Cayo Gorda?

Question

According to the dictionary, "cayo" is a masculine noun (meaning key or islet) and "gordo -a" is a gender-specific adjective meaning "fat". So why are the three islands (in Cuba, Honduras and Florida) all called "Cayo Gorda" instead of "Cayo Gordo"?

Answer 1

Judging from the amount of badly misspelled sentences we get here, it'd offer some alternatives:

cayo = islet, key

cayó = He/she/it fell

Now "caer gordo" (=to fall fat") means to give someone an unpleasant or unimpressive impression (literally, give others a "fat impression"). If a person gave this impression to others, we'd say that this person "(les) cayó gordo (a otros)" (=fell "fat" to others).

María le cayó gorda a todo el barrio = The whole neighbourhood found her unpleasant.

But this only works with accents, a commodity that most people deem unnecessary.

Answer 2

... and it doesn't make much sense in the context of naming islands, does it? Picture Columbus looking at a pristine tropical island. Can you picture him saying "Este isla me cayó gorda"? Me, neither.

Answer 3

Ahah! I misunderstood lazarus. His point was that maybe they avoided 'Cayo Gordo' because, if you add an accent on the first 'o', the phrase would mean something entirely different from 'Fat Cay'. I'm not sure I buy that, but now at least I understand it.