California Place Names: The Origin and Etymology of Current Geographical Names

Erwin Gustav Gudde

University of California Press, 2004 - History - 467 pages

Absco, a Southern Pacific station, was coined in the 1920s from the name of the American Beet Sugar Company, which had a factory in Oxnard.
Pocheais an Indian village site in Riverside County, said to mean "where the rabbit went in."
Siskiyouwas the Chinook word for 'bobtailed horse,' originally taken over from the Cree language. From Abadi Creek to Zzyzyx Spring, thousands of discoveries await the reader ofCalifornia Place Names. This is the fourth edition, extensively revised and expanded, of a classic work of Californiana. The curious traveler or resident, as well as the serious student, will find a wealth of description and history in these names, as rich and various as the California landscape itself.
Like its predecessors, this edition concentrates on the origins of the names currently used for the cities, towns, settlements, mountains, and streams of California, with engrossing accounts of the history of their usage. It has been updated to incorporate the latest research on California place names published by regional historians and to include new names that have been added to the California map since 1969. Readers will appreciate the local pronunciation of place names with unusual spellings; anyone curious about how to say La Jolla or Weitchpec can find the information here, in phonetic transcriptions. Finally, the many California place names of American Indian origin--such as Yreka, Shasta, Napa, Sonoma, Tamalpais, Yosemite, Lompoc, Mugu, Coachella, or Poway--receive particular attention from editor William Bright. The dictionary includes a Glossary and a Bibliography.

What people are saying

User Review -

Did a search for kettle mountain ca on google and this book was a direct hit on the ca placename origin as well as other places in ca that share the name. I would say that it would be an excellant reference guide where many obscure names could be located, as my search was from some old contour maps in a remote part of shasta county.  

Review: California Place Names: The Origin and Etymology of Current Geographical Names

User Review  - Leszczynska - Goodreads

Excellent reference book and history guide, but most of all, it's just fun to read.

About the author

Erwin G. Gudde, at his death in 1969, was an emeritus member of the University of California faculty. William Bright is Professor Adjoint in Linguistics at the University of Colorado, Boulder, and author of numerous books including A Coyote Reader (California, 1993). He supplied a new foreword plus maps and itinerary for the Fourth Edition of Up and Down in California in 1860-1864: The Journal of William H. Brewer (California, 2003).

Bibliographic information

• Title: California Place Names: The Origin and Etymology of Current Geographical Names
• Author: Erwin Gustav Gudde
• Editor: William Bright
• Contributor: William Bright
• Edition: 4, illustrated
• Publisher: University of California Press, 2004
• ISBN: 0520242173, 9780520242173
• Length: 467 pages
• Subjects: History / United States / State & Local / General; Science / Earth Sciences / Geography