Talk:List of place names of Spanish origin in the United States

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I take issue with Arizona being considered a Spanish name. It is quite ridiculous to assume that canonical word order would not be followed to create such a portmanteau. I would rather expect Zonarida to have been the name if that was the case, as the noun is followed by the adjective in most cases with most adjectives. The much more plausible source is Tohono O'odham, a local native language, with the term "ali sonak", which means 'little spring'. L/R confusion by the Spanish ear or presumably some sort of allophonic variation in Tohono would lead to ari-sonak. The /s/ appears to be apical in the transcription the Arizona wikipage, though how this would be rendered at the time in Spanish would have depended on the Spaniard who made the record, as at this time Spanish was going drastic sound shifts regarding sibilants. Additionally, final /k/ is not permitted in Spanish, and though exceptions were made in the case of Tucson (/'tuk.son/ and other place names in Mexico (i.e., Cuauhtemoc), it would be easy to see the /k/ dropped to facilitate pronunciation. 65.34.203.39 (talk) 23:20, 16 May 2010 (UTC) Tom D. -- Spanish Teacher

One Theory is that “Arizona” came from the Basque words “aritz,” meaning “good” and “ona,” meaning “oak.” 87.221.174.181 (talk) 14:55, 27 October 2013 (UTC)

Some cities in New Mexico with Spanish names
Alamogordo, Cuba, Dona Ana,  Estancia, Las Cruces,  Las Vegas,  Los Alamos,  Los Lunas,  Portales,  Raton, Rio Rancho, San Antonio,  Santa Rosa,  Socorro, plus many smaller towns, many county names, and many rivers.

—Preceding unsigned comment added by 201.51.108.235 (talk) 15:26, 4 September 2010 (UTC)

In Oklahoma
Cimarron county. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 80.26.92.93 (talk) 10:28, 7 March 2013 (UTC)

Named after 18th century Spaniard naval officers
Bodega Bay is named after Juan Francisco de Bodega y de la Cuadra. Same for Cape Alava and Cordova in Alaska. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 212.8.98.118 (talk) 12:58, 31 October 2013 (UTC)

Casco Bay and Strait of Juan de Fuca.
Juan de Fuca seems to be an exploration hoax. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 212.8.98.118 (talk) 13:08, 31 October 2013 (UTC)

Marquesas Keys
Uninhabitated. A misspelling of Cayos del Marqués (Marquis's Keys). After the Marquis of Cadereita or Cadereyta. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 212.8.98.118 (talk) 13:24, 31 October 2013 (UTC)

Non-Spanish names
This article includes some toponyms such as Huachuca or Maricopa that are not of Spanish origin, but rather, from prehispanic languages. --Davius (talk) 09:16, 26 July 2014 (UTC)

Eldorado
>Non-Spanish in origin: A good example of this is Eldorado, Illinois, where it comes from two Anglo last names being run together.

I would like to see a source on this, because El dorado literally means 'the golden' in Spanish, and its related to 'the golden [city]', which is a mythical city that the Spanish conquistadoress supposedly found in the new world. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 203.33.164.181 (talk) 09:19, 15 September 2014 (UTC)

Names that aren't place names
I believe that "place names" is generally understood to mean "names of places", names by which geographic locations and entities are known. Based on this understanding, lists of schools, theaters, railroad stations, and so on don't belong here. Names of businesses aren't place names under any definitionLagunitas Brewing Company, really?

In addition, allowing the inclusion of all of these amounts to a great deal of redundancy. It's a given, for example, that hundreds or thousands of entities in Colorado will have the word "Colorado" in their names. What benefit is offered by listing them explicitly?

Therefore, I think some sections and individual listings should be removed from this article. Largoplazo (talk) 12:55, 22 September 2020 (UTC)
 * I agree. In particular, I think the streets and roads can all go. Furthermore, I see no need to have non-notable entries, be they roads, theatres, middle schools, or even former settlements. I'm inclined to start deleting some of these myself, on the basis of WP:INDISCRIMINATE, WP:NOTDIRECTORY (not to mention WP:UNSOURCED). If it doesn't have a bluelink: adiós. If it isn't the name of a place: ¡hasta la vista! &mdash; JohnFromPinckney (talk / edits) 09:00, 24 June 2021 (UTC)

Saragossa isn't a Spanish name.
Yes, it's named after Zaragoza, but the name is the Catalan way of writing it, thus making it a Catalan name. 37.133.9.7 (talk) 04:15, 26 March 2023 (UTC)

Proof: https://ca.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saragossa — Preceding unsigned comment added by 37.133.9.7 (talk) 04:17, 26 March 2023 (UTC)