Re: California?

11-20-2002, 12:06 AM

Dear Sri.Srinivasan

Interesting theory... however, upon checking, it turns out that the name
California comes from a Spanish novel... I am quoting from a site on the
history of California.

QUOTE
Early in the sixteenth century, Spanish writer Garcí Rodríguez Ordóñez
de Montalvo published a book called Las Sergas de Esplandián (The
Exploits of Esplandián). One of the characters in this fantasy was
Calafía, the queen of California, "more beautiful than all the rest."
....
....
Historians assume that Montalvo's novel was known to the Spanish
explorers who first sailed along the coast of the Baja California
peninsula in the early 1500s. Apparently the explorers named the
peninsula "California" after the mythical island in the novel.
UNQUOTE

Even if it is indeed so, I personally have one nagging suspicion - that
the name (even the one in the novel) *could have* come from some Indian
name known to the Spaniards, because the Spanish were in fact looking
for India when they came to the Americas and in those heady times,
exploration meant finding a route to India!

Regards
Ramki

--
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Let us endeavor so to live, that when we
come to die, even the undertaker will be sorry.
-Mark Twain
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Ramakrishnan Kazhiyur-Mannar
Graduate Research Associate
Dept of Computer and Info Sciences
Room 474(15), Erwin E. Dreese Labs
2015, Neil Avenue
Columbus, OH - 43210
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