Origin of the name California

This 1562 map by Diego Gutiérrez was the first map to print the toponym California.

California is a place name used by three North American states: in the United States by the state of California, and in Mexico by the states of Baja California and Baja California Sur. Collectively, these three areas constitute the region formerly referred to as Las Californias. The name California is shared by many other places in other parts of the world whose names derive from the original. The name "California" was applied to the territory now known as the state of California by one or more Spanish explorers in the 1500's and likely was a reference to a mythical land described in a popular novel of the time. Several other origins have been suggested for the word "California", including Spanish, Latin, South Asian, and Aboriginal American origins. All of these are disputed.^[1]

California, called the Las Californias Province of the Viceroyalty of New Spain, originally referred to the entire region composed of the Baja California peninsula now known as Mexican Baja California and Baja California Sur, and upper mainland now known as the U.S. states of California and parts of Nevada, Utah, Arizona, and Wyoming. After Mexico's independence from Spain, the upper territory became the Alta California province. In even earlier times, the boundaries of the Sea of Cortez and the Pacific Ocean coastlines were only partially explored and California was shown on early maps as an island. The Sea of Cortez is also known as the Gulf of California.

From the novel Las Sergas de Esplandián

The Island of California, from a map circa 1650. Restored.

California was the name given to a mythical island populated only by beautiful Amazon warriors using gold tools and weapons in the popular early 16th-century romance novel Las Sergas de Esplandián (The Adventures of Esplandián) by Spanish author Garci Rodríguez de Montalvo. This popular Spanish novel was printed in several editions with the earliest surviving edition published about 1510. The novel described the Island of California as being east of the Asian mainland, "very close to the side of the Terrestrial Paradise; and it is peopled by women, without any man among them, for they live in the manner of Amazons." The Island was ruled by Queen Calafia. When the Spanish started exploring the Pacific coast they applied this name on their maps to what is now called the Baja Peninsula they originally thought was an island. Once the name was on the maps it stuck.

Sabed que a la diestra mano de las Indias existe una isla llamada California muy cerca de un costado del Paraíso Terrenal; y estaba poblada por mujeres negras, sin que existiera allí un hombre, pues vivían a la manera de las amazonas. Eran de bellos y robustos cuerpos, fogoso valor y gran fuerza. Su isla era la más fuerte de todo el mundo, con sus escarpados farallones y sus pétreas costas. Sus armas eran todas de oro y del mismo metal eran los arneses de las bestias salvajes que ellas acostumbraban domar para montarlas, porque en toda la isla no había otro metal que el oro.

Know that on the right hand from the Indies exists an island called California very close to a side of the Earthly Paradise; and it was populated by black women, without any man existing there, because they lived in the way of the Amazons. They had beautiful and robust bodies, and were brave and very strong. Their island was the strongest of the World, with its cliffs and rocky shores. Their weapons were golden and so were the harnesses of the wild beasts that they were accustomed to domesticate and ride, because there was no other metal in the island than gold.

–Las Sergas de Esplandián, (novela de caballería)

by García Ordóñez de Montalvo.

Published in Seville in 1510.

Since then, that unknown Amazon's Island came to be known as California.

Some scholars speculate the Song of Roland, an 11th century Old French epic poem, may have served as the inspiration for the name California in Montalvo's novel. It refers to the defeat suffered August 15, 778, in the retreat of Charlemagne's army at the hands of the Muslim army in Battle of Roncevaux Pass in the Pyrenees. On line 2924 of the poem, which is in verse number CCIX (209), the word Califerne is one of the lands mentioned, with no indication of its geographic location. It is, however, named after a reference to Affrike, or Africa.

Morz est mis nies, ki tant me fist cunquere

Encuntre mei revelerunt li Seisne,

E Hungre e Bugre e tante gent averse,

Romain, Puillain et tuit icil de Palerne

E cil d'Affrike e cil de Califerne.

My nephew's dead, who won for me such realms!

Against me then the Saxon will rebel,

Hungar, Bulgar, and many hostile men,

Romain, Puillain, all those are in Palerne,

And in Affrike, and those in Califerne;

–Song of Roland, Verse CCIX (i.e. 209; lines 2920–2924), 11th c.

"Since the Roland poem concerns the "evil" Saracens, it's possible that the poet derived Califerne from caliph. Montalvo might also have been influenced by such similar names as Californo and Calafornina in Sicily or Calahorra in Spain."^[2]

This notion of a place of women without men also echoes a passage from the diary of Christopher Columbus's first voyage:

Dixéronle los indios que por aquella vía hallaría la isla de Matinino, que diz que era poblada de mugeres sin hombres, lo cual el almirante mucho quisiera por llevar diz que a los Reyes cinco o seis d'ellas... mas diz que era cierto que las avía y que cierto tiempo del año venían los hombres a ellas de la dicha isla de Carib, que diz que qu'estava d'ellas diez o doze leguas, y si parían niño enbiábanlo a la isla de los hombres, y si niña, dexávanla consigo.

The Indians told him that along that route he would find the island of Matinino, which they said was populated by women without men, to which the admiral replied he wanted very much to bring five or six of them to the king and queen… but they said that it was certain that they [the women] existed and that at a certain time of the year men came to them [women] from the aforementioned island of Carib, which they said was ten or twelve leagues away, and if they gave birth to a son they sent it to the island of the men, and if a girl, they kept her with them.

The search for other gold rich societies like the Aztecs and the search for the hoped for Strait of Anián shortcut to Asia, helped motivate Hernán Cortés, following his conquest of Mexico, to have ships built on the Pacific coast of New Spain. He and his successors sent several expeditions in the late 1530s and early 1540s to the west coast of what is now called Baja California. The first expedition reached the Gulf of California and the Baja California peninsula, and proved that California was in fact a peninsula not an island. Nevertheless, the idea that California was an island persisted for well over a century and was included on many maps. Lacking much information about any given unexplored area the map makers often improvised their own version of what was there. The early Spanish map makers gave the name "Las Californias" to the lower Baja California peninsula and to the upper northern mainlands later known as Alta California—now U.S. California. Once the name California was on the maps that was what later explorers and map makers continued to use.

Fourth carta de relación of Hernán Cortés

In his fourth carta de relación (a letter to the Spanish monarch narrating events of the Spanish conquest of Mexico), datelined Mexico, New Spain, 15 October 1524 (present day Mexico City)—Hernán Cortés wrote to the King Charles V on certain information about a legendary island, information that had been brought to him by the captain who had achieved the conquest of Colima.

Y así mismo me trajo relación de los señores de la provincia de Cihuatlán, que se afirman mucho de haber toda una isla poblada de mujeres, sin varón ninguno, y que en ciertos tiempos van de la tierra firme hombres que con ellas han acceso… y si paren mujeres, las guardan; y si hombres, los echan de su compañia; y que esta isla está a diez jornadas de esta provincia; y que muchos dellos han ido allá y la han visto. Dícenme asimismo que es muy rica en perlas y oro; yo trabajaré en teniendo aparejo de saber la verdad y hacer de ello larga relación a vuestra majestad.

And in the same manner I was brought a story from the men of the province of Cihuatlán, which reinforced completely that there is an island populated by women, without a single male, and at certain times men come from the mainland, who are granted access by the women… and if they give birth to women [sic], they keep them; and if men, they throw them out of their company; and that this island is ten days journey from this province; and that many of them have gone there and have seen it. They tell me also that it is very rich in pearls and gold; I will prepare myself to know the truth and tell it at length to your majesty.

–Hernán Cortés. Fourth carta de relación.

The name of California is applied

The name California is the fifth-oldest surviving European place-name in the U.S. and was applied to what is now the southern tip of Baja California as the island of California by a Spanish expedition led by Diego de Becerra and Fortun Ximenez who landed there in 1533 at the bequest of Hernán Cortés.^[3]

Cortés, on his third journey of exploration (1535–36), tried unsuccessfully to establish a colony at La Paz near the southern tip of the recently discovered Baja California Peninsula under a royal charter granting him that land.

Hernando de Alarcón, sent by the viceroy Mendoza—an enemy of Cortés—on a 1540 expedition to verify Cortés's discoveries, referred to the inhospitable lands as California, after the imaginary island in Las Sergas, discussed above. There is no question about Hernando de Alarcón's use of the term, nor about his allusion to Las Sergas, but there is question as to whether this is the first use of the name to refer to those lands and whether he intended the name as mockery. Alarcón provides a clear link from the literary, imaginary California to the real place, but his usage cannot be proven to be the actual origin, in that the name might predate him.^[4][5]

Today the name California is applied to the Baja California Peninsula, the Gulf of California (also known as the Sea of Cortés or Cortez), the U.S. State of California, and the Mexican states of Baja California and Baja California Sur.

Other origin theories

It is suggested that the word California may signify that it is a place that is "hot as an oven", because in Catalan "cal" means hot and "forn" means oven. (From the latin roots calida > hot, fornax > oven).^[6] Or from portuguese: "cal" means Calcium oxide (quicklime) and "forno" means, again, oven. It may signify quicklime oven.

Another suggested source is kali forno, an indigenous phrase meaning "high mountains".^[7]

Notes

1. ^ See, for example, several theories cited at Etimología de California on etimologias.dechile.net. Accessed 1 April 2006.
2. ^ Words@Random."The Maven's Word of the Day, California." April 26, 2000. Retrieved 2006-09-19.
3. ^ Florida, Dry Tortugas, Cape Canaveral, and Appalachian appeared earlier,....From Spanish historian Antonio de Herrera y Tordesillas's accounts, published in 1601—Stewart, George (1945). Names on the Land: A Historical Account of Place-Naming in the United States. New York: Random House. pp. 11–17. 
4. ^ Descubrimientos y Exploraciones en las Costas de California 1532–1650 ("Discoveries and Explorations on the Coasts of California 1532–1650", Madrid, 1947; 2ª edición 1982, pp. 113–141): relevant passage quoted and cited at Etimología de California on etimologias.dechile.net. Accessed 1 April 2006.
5. ^ Primeras Exploraciones ("First explorations") on Portal Ciudadano de Baja California, on the official site of the Baja California state government. Accessed 1 April 2006.
6. ^ http://www.constellationsofwords.com/Constellations/Fornax.htm
7. ^ According to the Chronology of California History (accessed 1 April 2006) on the site of Sons of the Revolution in California, Mexican priest Miguél Venegas put forth this theory in 1757.

See also

• Mexican state name etymologies
• US state name etymologies
• Californios
• History of California
• History of California to 1899

References

• This article draws heavily on the corresponding article in the Spanish-language Wikipedia, which was accessed in the version of 20 March 2005.
• The original text and English translation for the song of Roland follows Charles Scott Moncrieff (London, 1919), as reproduced at Orbis Latinus; many variant texts exist.

External links

Short radio episode Terrestrial Paradise, from Las Sergas de Esplandián. California Legacy Project.