The Name "California"

 
 
There is no known history of the word “California” being used by Native Americans in oral or written history documentation before the time of the arrival of the Spanish explorers in the late 1520’s and throughout the 1530s and beyond. The name first appears in print in Spanish documents around 1535.  So, where does the name come from and what does a mythical
Black Amazon warrior queen, a cove and a hot furnace have in common with the name "California"?  Most likely they are the origins of the name.
  
One of the more intriguing theories maintain that the name "California" originates from the Spanish conquistadors, taken from the Spanish romance novel "Las sergas de Esplandian," (The Adventures of Esplandian) written by Garci Ordonez de Montalvo about 1510, in which he describes an imaginary island paradise inhabited by a Black Amazon warrior queen, Califia, complete with man eating griffins, rocky cliffs and shores along with the primary mineral found there as gold among the pearls.
  
The Spanish first arrived in Baja California (lower California) situated in Mexico, possibly as early as 1526, more likely in the early 1530s, and believed it to be an island, most likely stemming from numerous European tales and Montalvo's fictional novel which was circulating widely in Europe during this time.  They actually arrived in the area we know as the Baja peninsula, not an island, which connected to Alta California (upper California) and the present day State of California.  Later, Spanish land records and maps would show "California" stretching to parts of Nevada and Utah, but at the time of their arrival it was widely held that "California" was an island.  There are various unsubstantiated accounts that a copy of Montalvo's romance novel was aboard Hernan Cortes' ship when he arrived in Baja California in 1535, and that his troops found pearls on the shores along with condors circling which they believed to be the black man eating griffins.  
 
Edward Everett Hale translated portions of the original fictionalized romance novel "Las sergas de Esplandian" in 1862 for The Antiquarian Society, with the parts pertaining to "Califia" and "California" printed in the Atlantic Monthly magazine in 1864 (1).  Over time his account became regarded as the most noteworthy on the origin of the name "California" by historians.
 
By 1770, everyone was referring to the Pacific Coast as "California", and the Spanish living there as "Californios."  
 
In 1926 Queen Califia was painted in a mural in the Room of the Dons at the Mark Hopkins Hotel near Nob Hill in San Francisco, California for the opening of the hotel.  Disney created a film called “Golden Dreams” which ran from 2001 to 2008 at the California Adventures theme park which included references to Queen Califia and Queen Califia lives on in the present day at the Queen Califia Magical Circle in Kit Carson Park near Escondido with 9 larger than life sculptures to explore.
 
A less intriguing theory on the origin of the word “California” includes the combining of two Latin words…califa and fornix, meaning literally “hot” and “a vault of a building”, further interpreted to mean “a hot furnace”.  Some believe it was extremely warm around the time the Spanish explorers arrived in Baja California and named it for the weather.  There is a lot of skepticism about this however as the explorers had to travel through cold environs as well as hot to arrive in “California”.
 
A third theory, and one that seems to make the most sense to me personally, the Spanish known to be die-hard navigators and detailed mapmakers (think Coronado, Ponce de Leon, De Soto, etc) is the melding of two words, one Spanish, one Latin, cala and fornix, literally meaning “a little cove of the sea” and “vault of a building”, or furnace.  Cape St. Lucas is an area a few miles from Baja’s famous Cabo San Lucas tourist area, and on its western side is a small cove, complete with some rock features which some think resemble a vault, or furnace, or so it might have appeared to Cortes when he first arrived in Baja, who then simply mapped it and called it “Cala-fornix” for future reference.
 
So, you see the exact origin of the word “California” remains a little shrouded in mystery, one that surely intrigues and can take the explorer on a world-wide, engaging journey.  With a Governor that once played "Conan the Barbarian" is a mythical Black Amazon warrior queen really that out of the realm of possibility... 
 
To learn more about California’s fascinating history, from Spanish and English explorers, the Russian fur trade days to the discovery of gold at Sutter’s Mill or the rise of Aerospace and Silicon Valley, check out the California History section (979) of any library.
 
Happy exploring!
 
Sherry
 
 (1)  E. E. Hale: (March, 1864), "The Queen of California", Atlantic Monthly 13 (77): 265–279