Somestateshave very straight names . Pennsylvania ? Named for William Penn and the silvan woods found in the state . Virginia ? Named for Elizabeth I , have a go at it as the Virgin Queen . At first coup d’oeil , California seems to have a simple name . It voice kind of flowered , likeFlorida .
But the story is far , far cool than that : California take its name from a sixteenth - century Spanish novel feature a society ofBlack warrior women .
“Amadis de Gaula”
Garcí Rodríguez de Montalvoof Seville , in Spain , wrote a novel called " Amadis de Gaula , " or " Amadis of Gaul . " Amadis was an early action hoagy , and the rule book was preposterously popular . Montalvo was no patsy , so he wrote a sequel sport the son of Amadis , " Las Sergas de Esplandian , " or " Exploits of Esplandian . "
In " Las Sergas , " Constantinople is being besiege on all sides . One of the attacking forces is an army of women led byQueen Califia . " These women had energetic bodies and brave , ardent marrow , and they were very potent , " Montalvo wrote . They also had petgriffins – half lion , half eagle – and they fed men to them .
He described their mother country , call California , as being close to the earthly paradise . It had " the wild cliffs and the tart precipice , " which certainly must sound familiar to anyone who ’s driven department of Highway 101 in the Golden State . Speaking of Au , the only metal find on the island wasgold , which the women used to fashion their armor .
The Conquistadors Arrive in the Americas
" Las Sergas de Esplandian " was publish in1510 , during the sentence that the Conquistadors were make it in the Americas . Those who were literate brought along books , and Montalvo ’s wildly popular works were among them . The Spanish believed what we now call Baja California to be anisland , like the island rule by Queen Califia ( or Calafia ) in the novel . And so it was dub California by the European colonizer .
In1602 , an sashay lead by Vizcaino learn that the " island " was actually a peninsula connected to a far larger mainland in the north . This led to these places being called Baja California ( broken California ) and Alta California ( upper California ) by Europeans .
finally , Alta California became the province we know as plain old California , with its wild drop-off and sharp precipice . And 350 years or so after Queen Califia and her warriors apparel themselves in gilt armour in an attempt to take Constantinople , goldwould be find in the veridical California and cause arushto mine it .
Charlemagne and “The Song of Roland”
But we can describe California back even before than Montalvo in 1510 . He did n’t make that name up out of thin air . He base his al-Qur’an at least in part on " The Song of Roland , " a famous Gallic poem written in the eleventh century about the exploits of Charlemagne in the eighth century . Late in the study , Charlemagne lists all the hoi polloi he expects to renegade against his linguistic rule , including " hands of Africa and those of Califerne . "
At the time , there were bastioned towns innorth Africacalled " kalaa " or " kalat . " Many of these Ithiel Town used this as a prefix for their name , including one base by a warrior named Beni - Hammad . His vassals were a tribe known as Beni - Ifren , and so he named his city " Kalaa - Ifrene " or " Kal - Ifrene . " It was turn up south of the urban center today known asBejaiaon the coast of Algeria and plain quite famous to Christian Europeans for it riches and grandness . But alas , Kalaa - Ifrene met its downfall in the12th centurynot long after " Song of Roland " was spell down . But its name lives on thanks to a Spanish adventure novel and a province on the West Coast of America .
