The naming of California -several opinions Here from the Palo Alto Times, 1958 : Ever wondered where we got the name "California?" A lot of scholars have put in long research on that question. They've come up with a number of theories. But the matter is still open to debate in some quarters. Secretary of State Frank M JORDAN says the origin and meaning of California was a topic of vast speculation from the discovery of Lower Claifornia in 1533 until the middle of the last century. JORDAN, who has done some research of his own, reports that Catp. Frederick William BEECHLEY, the English explorer who visited San Francisco and Monterey in 1826, expressed belief the name originated from the Latin words "calida" and "fornax," meaning heat and furnace. Two noted Californians, Mariano G VALLEJO and Juan B ALVARADO, disagreed. They said California stemmed from the Lower California Indian term "kali forno", which translated as high hill and native land. In 1862, the American antiquarian, Edward Everett HALE, came up with what is commonly accepted now as the most likely origin. Hale informed an historical society that he found the name California in a romantic novel, "Las Sergas de Esplandian", printed in Seville, Spain, in 1510. Hale cited one passage which, he said , contains the first known use of the word California. That passage said in part: "At the right hand of the Indies there is an island called California, very close to that part of the terrestrial paradise, which was inhabited by black women without a single man among them, and they lived in the manner of Amazons." According to historian HALE, Hernando CORTES and other Spanish conquerors of Mexico were familiar with the novel. ========= from _The World Rushed In-, Holliday That gold should be found in a place so difficult to reach by land or by sea was foretold in 1510 when a romantic novel publised in Seville described "an island called California very close to the Terrestrial Paradise." Ruled by an Amazon queen named Calfia, "the island everwhere abounds with gold and precious stones and upon it no other metal is found". ========= and just for fun: The California Cooperative Latin American Collection Development Group, better known as CALAFIA, is a consortium of California libraries. CALAFIA enjoys the support and strength of the libraries at Stanford University, the University of California System,and the University of Southern California. The combined Latin American holdings of the CALAFIA group number more than one million volumes and are surpassed only by the Library of Congress’ Latin American Studies Collection. http://www-sul.stanford.edu/depts/hasrg/latinam/calafia/ Carolyn http://www.compuology.com/cagenweb/maripcty.htm