page_title: Origin of the name California
hierarchical_section_title: Origin of the name California
caption_attribution_description: Americae sive quartae orbis partis nova et exactissima descriptio, the first map of the Americas to use the name California. (Note the horizontally oriented, small-script word, "California," placed in the Sea of Cortez, adjacent to the small portion of Baja California showing on the map.)
context_page_description: Multiple theories regarding the origin of the name California, as well as the root language of the term, have been proposed, but most historians believe the name likely originated from a 16th century novel, Las Sergas de Esplandián. The novel, popular at the time of the Spanish exploration of Mexico and the Baja California Peninsula, describes a fictional island named California, ruled by Queen Calafia, east of the Indies. The author of the novel, Garci Rodríguez de Montalvo, also known as Ordóñez de Montalvo, is thought to have derived the term California from the Arabic Khalif and/or Khalifa, but he might also have been influenced by the term "Califerne" in the 11th-century epic French poem The Song of Roland.
  When Spanish explorers in the 16th century first encountered the Baja California peninsula, west of the Sea of Cortez, they believed the peninsula to be an island, similar to the island described in de Montalvo's novel. They named the land California. Initially California only applied to Baja California Peninsula, but as Spanish explorers and colonizers moved north and inland, the region known as California, or Las Californias, grew.
context_section_description: Multiple theories regarding the origin of the name California, as well as the root language of the term, have been proposed, but most historians believe the name likely originated from a 16th century novel, Las Sergas de Esplandián. The novel, popular at the time of the Spanish exploration of Mexico and the Baja California Peninsula, describes a fictional island named California, ruled by Queen Calafia, east of the Indies. The author of the novel, Garci Rodríguez de Montalvo, also known as Ordóñez de Montalvo, is thought to have derived the term California from the Arabic Khalif and/or Khalifa, but he might also have been influenced by the term "Califerne" in the 11th-century epic French poem The Song of Roland.
  When Spanish explorers in the 16th century first encountered the Baja California peninsula, west of the Sea of Cortez, they believed the peninsula to be an island, similar to the island described in de Montalvo's novel. They named the land California. Initially California only applied to Baja California Peninsula, but as Spanish explorers and colonizers moved north and inland, the region known as California, or Las Californias, grew. Eventually it included not only the peninsula, but also the lands north of the peninsula including what is now the U.S. states of California,  Nevada and Utah, as well as parts of U.S. States of Arizona, Colorado, New Mexico and Wyoming. After Mexico's independence from Spain, the upper territory became the Alta California province, and the lower territory became Baja California.
  Today, the name California is shared by many places throughout the world, but is most commonly associated with areas of the southwest United States, and northwest Mexico.  When used alone, California generally refers to the U.S. state of California, but when paired with the term "baja", or "lower", it can refer to the Baja California Peninsula, or the one of the Mexican states on the peninsula, Baja California, or Baja California Sur. Collectively, the U.S. and Mexican states constitute a  region referred to as The Californias.
caption: This 1562 map Americae Sive Quartae Orbis Partis Nova Et Exactissima Descriptio by Diego Gutiérrez was the first map to print the toponym California.
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