrillo, the Portuguese navigator (in Spanish service) who in 1542 first sailed up the coast of what is now the state of California. He died and was buried in the Channel Islands.
CACHE (KASH) CREEK [Yolo Co.]. The name refers to a “cache” in the sense of a hiding place, from French cacher, “to hide.” The name was given by Hudson’s Bay Company trappers before 1832.
CACHUMA (kuh CHOO muh) LAKE [Santa Barbara Co.]. From an Indian village name that the Spanish spelled Aquitsumu, from Barbareño Chumash aqitsu’m, “sign.”
CAHTO (KAH toh) CREEK [Humboldt Co.]. Named for a tribe and language, also spelled Kato, of the Athabaskan family. The term is from Northern Pomo khao, “lake.”
CAHUENGA (kuh HUNG guh, kuh WENG guh) PASS [Los Angeles Co.]. From the Gabrielino village name kawé’nga, probably meaning “at the mountain.”
CAHUILLA (kuh WEE yuh). The name of an Indian tribe living in Riverside County and of their language, which belongs to the Takic branch of the Uto-Aztecan family. The name also occurs in place names such as Cahuilla Valley and Cahuilla Mountain. Cahuilla is borrowed from a local Spanish term, cahuilla, “unbaptized Indian,” used in Mission days, which is in turn apparently derived from an extinct language of Baja California. The term has sometimes been spelled Coahuilla, by confusion with the state of Coahuila in Mexico. The California place name Coachella [Riverside Co.] may be a variant of this same word.
CAJON (kuh HOHN) PASS [San Bernardino Co.]. From Spanish cajón, “box,” used to describe a box-shaped canyon. The name of El Cajon [San Diego Co.] also contains this term.
CAL -. As an abbreviation of California, the prefix occurs in a number of names, especially near state boundaries. Thus Calneva (kal NEE vuh) [Lassen Co.] is close to Nevada, and Calexico [Imperial Co.] is on the border with Mexico.
CALABASAS (kal uh BAS uhs) [Los Angeles Co.]. From Spanish calabazas, “pumpkins, squashes.” An alternative spelling is found in Calabazas Creek [Santa Clara Co.].
CALABAZAL (kal uh buh ZAHL) CREEK [Santa Barbara Co.]. Apparently Spanish calabazal, “pumpkin patch,” but probably an adaptation of Ineseño Chumash kalawashaq, “turtle shell.”
CALAVERAS (kal uh VAIR uhs) RIVER and COUNTY. From the Spanish word for “skulls,” applied when a number of skeletons were found near the river around 1837. This Gold Rush area was made famous by Mark Twain’s story “The Celebrated Jumping Frog of Calaveras County.”
CALEXICO (kuh LEK suh koh) [Imperial Co.]. A hybrid name, coined in 1901 from California plus Mexico; its sister city across the Mexican border is called Mexicali.
CALICO HILLS [San Bernardino Co.] and CALICO PEAKS [Death Valley N.P.]. Named for desert rock formations of variegated color.
CALIENTE (kal ee EN tee, kah lee EN tee) CANYON [San Luis Obispo Co.] and RANGE [Kern Co.]. The Spanish word means “hot,” and in these names is short for agua caliente, “hot water,” or ojo caliente, “hot spring.”
CALIFORNIA. The name was applied first to what is now called Baja California, around 1562, and later extended to Alta California, the present state of California. The term originally referred to a mythical land of Amazons, ruled by the beautiful black queen Calafia, as described in a Spanish novel, Las sergas de Esplandián (The exploits of Esplandian), by Garci Rodríguez de Montalvo. The term occurs in such modern names as California City [Kern Co.], California Heights [Los Angeles Co.], and California Hot Springs [Tulare Co.]. The Gulf of California, also known as the Sea of Cortez, is in Mexican waters, between the states of Baja California and Sonora. The term Californio refers to the Spanish American inhabitants of California during the Spanish and Mexican regimes.
CALIPATRIA (kal uh PAY tree uh) [Imperial Co.]. Coined in 1914 from California plus the Latin word patria, “fatherland.”
CALISTOGA (kal uh STOH guh) [Napa Co.]. In 1859 Sam Brannan, the developer of the area, supposedly meant to say, “I’ll make this place the Saratoga of California,” referring to the resort city in New York State; but instead it came out “the Calistoga of Sarafornia.”
CALLEGUAS (kah YAY guhs) CREEK [Ventura Co.]. From Ventureño Chumash kayïwïsh, “the head.”
CALPELLA (kal PEL uh) [Mendocino Co.]. Named after Kalpela, chief of a Pomo Indian village. The name comes from Northern Pomo khál phíila, “carrying mussels down.”
CALPINE [Sierra Co.]. Abbreviated from McAlpine, perhaps a family name.
CAMANCHE (kuh MAN chee) RESERVOIR [Calaveras Co.]. The original town site here was named in 1849 for a place in Iowa, referring to the Comanche Indian tribe of the southern Great Plains; the term is from Ute kïmánci, “enemy, foreigner.”
CAMARILLO (kam uh RIL oh, kam uh REE yoh) [Ventura Co.]. Named for the ranch owner Juan Camarillo.
CAMBRIA (KAM bree uh, KAYM bree uh) [San Luis Obispo Co.]. Latin for “Wales”; the name was given by a Welsh carpenter in the 1860s.
CAMP. A term included in many California place names; some camps were originally military installations, while others were work sites or summer resorts. Camp Curry [Yosemite N.P.] was established as a resort in 1899 by David and Jennie Curry. Camp Meeker [Sonoma Co.] was named for Melvin C. Meeker, a lumberman.
CAMPHORA (kam FOR uh) [Monterey Co.]. Mexican railroad workers referred to Camp Four, a construction camp set up here in 1873, as Camfora.
CAMPO (KAM poh) [San Diego Co.]. The word is Spanish for “field,” but in California it is often equivalent to the English word camp.
CAMUESA (kuh MOO suh) PEAK [Santa Barbara Co.]. Probably from Spanish camuza, gamuza, “chamois,” used locally to mean “buckskin,” because Indian women tanned deerskins near here.
CAMULOS (kuh MYOO luhs) [Ventura Co.]. From Ventureño Chumash kamulus, “the juniper.”
CANDLESTICK PARK [San Francisco Co.]. Named for Candlestick Rock, an eight-foot pinnacle mapped in 1869.
CANOGA (kuh NOH guh) PARK [Los Angeles Co.], Named in the 1890s after Canoga, New York, which was originally a Cayuga (Iroquoian) village.
CANYON. From Spanish cañón, this word forms part of many California place names, such as Canyon [Alameda Co.] and Canyon Country [Los Angeles Co.].
CAPAY (kuh PAY) [Yolo Co.]. From Hill Patwin kapay, “creek.”
CAPITOLA (kap uh TOH luh) [Santa Cruz Co.]. The name was apparently coined from capitol in 1876, perhaps in the hope that the state capital would be located here.
CARDIFF-BY-THE-SEA [San Diego Co.]. Laid out in 1911 and named after the seaport in Wales.
CARLSBAD [San Diego Co.]. Named in 1886 for Karlsbad, in Bohemia (now Karlovy Vary, in the Czech Republic), because of the similarity of the mineral waters in the two places.
CARMEL (kahr MEL) RIVER [Monterey Co.]. The stream was discovered by Sebastián Vizcaíno in 1603 and called Rio del Carmelo. Spanish Carmelo is the name of Mount Carmel near Jerusalem, based on Hebrew karmel, “vineyard, orchard.” Modern applications of the name include Carmel Valley and the town of Carmel-by-the-Sea, the latter now often called simply Carmel.
CARPINTERIA (kahr puhn tuh REE uh) [Santa Barbara Co.]. From Spanish carpintería, “carpenter’s shop,” because the Portolá expedition found Indians building canoes here in 1769.
CARQUINEZ (kahr KEE nuhs) STRAIT [Solano, Contra Costa Cos.]. This is originally a Spanish plural, Carquines, of the Costanoan tribal name Karkin, based on a word meaning “barter.”
CARRIZO (kuh REE zoh) CREEK [San Diego, Imperial Cos.]. Takes its name from the Spanish word for “reed grass”; California Indians used the grass to make panoche, similar to brown sugar. The Carrizo Plain [San Luis Obispo Co.] lies on the San Andreas Fault and is famous for its frequent earthquakes.
CARSON RIVER and PASS [Alpine Co.]. The river was named in 1848 by John C. Frémont for his guide, Christopher (Kit) Carson, a famous mountain man and Indian fighter. Carson became the hero of many dime novels and, although illiterate, dictated a best-selling autobiography. Carson Creek [Calaveras Co.] and the town of Carson [Los Angeles Co.] are named for early settlers with that surname.
CASA. The Spanish for “house” is found in some place names applied in American times, such as Casa Blanca (kah suh BLANG kuh) [Riverside Co.]. The site of Casa Diablo (dee AH bloh) [Mono Co.], for casa del diablo, “house of the devil,” was so named because a geyser once existed there. Casa Loma (LOH muh) [Placer Co.] is for casa de la loma, “house of the hill.”
CASCADE RANGE. This name applies to the range of mountains extending from Washington and Oregon south to include Lassen Peak in California; it referred earlier to the falls on the Columbia River.
CASHLAPOODA (kash luh POO duh) CREEK [Humboldt Co.]. Probably from the Cache la Poudre River in Colorado, French for “hide the (gun)powder”—so named by French trappers who cached their supplies there.
CASMALIA (kaz MAY lee uh) [Santa Barbara Co.]. From Purisimeño Chumash kasma’li, “it is the last.”
CASNAU (KAZ naw) CREEK [Tuolumne Co.]. Sometimes thought to be named for General Thomas N. Casneau or Casnau, but in fact named for Thomas Casenave, a French rancher who received a patent here in 1875.
CASTAIC (kas TAYK) [Los Angeles Co.]. From Ventureño Chumash kashtïq, “the eye, the face.” An alternative spelling is used for Castac Lake and Valley [Kern Co.].
CASTRO. A common Spanish surname, used to name several places in California. Castro Valley [Alameda Co.] was named for the early landowner Guillermo Castro. Castroville [Monterey Co.] was laid out and named in 1864 by Juan Bautista Castro.
CAYUCOS (kah YOO kuhs) [San Luis Obispo Co.]. The plural of Spanish cayuco, “fishing canoe,” borrowed from Eskimo kayak.
CAZADERO (kaz uh DAIR oh) [Sonoma Co.]. Spanish for “hunting place,” named in the late 1880s.
CECILVILLE [Siskiyou Co.]. Contains a misspelling of the name of the pioneer John Baker Sissel.
CENTINELA (sen tuh NEL uh) CREEK [Los Angeles Co.]. From the Spanish word for “sentry, sentinel.” The name Santa Nella [Merced Co.] is from the same origin.
CENTRAL VALLEY. The area encompassed by the Sacramento and San Joaquin Valleys in central California. The town of Central Valley [Shasta Co.] was named in 1938 for the Central Valley Project, which built Shasta Dam.
CENTURY CITY [Los Angeles Co.]. Named for 20th Century-Fox film studios, on the site of which it was built, starting in 1961.
CERES (SEER eez) [Stanislaus Co.]. Named for the Roman goddess of agriculture.
CERRITO. Spanish for “little hill” (diminutive of cerro, “hill”), it is the basis for several place names, such as Cerritos (suh REE tohs) [Los Angeles Co.] and El Cerrito [Contra Costa Co.]. The “little hill” of the latter is actually in the neighboring town of Albany and is known as Albany Hill.
CHAGOOPA (chuh GOO puh) FALLS [Sequoia N.P.]. Supposedly named for an old Paiute chief.
CHALANEY (chuh LAY nee) CREEK [Tulare Co.]. Previously known as Chilean Creek and Chanley Creek; it is possibly from Spanish chileno, “Chilean,” because of Chilean miners who participated in the Gold Rush.
CHALONE (shuh LOHN, chuh LOHN) [San Benito, Monterey Cos.]. Represents a Costanoan place name, čalon, of unknown meaning.
CHAMISE (shuh MEES, chuh MEES). With the variant spelling Chemise, refers to various kinds of brushwood, including the greasewood bush; it is from Spanish chamiso. Chamisal is Spanish for a place where chamise grows; in English it is also spelled Chemisal. These two terms occur in place names such as Chemise Creek [Mendocino Co.] and Chemisai Ridge [Monterey Co.].
CHANCHELULLA (chan chuh LOO luh) MOUNTAIN [Trinity Co.]. From Wintu son čuluula, literally, “rock black.”
CHANNEL ISLANDS. The collective name for the islands that are separated from the mainland by the Santa Barbara Channel, including Santa Catalina, San Miguel, Santa Rosa, and Santa Cruz.
CHATSWORTH [Los Angeles Co.]. Named in 1887 after the estate of the Duke of Devonshire in England.
CHATTERDOWEN (CHAT er dow uhn) CREEK [Shasta Co.]. From Wintu čati tawin, literally, “digger pine-nut flat.”
CHEMEHUEVI (CHEM uh way vee). The name of an Indian tribe of San Bernardino County and their language, which belongs to the Numic branch of the Uto-Aztecan family; the term also occurs in place names such as Chemehuevi Valley. The name of the tribe is apparently derived from their name in the neighboring Mojave language: ’achiimuuév, “those who work with fish.”
CHEROKEE (CHAIR uh kee). During the Gold Rush, several mining camps were named for members of this Indian tribe from the southeastern United States who came to try their luck in California. The tribe’s name for themselves is tsalagi, of unknown origin.
CHICKABALLY (CHIK uh bah lee) MOUNTAIN [Shasta Co.]. Probably from Wintu łikup’uri, “a fight,” merged with buli, “mountain.”
CHICO (CHEE koh) [Butte Co.]. Spanish for “small,” abbreviated from the name of the land grant Arroyo Chico, “small stream.” Chico Creek has two tributaries, called Big Chico Creek (literally, “big small creek”) and Little Chico Creek (“small small creek”).
CHILAO (chuh LAY oh) [Los Angeles Co.]. Formerly Chileo or Chilleo, a nickname of the herder José Gonzales, famous for killing a grizzly bear near here with only a hunting knife. The nickname may be from Spanish chileno, “Chilean.”
CHILENO (chuh LAY noh) VALLEY [Marin Co.]. From the Spanish word for a native of Chile. The presence of Chilean miners during the Gold Rush gave rise to several California place names.
CHINA. As a part of California place names, this word reflects the role of Chinese workers in the Gold Rush and in the later history of the state. China Basin [San Francisco Co.] was named for the “China clippers,” ships that docked here in the 1860s.
CHINO (CHEE noh) [San Bernardino Co.]. The name given by the Spanish to a local Indian leader. The Spanish word chino means “Chinese,” but it is also used in Mexico for a person of mixed race.
CHINQUAPIN (CHING kuh pin) [Yosemite N.P.]. Named for a nut-bearing bush. The word is originally from a Virginia Algonquian language and was introduced into English by Captain John Smith in 1612.
CHIQUITO (chuh KEE toh) CREEK [Madera Co.]. Spanish for “little” (diminutive of chico), an abbreviation of Chiquito Joaquín, “little [San] Joaquin [River].”
CHIRPCHATTER MOUNTAIN [Shasta Co.]. From Wintu t’arap č’araw, literally, “cottonwood field,” from t’arap, “cottonwood tree,” plus č’araw, “green place.”
CHISMAHOO (CHIS muh hoo) CREEK [Ventura Co.]. Probably from Ventureño Chumash ts’ismuhu, “it streams out.”
CHOLAME (shoh LAM, choh LAM) [San Luis Obispo Co.]. The name of a Salinan Indian village; it is from Migueleño Salinan č’olám, said to refer to evil people.
CHOWCHILLA (chow CHIL uh) RIVER [Madera, Mariposa Cos.]. From the name of a Yokuts Indian tribe whom the Spanish called Chauciles. The name was also applied to a neighboring Miwok group.
CHUAL (CHOO uhl), MOUNT [Santa Clara Co.]. The term is Mexican Spanish for “pigweed,” from Aztec tzoalli. Chualar (choo uh LAHR) [Monterey Co.] is Mexican Spanish for “place where chual grows.”
CHUCHUPATE (choo choo PAT ee) [Kern Co.]. The Mexican Spanish name for a wild herb, derived from Aztec xoxouhca-pahtli (literally, “blue medicine”).
CHUCKAWALLA (CHUK wah luh) MOUNTAIN [Riverside Co.]. The name of a desert lizard, also spelled chuck- walla; the word comes from Cahuilla cháxwal.
CHUCKCHANSI (chuk CHAN see). Refers to a tribe and language of the Yokuts family, and to the Indian reservation now occupied by the group [Fresno Co.]. The original Yokuts name is čhukčhansi, of uncertain meaning.
CHULA VISTA (choo luh VIS tuh) [San Diego Co.]. The name, applied in 1888, is intended to be Spanish for “pretty view.”
CHUMASH (CHOO mash). A cover term for several related tribes and languages of San Luis Obispo, Santa Barbara, and Ventura Counties—famous for their seagoing canoes, made of rough-hewn planks, drilled and sewn together with vines, then caulked with asphalt. Different groups are distinguished by their mission associations, such as Obispeño, Purisimeño, Ineseño, and Barbareño. Chumash originally referred to the group living on the Channel Islands. All the Chumashan languages are now extinct. There is a Chumash Peak in San Luis Obispo County.
CIENEGA (see EN uh guh) CREEK [San Benito Co.]. The Spanish term ciénega (with the alternative form ciénaga) refers to a marsh or a marshy meadow. It occurs in a variety of place names, including Cienaga Seca (SAY kuh) [San Bernardino Co.], meaning “dry meadow,” and La Cienega Boulevard in Los Angeles.
CISCO [Placer Co.]. Named by the Central Pacific Railroad in honor of John J. Cisco, treasurer of the company.
CLEAR LAKE [Lake Co.]. Called Laguna Grande, “big lake,” in Spanish times; the present name first appeared in 1851.
CLEVELAND NATIONAL FOREST [Orange, Riverside, San Diego Cos.]. Named in 1908 in memory of President Grover Cleveland, a week after his death.
CLIKAPUDI (KLIK uh poo dee) CREEK [Shasta Co.]. From Wintu łikup’uri, “a fight.”
CLOVIS (KLOH vuhs) [Fresno Co.]. Named in 1889 for the ranch owner Clovis Cole.
COACHELLA (koh CHEL uh, koh uh CHEL uh) VALLEY [Riverside Co.]. Earlier called the Cahuilla Valley, after the Indian tribe. The change to Coachella around 1900 may have been influenced by confusion with Spanish conchilla, “little shell.”
COALINGA (koh uh LING guh) [Fresno Co.]. Originally called Coaling Station by the Southern Pacific Railway; the name was then Hispanicized by combining coaling with -a.
COCHES (KOH chuhs) CANYON [San Diego Co.]. From a Mexican Spanish word for “pigs.”
COCOPA (KOH koh pah). The name of an Indian tribe living in Imperial County and in adjacent areas of Arizona and Mexico, and their language, which belongs to the Yuman family; their name for themselves is kokwapá. The Cocopah Mountains are named for this tribe.
COLFAX [Placer Co.]. Named in 1865 in honor of the visit of Schuyler Colfax, then Speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives.
COLLAYOMI (kah lee YOH mee) VALLEY [Lake Co.]. Probably reflects a Spanish spelling of Lake Miwok koyáa-yomi, “song place.”
COLMA (KOHL muh) [San Mateo Co.]. The name dates from 1872 and may be from the town of Colma in Switzerland. However, in the San Francisco dialect of the Costanoan Indians, kolma means “moon.”
COLOMA (kuh LOH muh) [El Dorado Co.]. From the name of a Nisenan (Southern Maidu) village, given in 1848 as Culloma. The town grew up around Sutter’s mill after the discovery of gold in 1848.
COLORADO (kah luh RAD oh) RIVER. The Spanish term meaning “red” was applied to the river in 1604, during the exploration of Arizona, referring to the reddish-brown color of the water. The river forms the boundary between California and Arizona; the state of Colorado is so named because the headwaters of the river are there.
COLTON [San Bernardino Co.]. Named in 1875 for David D. Colton, an official of the Central Pacific Railroad.
COLUMBIA [Tuolumne Co.]. The name of this historic Gold Rush town, now reconstructed and restored as a state park, reflects the poetic term for America, derived from the name of Columbus.
COLUSA (kuh LOO suh). The name of a Patwin Indian village, recorded in 1821 as Coru. The town and county were founded in 1850 with the name Colusi, which was changed to its present form in 1854.
COMPTCHE (KAHMP chee) [Mendocino Co.]. Probably an Indian name, possibly from the Porno village komacho.
