U. S. A. place names of Spanish origin...
Living in a country you become aware of its history from its place names. For example, in Scotland there are thousands of place names that derive from Scots Gaelic, and even some that derive from Welsh (a related Celtic language that used to be spoken in what is now Strathclyde in the Western Central Belt of Scotland).
As I've been learning Spanish, I've encountered many words for common things that I've recognised as being names of places in the U. S. A., which I suppose is due to the close historical links between the U. S. A. and its Spanish-speaking neighbours to the south. Not myself being American, I've only recognised a few of these, but it can be a handy way of remembering new vocab. For example, I doubt I'll ever forget that the Spanish word for 'poplar' is 'alamo' (because, let's face it, everyone must 'remember the Alamo'
.
Here's a list of some that I've found useful, followed by a link to the Wikipedia page that contains a much longer list:
Alamo = poplar tree
Amarillo County = yellow county
Arizona = arid zone
Bosque County = forest county
Colorado = red
Esmerelda County = emerald county
Florida = flowery
Fresno = ash tree
Montana = from montaña = mountain
Nevada = snowy
Palo Alto = high stick
Rio Grande = big river
7 Answers
Part of the west coast of the USA, was once part of the "Kingdom of New Spain", Arizona, California, Nuevo Mexico, Florida,Nevada, Texas, etc...
These are the maps of the viceroyalty of New Spain in 1810 and in 1819
.png/1024px-Viceroyalty_of_the_New_Spain_1800_(without_Philippines).png)
.png/1024px-Viceroyalty_of_the_New_Spain_1819_(without_Philippines).png)
The original Spanish name for Los Angeles, California was:
"La ciudad de Nuestra Señora La Reina de los Angeles."
The City of Our Lady the Queen of the Angeles.
And El Centro, California had this name.
"El Centro de la Palma de la Mano De Dios."
The Center of the Palm of the Hand of God.
The palm of God's hand must really be hot, because it gets over 120 degreesF there
in the summertime. It is located in the middle of the Low Desert portion of Southern California approaching the Mexican border.
Falda, the word "palo" may also refer to a "tree". "El palo alto" is one name for the Californian redwood, and the city of Palo Alto is named after the redwoods that used to abound in the adjacent Coastal Range. I used to back-pack there in the early seventies.
Cheers
Looking at LuisCache's maps makes it abundantly clear why Spanish is becoming the second language in the USA (perhaps it always was!). Without counting I'm going to guess that a majority of place names come from either Native American languages or Spanish. The French influence can be found in the state of Louisiana and the history of St. Louis and Kansas City (Kansa is the name of an Indian [Native American] tribe).
The United States of America does not have an official language, but since most - if not all - the monoglots here speak English, they assume that is should be so. I hope the day comes when Americans (USA type) speak English and Spanish fluently.
Have you ever visited here? I hope you can some day.
And there is the list of places which is virtually a litany of saints. San Antonio, San Diego, San Francisco, San José, San Luis Obispo.
I found this very interesting and helpful. I knew there were a lot, but had no idea just how many.
From Wikipedia:
"This is a list of English language words whose origin can be traced to the Spanish language as "Spanish loan words". Many of them are identical in other Romance languages (mainly Portuguese or Italian), but their passage into English is believed to be through Spanish. Most these words came to English from Castilian and American Spanish dialects, which in turn got them from various sources including English ("turista")."
