Excerpt from California Names and Their Literal Meanings: Also Other Primary Geography Names and Their Meanings Naming places is like naming babies, and it is a mere chance if the name fits. We name them after some great man, we name them after our own dear selves. We call a bay or a baby Pearl and we think we have described it. We even, at times, select fancy names of no meaning. This little list of names is neither complete nor accur ate. The California names, I have gathered in twenty years roaming around this State. I printed a small list, sixteen years ago, which has been going the rounds of the newspapers ever since. The translation of our Spanish names, is not always easy. Many are corrupt spellings, and the dictionary meaning may not be the true one. I give them as they were given to me by the old settlers, and if they did not know the true meaning they invented one. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.