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