Sunday, December 27, 2015

Etymology of California's 58 counties


Driving through one county after another this weekend, I was curious if anyone had set a record for visiting all 58 California counties. Somebody had, in 58 hours. I emailed the guy and asked him the route he took.

I was also curious about the breakdown of the origins of the counties' names. I assumed most are Spanish, and here is a breakdown:

Spanish

  1. Alameda
  2. Amador
  3. Calaveras
  4. Contra Costa
  5. Del Norte
  6. El Dorado
  7. Fresno
  8. Los Angeles
  9. Madera
  10. Marin (maybe)
  11. Mariposa
  12. Mendocino
  13. Merced
  14. Monterey
  15. Nevada
  16. Placer
  17. Plumas
  18. Sacramento
  19. San Benito
  20. San Bernardino
  21. San Diego
  22. San Francisco
  23. San Joaquin
  24. San Luis Obispo
  25. San Mateo
  26. Santa Barbara
  27. Santa Clara
  28. Santa Cruz
  29. Sierra
  30. Solano
  31. Tulare
  32. Ventura
  33. Yuba

Native American

  1. Colusa
  2. Inyo
  3. Marin (maybe)
  4. Modoc
  5. Mono
  6. Napa
  7. Shasta
  8. Siskiyou (maybe)
  9. Sonoma
  10. Tehama
  11. Tuolumne
  12. Yolo

Non-Spanish European

  1. Alpine
  2. Butte
  3. Glenn
  4. Humboldt
  5. Imperial
  6. Kern
  7. Kings
  8. Lake
  9. Lassen
  10. Orange
  11. Riverside
  12. Siskiyou (maybe)
  13. Stanislaus
  14. Sutter
  15. Trinity

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