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Devout Spaniards Responsible for Many California Place Names

Newcomers and visitors to the area sometimes ask the staff at the Chamber of Commerce for translations of the many Spanish-named places in Southern California. As residents of California, most of us don’t give a second thought to the Spanish names of geographic features and cities throughout the state. We looked into the names, their translations and the reasons for the names being used.

Spanish-named places in Southern California

The Age of Discovery
The European Renaissance of the 15th century was a reawakening of art, music, architecture and science aided by the invention of the printing press and movable type by Gutenberg in 1440. The printing press allowed rapid dissemination of knowledge throughout the continent and awoke Europe from the Dark Ages. Europe’s thirst for knowledge fueled its desire to explore the outside world. The story of Marco Polo’s travels to Asia along the “Silk Road” in the 13th century was now widely read throughout Europe.

Marco Polo’s travels inspired a demand for trade with Asia. Seafaring nations began building ships in earnest. The kingdom of Portugal was seeking alternate sea routes to India after gaining control of their country by defeating and expelling the Moors. Portugal laid claim to lands on the coast of Africa as early as 1419 while searching for a sea route to the Spice Islands near India. Portuguese explorer Bartemleo Dias found Africa’s Cape of Good Hope in 1488 and his fellow countryman Vasco de Gama finally reached India in 1498.

In 1490, Christopher Columbus petitioned the Spanish royal court of King Ferdinand and Queen Isabella for ships and financial support to find a new and perhaps easier route to India. Believing the world was round, Columbus sailed west to get to the east, but found the Americas instead in 1492.

The Pope Divides the World
Upon his return to Spain in 1493, Columbus reported his discovery to the Royal Court and to Pope Alexander VI (a Spaniard by birth). The Pope, who served as an arbiter of disputes between Catholic nations, issued a decree that divided the New World lands (known and unknown) between Spain and Portugal by establishing a north-south line of demarcation 100 leagues (300 miles) west of the Cape Verde Islands. Undiscovered non-Christian lands to the west of the line were to be Spanish possessions and those to the east belonged to Portugal. The Pope’s only caveat was requiring that Spain and Portugal Christianize the new lands. The line of demarcation was amended to 370 leagues (1,110 miles) west of the Cape Verde Islands with the Treaty of Tordesillas in 1494. The line was roughly 45 degrees west of the prime meridian. Portugal’s territory included the coasts of Africa, the East Indies and the southern and eastern shores of Asia and Brazil (that is why Brazil is the only Portuguese-speaking country in the Western Hemisphere). Spain got the bulk of the Americas and the Philippines, both of which were largely undiscovered and unexplored.

Spanish Empire
Spain vigorously exploited their church-granted right to explore and colonize the New World, while plundering its treasures. Spanish explorer Vasco de Balboa crossed the Isthmus of Panama to discover the Pacific Ocean and claimed the whole Pacific coastline for Spain and for God; Ponce de Leon searched for the Fountain of Youth in Florida; Francisco Pizzaro stormed across South America to find the gold and wealth of the Incan civilization in Peru. Hernan Cortez and his conquistadors exploited the wealth of the Aztecs in Mexico and Central America, brutally killing thousands of Aztecs, including their leader Montezuma. Francisco Coronado explored the American southwest seeking the riches of the fabled Seven Golden Cities of Cibola. Instead, he only found poor native villages and eventually returned to Mexico, the political and cultural center of New Spain.

Spain concentrated its imperial efforts in the areas that provided the best financial gains, leaving most of the present-day U.S. unsettled.

Other European kingdoms began explorations to the new world in the late 1500s. In the 1700s, Spanish King Carlos was very concerned that Russia or England might attempt to claim the northern portions of New Spain that remained unsettled. Russia had already been exploring the coasts of Alaska and England’s Sir Francis Drake had landed in 1579 along the pacific coast somewhere north of Point Loma, claiming the land for England and calling it Nova Albion.

There were several reasons that missions were chosen over other forms of settlements. The king of Spain hoped that someday there would be powerful cities and harbors along the California coast. To support the cities, which would sell goods, they had to have farms and ranches to produce goods. The king and queen of Spain decided to create a series of farms along the coast, each a day’s travel time apart. The settlements would be built near the coast so that they could easily supply ships that came into port.

Labor proved to be the undoing of the Spanish court’s plans. With no Spanish subjects in the area, there was no one to establish or work the farms and ranches. King Carlos turned to the church to solve the problem; he would grant the church large land grants if they would establish missions with working ranches along the coast of California.

California Missions
The dual purposes of the Roman Catholic missions in California were to convert natives to Christianity while teaching them European farming methods and to obtain vast land grants. The first of the 21 California missions was established in San Diego in 1769. The church established 20 more missions over the next 54 years, each one a day’s travel time apart. The Spanish crown issued few other land grants in California.

The church used the land to establish rancherias that raised cattle and grew crops to export to Mexico and to feed the mission populations. The missions usually took their names from the Saint whose feast day fell on the date the mission was established. Many geographic features within the mission’s large land holdings were given Spanish names that still exist today.

Other Spanish Placenames and their meaning

• Cabazon was named in the 1870s after a nearby rancheria, named for an Indian Chief who had an unusually large head (cabezón).

• El Segundo means “the second” and was the name given by the Standard Oil Company in 1911 to its second oil refinery in California.

• Indio is Spanish for “indian.”

• Sacramento means “holy sacrament” in Spanish.

• Alcatraz Island from the Spanish “álcatraces,” meaning pelican. A sizable pelican population once lived on this rocky island in San Francisco Bay.

• Fresno is Spanish for “ash tree.” The central California city and county are named for their abundant ash trees.

• La Brea means “tar” in Spanish. The tar pits in this famous part of Los Angeles have yielded amazing fossils for more than 100 years.

• Los Gatos is Spanish for “cats.” At the time this western California city was founded many wildcats roamed the area.

• Alameda means “grove of poplar” (or cottonwood trees) in Spanish.

• Agua Caliente mans “hot water” in Spanish, most likely because of the hot water springs of Palm Springs.

• Cajon Pass means “box” in Spanish and as a geographic term was used to describe box-like canyons.

• La Cañada means “valley” or “glen” in Spanish.

• La Habra (in Spanish is spelled without the initial h) means “a gorge, a pass through the mountains.”

• La Mirada is a Spanish noun meaning “glance” or “gaze.”

• Calaveras means “skulls” in Spanish.

• La Jolla can either be translated as “the jewel” or the less prestigious “hole in the mountains.”

• La Quinta translated directly means “the fifth” in Spanish. There are several theories to the meaning including “country retreat” or “special place.” Possibly it was a type of Hacienda or rest stop situated every five days on a long trail. Another theory is that it was the fifth rest stop on a trail from the Thermal-Oasis area to Palm Springs.

• Escondido means “hidden” or “hidden valley” in Spanish and is the place where ranch dressing was created.

• Mariposa means “butterfly” in Spanish.

• Encinitas means “live oak trees” in Spanish.

• Paso Robles means “Oak Pass” in Spanish.

• Palo Alto means “high stick” or “tall tree” in Spanish.