Local Place Names Cotati: From kotati , the name of a Coast Miwok Indian village. Marin: The name Marin was first applied around 1830 to the Marin Islands between San Pedro and San Quentin Points, perhaps because the bay there was named Bahía de Nuestra Señora del Rosario la Marinera, “bay of Our Lady of the Rosary, she of seafarers.” It is also possible that the name was that of a local Indian named Marin. Mount Tamalpais: From Coast Miwok tamal páyis , literally, “coast mountain”; tamal means “west, west coast.”
Local Place Names Napa: It may be a Patwin word for “grizzly bear”’. Novato: Named after a leader of the Miwok Indians, who had probably been given the name of Saint Novatus at his baptism. Petaluma: From Coast Miwok péta lúuma , “hillside back” (ie hillside ridge). Russian River: The Spanish called it San Ygnacio and the Russian settlers called it Slavianka (‘Slav woman’). The name (la boca del Río Ruso) appears for the first time on the petition for Bodega land grant in 1843.
Local Place Names Sonoma: Derived from a Patwin word for “nose”; an Indian tribe of the area was called Sonomas in Spanish records of 1815. Tomales Bay: The term refers to the Tamal Indians; their name is from Coast Miwok támal , “west, west coast.” There is no connection with the Mexican food known as tamales. Washoe Creek: The term is from wáasiw , a tribe’s name for themselves in what is now Nevada.
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