years) sold everything “from A to Z in the U.S.A.”
BADEN-POWELL (BAY duhn POH uhl), MOUNT [Los Angeles Co.], Named for Sir Robert S. S. Baden-Powell, founder of the Boy Scouts.
BAKER [San Bernardino Co.], Named in 1908 for R. C. Baker, president of the Tonopah and Tidewater Railroad.
BAKERSFIELD [Kern Co.]. Named in 1868 for a parcel of land, “Baker’s field,” belonging to Colonel Thomas Baker, a civil and hydraulic engineer.
BALBOA (bal BOH uh) [Orange Co.]. Named in 1905 for Vasco Núñez de Balboa, the first European to come upon the Pacific Ocean.
BALDWIN PARK [Los Angeles Co.]. Once the property of E. J. “Lucky” Baldwin, a financier who got his nickname after he bought silver-mine stock at two dollars a share, then sold it in 1872 for eighteen hundred dollars a share. In his latter years he was embroiled in sensational lawsuits, both marital and extramarital. Baldwin Lake [San Bernardino Co.] was also named for him.
BALDY. The term is often applied to bare peaks, such as Old Baldy [San Bernardino Co.], also called San Antonio Peak; the nearby community of Mount Baldy shares the name.
BALLENA (buh LEE nuh, buh YAY nuh) VALLEY [San Diego Co.], Applied in 1821, the name contains the Spanish word for “whale,” referring to the shape of a nearby hill.
BALLONA (buh LOH nuh) CREEK [Los Angeles Co.], From the Ballona land grant of 1839; probably a misspelling of Bayona, the name of a town in Spain.
BALLY; BOLLY; BULLY. All three forms are derived from Wintu buli, “mountain,” and form part of the names of several mountains in northern California. The English pronunciations BAL ee, BAH lee, and BUL ee all occur. In Wintu, Bully Choop means “mountain peak”; Winnibulli is “middle mountain,” and Yolla Bolly is “snow mountain.”
BANNING [Riverside Co.]. Named in 1885 for Phineas Banning, a pioneer developer in southern California; he operated the first stagecoach line between Los Angeles and San Pedro.
BARONA (buh ROH nuh) INDIAN RESERVATION [San Diego Co.]. Named in 1846 for Father Barona, a priest at San Diego Mission.
BARRANCA (buh RANG kuh). This Spanish word for “ravine, gulch” has entered English in California names such as Barranca Colorada (kahl uh RAD uh) [Tehama Co.], meaning “red ravine.”
BARSTOW [San Bernardino Co.], Originally called Fishpond, in 1886 it was renamed by the Santa Fe Railroad for its president, William Barstow Strong.
BATEQUITOS (bah tuh KEE tohs) LAGOON [San Diego Co.]. The Spanish name, meaning “little water holes,” was applied by Padre Pedro Font in 1776. It is the plural diminutive form of batequi, a word used in northwestern Mexico to mean “a hole dug in a dry streambed in order to find water.” The origin is Yaqui bate’ekim.
BEALVILLE [Kern Co.]. Named for General Edward F. Beale, who served in the 1860s as U.S. surveyor general of California; however, Abraham Lincoln complained that Beale made himself “monarch of all he surveyed.”
BEAR. The name of this animal occurs in hundreds of California place names, referring either to the grizzly, now extinct in California, or to the black bear (which is sometimes cinnamon colored). Bear River [Humboldt Co.] was so named because Lewis K. Wood of the Gregg party was badly mauled by a wounded grizzly here in 1850. Bear Lake [San Bernardino Co.] was named as early as 1845, but it is now called Baldwin Lake; the present Big Bear Lake is an artificial one created in 1884.
BEAUMONT (BOH mahnt) [Riverside Co.], French for “beautiful mountain”; the name was given in 1887.
BECKWOURTH (BEK werth) PASS [Lassen, Plumas Cos.]. For James Beckwourth (also spelled Beckwith), an African American mountain man, adopted member of the Crow Indian tribe, and trailblazer of the 1840s and 1850s; he came to California in 1844.
BEEGUM PEAK [Tehama Co.]. From a southern U.S. word for “beehive”; bees actually live here, in holes in the rock.
BEL-AIR [Los Angeles Co.]. Named for its developer, Alphonso Bell, in 1923, on the model of French bel air, “fresh air.”
BELL [Los Angeles Co.], Named in 1898 by James George Bell and his son Alphonso, founders of the town. The place also gave its name to the nearby community of Bell Gardens.
BELLFLOWER [Los Angeles Co.]. Named in 1909 after an orchard of bellflower apples (from French belle fleur, “beautiful flower”).
BELMONT [San Mateo Co.]. The name, based on Italian bel monte or French beau mont, “beautiful mountain,” was applied in the 1850s.
BELVEDERE (BEL vuh deer) [Marin Co.]. Italian for “beautiful view”; applied in 1890.
BENICIA (buh NEE shuh) [Solano Co.]. This was one of the given names of the wife of General Mariano Vallejo, applied in 1847.
BEN LOMOND (ben LOH muhnd) MOUNTAIN [Santa Cruz Co.]. Named for the mountain that overlooks Loch Lomond in Scotland; the name is redundant, since ben represents the Scottish word for “mountain.”
BERKELEY [Alameda Co.], Named in 1866, by the trustees of the new university, for the Irish philosopher George Berkeley, who wrote the line “Westward the course of empire takes its way.”
BERROS (BAIR ohs) [San Luis Obispo Co.]. Spanish for “watercress”; nearby Los Berros Creek has been so named since 1850.
BERRYESSA (bair ee YES uh) LAKE [Napa Co.]. For José Jesús and Sisto Berryessa, who took up land here in 1843. Berryessa Creek [Santa Clara Co.] is named for another family with the same surname.
BETTERAVIA (bet uh RAY vee uh) [Santa Barbara Co.], From French betterave, “sugar beet,” referring to the sugar-beet industry here.
BEVERLY HILLS [Los Angeles Co.]. Named in 1907 after Beverly Farms in Massachusetts, a vacation spot of then president William H. Taft.
BIDWELL STATE PARK [Butte Co.]. The park, as well as several other features in various counties, was named for John Bidwell, who in 1841 organized the first overland party of emigrants to California; the settlers trekked for twenty-four weeks and were forced to eat their mules.
BIEBER (BEE ber) [Lassen Co.]. Named in 1879 for Nathan Bieber, who ran a store here; a neighboring settlement was later called Nubieber.
BIG BEAR LAKE [San Bernardino Co.]. This artificial lake, created in 1884, borrowed the name of nearby Bear Lake, now called Baldwin Lake. Big Bear Lake is the name not only of the lake, but of an incorporated city; by contrast, Big Bear City is an unincorporated community.
BIG
