Origins of "California"

[Pangur Bán]

Help me out here guys...I'm trying to find the origins of the name "California" but I can't find any thing conclusive:


"The name California was first used to designate the region by
the Spanish expedition led by Juan Rodríguez Cabrillo, as it sailed
northward along the coast from Mexico in 1542. The name itself was
probably derived from a popular Spanish novel published in 1510 in
which a fictional island paradise named California was
described."[/b] -MSN Encarta

"The area of North America known as California was named by
Hernán Cortez (ca. 1536) after the mythical island paradise described
by Garci Rodriguez de Montalvo in Las sergas de Esplandian, published
in 1508. Upper or Alta California, which included the entire west
coast of the United States, British Columbia and Alaska was ignored
by the Spanish Crown until 1768 when King Carlos III ordered José de
Galvez (Visitador General of New Spain) to begin the colonization of
this region to forestall Russian colonial encroachment upon the west
coast of North America." -State of California website

 

[Mescalhead]

A few years ago I had wondered the same thing. I looked on the internet as well as in a few books. The answer I got was the one you posted. I don't think there is any more to it.

 

[Plexus]

The origin of the name "California" is a mystery that may never be solved. The precisedate and circumstances surrounding the application of the name to some partof what is now called "Baja California" (or Lower California) is not known. The historian Antonio de Herrera in 1601 stated that it was definitely the Great Conquistador Cortes "who placed this name upon it."

Whatis known, is that the discovery of the New World by Columbus in 1492 gave a strong momentum to the age-old search for an earthly paradise with unbounded productiveness without labor, beautiful women, gold and pearls. Among a number of such utopias, created by the fertile imaginations of fiction writers and ambitious explorers of the period, was the rich island of "California," inhabited by handsome black women like Amazons.

The story of this extraordinary realm and its Queen Califia was recounted andpublished in about 1510 in Las Sergas de Esplandian(The Deeds of Esplandian), by the Spanish writer, Garci Ordonez de Montalvo, as a continuation of the famous romance, Amadís de Gaula. It was the Boston Unitarian minister and writer, Edward Everett Hale, who in 1862 pointed out the probable connection between the name of the utopia and the name of the State.

The location attributed to this island places it definitely in the same group as El Dorado, the Seven Cities of Cibola, Quivira, and other realms eagerly sought by the Spanish conquerors. The story hinges on a supposed siege of Constantinople, when all the forces ofpaganism launched an attack against the emperor and his Christian allies in the city. In the midst of the siege the pagans received unexpected succor from Queen Califia of the island California. (The original spelling of thequeen's name, CALAFIA, has been slightly altered to avoid confusion.)

Here is the story as it appears in the Sergas:

"I wish that you should now know of a matter so very strange that neither in writings nor from the memory of people is it possible to discover how on the following day the city was on the point of being lost and how in thatmoment of peril it was saved.

Know ye that at the right hand of the Indies there is an island named California, very close to that part of the Terrestrial Paradise, which was inhabited by black women, without a single man among them, and that they lived in the manner of Amazons. They were robust of body, with strong and passionate hearts and great virtues.

The island itself is one of the wildest in the world on account of the bold and craggy rocks. Their weapons were all made of gold . . . The island everywhere abounds with gold and precious stones, and upon it no other metal was found. They lived in caves well excavated. They had many ships with which they sailed to other coasts to make forays, and the men whom they took as prisoners they killed . . .

In this island, named California, there are many griffins . . . In no other part of the world can they be found. . . . [And] there ruled over that island of California a queen of majestic proportions, more beautiful than all others, and in the very vigor of her womanhood. She was desirous of accomplishing great deeds, she was valiant and courageous and ardent with a brave heart, and had ambitions to execute nobler actions than had been performed by anyother ruler."

http://geogdata.csun.edu/geogcourses/Califia.html

 

[John Bull]

I thought it was named after a street in Menorca- the Calle Fornia. I'm probably mistaken though.