Sunday, July 12, 2026

Question: California takes its name from a place that never existed. What was it?

Answer: A mythical island. In Garci Rodríguez de Montalvo’s early 1500s Spanish romance Las Sergas de Esplandián, California was a fictional island paradise ruled by Queen Calafia. Scholars believe Spanish explorers who reached what is now Baja California thought they had found an island and likely borrowed the name, which eventually stuck to the whole region.