Mission San Fernando De Espana Today

Capitol Weekly: What's in a name? In California, the saints come ...

The reason, of course, is that Spanish explorers, settlers and missionaries were – excepting for Sir Francis Drake’s brief sojourn in 1579 – the first Europeans to populate the Golden State.

And they brought their saints with them.

San Anselmo, San Andreas, San Bernardino, San Carlos, San Gabriel, San Leandro, San Mateo, Santa Monica, San Pedro, San Quentin, Santa Rosa –merely scratch the surface.

A common naming strategy for the Spanish was matching the date of a discovery to the appropriate saint’s feast day.

It was a method used by Spanish General Sebastian Vizcaino during his 1602 to 1603 voyage along the California coast to find safe moorings for Spanish galleons returning from the Philippines before the vessels headed toward final port in Acapulco.

In early November, Vizcaino entered what had been named San Miguel Bay by Juan Rodriguez Cabrillo in 1542. The San Miguel was Cabrillo’s flagship. Vizcaino thought the name of his flagship, San Didacus, would be better – particularly since his arrival was close to the healer saint’s feast day of November 12.

Saint Didacus is, in Spanish, San Diego.

A few days later, Vizcaino anchored off the coast of an island Cabrillo had named San Salvador.

Because it was Saint Catherine’s November 25 feast day, the island became Santa Catalina.

Eight days later, on the eve of Santa Barbara’s feast day, Vizcaino named the sliver of coast after her.

Vizcaino also named the Carmel River – Rio de Carmelo . While not a saint, Carmelo is Spanish for Mount Carmel near Jerusalem, which, in turn, comes from the Hebrew karmel , meaning “orchard.”

But Vizcaino ditched saints and religious themes altogether when it came to naming what he thought was the best mooring along the coast. He called  the spot “Monterey” after his patron, the Conde de Monterey, Spanish viceroy of Mexico.

Vizcaino was a strong advocate of colonizing Monterey but his superiors in Manila instead recommended relations be established with Japan.

Spain’s first ambassador to the island nation was Vizcaino. He retired in 1619 and died in Mexico City in 1627 at the age of 80.

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