Where did the state name 'California' come from?

California is a North American place name used by the U.S. state of California and the Mexican states of Baja California and Baja California Sur. Collectively, these three areas constitute the region formerly referred to as 'The Californias'.

When Spanish explorers in the 16th century first discovered the Baja California peninsula west of the Sea of Cortez, they believed the peninsula to be a large island.

California was the name given to a mythical island populated only by Black Amazon warriors who used gold tools and weapons in the popular early 16th-century romance novel 'Las Sergas de Esplandián' by Spanish author Garci Rodríguez de Montalvo.

This popular Spanish novel was printed in several editions with the earliest surviving edition published about 1510. The novel described the Island of California as being east of the Asian mainland, "very close to the side of the Terrestrial Paradise; and it is peopled by black women, without any man among them, for they live in the manner of Amazons."

The Island was ruled by Queen Calafia. When the Spanish started exploring the Pacific coast they applied this name to maps of what is now called the Baja California Peninsula, which they originally thought was an island.

As cartographers started using the name, California, to describe the land in their maps, the name eventually became official.