List of place names of Spanish origin in the United States

As a result of former Spanish and, later, Mexican sovereignty over lands that are now part of the United States, there are many places in the country, mostly in the southwest, with names of Spanish origin. Florida and Louisiana also were at times under Spanish control, as were California, Utah, Nevada, Arizona, New Mexico, Texas, and portions of western Colorado. There are also several places in the United States with Spanish names as a result of other factors. Some of these names have retained archaic Spanish spellings.

Authenticity and origin Not all Spanish place name etymologies in the United States originate from the Spanish colonial period or from the Spanish language. Spanish-sounding place names are classified into four categories:

Colonial: Spanish names that were given during the Spanish colonial period, or adaptations of names originally given in the colonial period to the same place or to nearby related places. (Ex: Los Angeles, Salamanca, or California) Post-colonial: Spanish place names that have no history of being used during the colonial period for the place in question or for nearby related places. (Ex: Lake Buena Vista, Florida, named in 1969 after a street in Burbank, California) Non-Spanish: Place names originating from non-Spaniards or in non-historically Spanish areas. Faux: Fabricated Spanish place names, typically by non-Spanish speakers. (Ex: Sierra Vista)

States Arizona Either from árida zona, meaning "Arid Zone", or from a Spanish word of Basque origin meaning "The Good Oak" California (from the name of a fictional island country in Las sergas de Esplandián, a popular Spanish chivalric romance by Garci Rodríguez de Montalvo) Colorado (meaning "red [colored]", "ruddy" or "colored" in masculine form. Named after Colorado City; now called Old Colorado City.) Florida Meaning land of flowers, Florida's verdant landscape was discovered by Ponce de León on Easter Sunday. The Pascua Florida holiday in early April commemorates this discovery, during the season when flowers are abundant across Florida. Montana from Latinized Spanish meaning "mountainous", also in Spanish "montaña" is the name of "mountain" Nevada comes from the Spanish Sierra Nevada (which is also a mountain range in Spain), meaning snowy mountain range (Nevada is the Spanish feminine form of snowy). New Mexico, named after the Valley of Mexico. Oregon comes from "Orejón", "big ear" or could come from "Aragón". Texas, from the Spanish name for the Caddo, derived from the word meaning 'friend'. Utah derives from the Spanish name given to the Ute People by early explorers to the area. The Utes refer to themselves as Noochee, which in Spanish was changed to Yuta.Carvajal, Guillermo (January 13, 2014). El Desconocido Origen Español del Nombre de Ocho Estados de Norteamérica [The unknown Spanish origin of the name of eight States of North America].ABC. Archived from the original on June 3, 2016. Retrieved January 16, 2021.

Territories Northern Mariana Islands (after queen Mariana, regent at the time) Puerto Rico (Spanish for "Rich Port") US Virgin Islands (Christopher Columbus named the Virgin Islands after Santa Ursula y las Once mil Virgenes (English: St. Ursula and the 11,000 Virgins), shortened to las Vírgenes (the Virgins))

Counties and parishes Alameda County, California ("Boulevard with Poplars") Alamosa County, Colorado ("Shaded with Poplars or Cottonwoods") Amador County, California (named for José María Amador, amador is a Spanish word for "lover", not widely used) Angelina County, Texas (From "Angelina," a Spanish given name. Its English equivalent is "Angeline") Aransas County, Texas (indirectly named after the Sanctuary of Arantzazu in Spain, a name of Basque origin) Archuleta County, Colorado (From "Archuleta," a Spanish surname) Atascosa County, Texas ("Boggy") Baca County, Colorado (named in honor of pioneer and Colorado territorial legislator Felipe Baca) Bandera County, Texas ("Flag") Bastrop County, Texas Bernalillo County, New Mexico Bexar County, Texas (Béxar is an ancient form for Béjar) Blanco County, Texas ("White") Bosque County, Texas ("Forest") Brazos County, Texas ("Arms") Buena Vista County, Iowa ("Good View") Calaveras County, California (named after the Calaveras River; Spanish word for "Skulls") Cerro Gordo County, Iowa ("Fat/large Mountain") Chaves County, New Mexico (similar to "llaves"-"Keys" and surname) Cimarron County, Oklahoma (maroon) Colusa County, California (from two Mexican land grants; Coluses (1844) and Colus (1845)) Comal County, Texas Concho County, Texas ("shell") Conejos County, Colorado (named after the Conejos River meaning "Rabbits") Contra Costa County, California ("Opposite coast" or "back coast" in Spanish; in reference to its location in the San Francisco Bay Area) Costilla County, Colorado (named after the Costilla River, meaning "Little Coast" or "Rib") DeSoto County, Florida (named after the Spanish explorer Hernando de Soto) DeSoto County, Mississippi (named after the Spanish explorer Hernando de Soto) Del Norte County, California ("Northern" in Spanish, also the northernmost county in California. This county was actually named and pioneered by portuguese settlers, and is pronounced differently than would be expected in Spanish) Dolores County, Colorado (derived from "Nuestra Señora de los Dolores", Spanish name for Our Lady of Sorrows) Doña Ana County, New Mexico (Mrs. Anne) El Dorado County, California (From the mythical El Dorado, The Gilded One, significant to El Dorado County's importance in the California Gold Rush) El Paso County, Colorado ("The step" or "the pass") El Paso County, Texas ("The step" or "the pass") Escambia County, Florida (named for the Escambia River, whose name comes from a Spanish word for "barter" or "trade") Esmeralda County, Nevada ("Emerald") Fresno County, California (From Fresno Creek. In Spanish, fresno means "ash tree".) Frio County, Texas ("Cold") Garza County, Texas (named in honor to the family of landowner José Antonio de la Garza). Gonzales County, Texas (surname González) Guadalupe County, Texas Hernando County, Florida (named after Spanish explorer Hernando de Soto) Hidalgo County, New Mexico (after Villa de Guadalupe Hidalgo, where the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo was signed) Hidalgo County, Texas (after Miguel Hidalgo y Costilla, Mexican national hero) Huerfano County, Colorado (named for the Huerfano Butte, a local landmark. From the Spanish huérfano, meaning orphan) Las Animas County, Colorado (named after the Animas River, derived from Río de las Ánimas Perdidas, which means "River of the Lost Souls") La Paz County, Arizona ("Peace") La Plata County, Colorado (called so for La Plata River, in Colorado. From the Spanish plata, meaning "silver") Lampasas County, Texas Laredo, Texas ("scree") (Laredo city in Cantabria) Lavaca County, Texas ("La vaca", literally "the cow") Leon County, Florida (named for Spanish explorer Juan Ponce de León; it is his surname, which means lion, as well as the name of a Spanish city, León, Spain Leon County, Texas Los Alamos County, New Mexico ("The white poplars") Los Angeles County, California (Spanish for "the Angels", from one of the 28 settlements founded by the Spanish, El Pueblo de Nuestra Señora la Reina de los Ángeles del Río de Porciúncula) Madera County, California ("Wood" or "Timber") Matagorda County, Texas ("Fat shrub") Maricopa County, Arizona Mariposa County, California ("Butterfly") Medina County, Texas (from Arabic "town, city", surname and cities in Spain) Mendocino County, California (from Cape Mendocino, named probably for either Antonio de Mendoza or Lorenzo Suárez de Mendoza, viceroys of New Spain) Mesa County, Colorado (table) Merced County, California (from the Merced River, a shortened version of the original name El Río de Nuestra Señora de la Merced (River of Our Lady of Mercy); named in 1806 by an expedition headed by Gabriel Moraga) Monterey County, California (from Monterey Bay—the name is composed of the Spanish words Monte ("Hill") and Rey ("King") in spanish Monterrey, historically because the viceroy of New Spain (Mexico) that supported the expedition of California, was from Monterrey, Galicia, Spain) Mora County, New Mexico (Blackberry or Moor woman) Natrona County, Wyoming ("Natron") Navarro County, Texas (it could come either from the surname "Navarro", or from the Spanish region of Navarre) Nevada County, California ("Snowy") New Madrid County, Missouri (called so after the Spanish capital Madrid) Nueces County, Texas (named after the Nueces River, meaning "nuts", derived from pecan nuts) Otero County, Colorado (the county was named for Miguel Antonio Otero (born 1829), one of the founders of the town of La Junta and a member of a prominent Hispanic family) Otero County, New Mexico (named for Miguel Antonio Otero (born 1829) whose son Miguel Antonio Otero (born 1859) who was a New Mexico territorial governor) Palo Alto County, Iowa - (of Spanish "tall stick"; It is named for the first battlefield victory in the Mexican–American War). Palo Pinto County, Texas ("Colored stick") Pecos County, Texas ("freckles") Pinellas County, Florida (named after "La Punta de Piñal de Jimenez", which means "Jimenez's Point of Pines", after the entrance to Tampa Bay by Spanish explorers in 1757) Plumas County, California (for the Feather River. Plumas is the Spanish word for feathers.) Pueblo County, Colorado (village) Presidio County, Texas ("Prison") Refugio County, Texas ("Shelter") Rio Arriba County, New Mexico ("Upstream", referring to the stream of a river) Rio Grande County, Colorado ("Big River") Sabine County, Texas (tree) Sacramento County, California (from the Sacramento River, itself named for the Santísimo Sacramento (Spanish for Most Holy Sacrament), a reference to the Eucharist) San Augustine County, Texas (Presidio de San Agustín de Ahumada) San Benito County, California (in honor of San Benedicto (Saint Benedict); "Benito" is the diminutive of Benedicto) San Bernardino County, California (Saint Bernardino of Siena) St. Bernard Parish, Louisiana (called so after St. Bernard, the patron saint of Spanish colonial governor of Louisiana in 1780s Bernardo de Gálvez). San Diego County, California (from the city of San Diego, itself named after Saint Didacus of Alcalá, or San Diego de Alcalá in Spanish) Sandoval County, New Mexico (Named for the Sandoval family, prominent seventeenth-century Spanish landowners) San Francisco County, California (from the city of San Francisco, itself named after Francis of Assisi (1181–1226), a Roman Catholic saint and founder of the Order of Friars Minor (Franciscans)) San Jacinto County, Texas (for Saint Hyacinth) San Joaquin County, California (for Saint Joachim) San Juan County, Colorado (for Saint John) San Juan County, New Mexico (for Saint John) San Juan County, Utah (named after the San Juan River, meaning "St. John") San Juan County, Washington (named for Count Juan Vicente de Güemes of Revillagigedo, Viceroy of New Spain) San Luis Obispo County, California (for St. Louis, the Bishop) San Mateo County, California (for Saint Matthew) San Miguel County, Colorado (from the San Miguel River in Colorado) San Miguel County, New Mexico (for Saint Michael) San Patricio County, Texas (for Saint Patrick) San Saba County, Texas Sanpete County, Utah, a nickname related to San Pedro, allegedly given to a Native American by the :Domínguez–Escalante expedition in the 1770s Santa Ana, California (for Saint Anne) Santa Barbara County, California (for Saint Barbara) Santa Clara County, California (for Saint Clare, for the Santa Clara Valley and the mission town of Santa Clara) Santa Fe County, New Mexico (Saint Faith) Santa Cruz County, Arizona ("Holy/Sacred Cross") Santa Cruz County, California (Spanish for "Holy/Sacred Cross")