Come talk about fun and quirky words in the English Language. Posting is open to all members.
Location Names
On the west coast of America a lot of city names have Spanish or Native American origins. Some are more obvious like San Francisco and New Mexico, but a lot are new to me. How many of the following did you know before you got here? Be honest. 😀
- Arizona: From the Spanish Arizonac which itself comes from the O'odham language alĭ ṣonak, meaning little spring
- Colorado: red-colored
- Nevada: snowy
- Utah: From the Spanish yuta, their name for the indigenous Ute tribe.
- Buena Vista: good view
- Fresno: ash tree
- Monterey: king's mountain
- San Francisco: Saint Francis
- Santa Cruz: holy cross




I knew five. If I spoke Spanish, I think I would have done better. You didn't include the name of our high school, Granada. I do know what that means.
You beat me. And I forgot that my high-school had a Spanish name. I do know that one!
Having grown up in Arizona I'm kind of surprised that most of these aren't common knowledge. (Isn't Nevada more like snow-covered than snowy?)
We also end up with redundant names for things, like Table Mesa Road. And then there's Casa Grande, which has actually had debates sparked over how to pronounce it. (Kass-uh grand or Kah-sah grand-eh FYI, the latter is right but we're MERCAN and we can say it how we wanna.)
Haha. I grew up in San Francisco and I only knew two. Don't judge me. 😀
Fresno is the only one that made me think a bit. Probably because I don't like thinking about Fresno. :P But it comes pretty much directly from the Latin without much external influence.
Ahh yes Latin. Which I am fluent in. 😜
I forget not everyone is an etymology nut. :P
It's cool. We like etymology nuts here.
Can't really beat Stanford's Lake Lagunita (Lake Little Lake) which isn't even a lake half of the year.
Can You only choose one?
How many did you know.
3,5,7,8,9
If those are the four that you knew, you should choose the 4 option.
It's Santa Cruz, not Santa Crus.
I knew all the ones that weren't of indigenous origin. Except Fresno, wouldn't have guessed that.
Hmm. I concede your point.