The Journal of California Anthropology

In this paper, I discuss the pattern of Chumash placenaming. Places are named for prominent geographical features and their fancied resemblances, for flora, fauna, and local conditions, and for legendary and mythological incidents. I give priority to those placenames still surviving, of course, but the names of many places long since forgotten appear here too. It is not, however, my purpose to make an exhaustive list of placenames, nor to locate them precisely.