Cities in San Luis Obispo County
California Fool’s Gold — A San Luis Obispo County Primer Take a tour of San Luis Obispo County, it’s cities, Census Designated Places, and points of interest through the eyes of Southern California adventurer, writer, rambler, explorer, cartographer, and guerrilla gardener Eric Brightwell.
Origins of Place Names
Arroyo Grande Spanish for big creek, the name was preserved from the 1842 land grant of the same name.
Atascadero name derived from 1839 provisional land grant. It means miry place or bog.
Avila Beach named for Miguel Ávila, a corporal at Mission San Luis Obispo and grantee of Rancho San Miguelito, by his sons.
Cambria Latin name for Wales
Cayucos Hispanicization of a Chumash word for kayak or canoe
Cholame a name of Salinan Indian derivation, Cholam village was east of Mission San Miguel.
Creston named after Calvin J. Cressy
Grover Beach named for founder D.W. Grover
Los Osos the bears
Morro Bay a dome-shaped rock
Nacimiento place of birth
Nipomo named for a Chumash village and means the foot of the hill.
Paso Robles The Pass of the Oaks
Pismo Beach site was in Chumash Indian territory, name means tar or place of fish.
San Luis Obispo named for Luis of Tolouse
San Simeon named for Rancho San Simeon
Santa Margarita named for the feast day of Margaret of Antioch by the Portola expedition
Sources: California names and their literal meanings—A book for teachers and other curious people by C. M. Drake, 1893, and California Place Names of Indian Origin by A. L. Kroeber, University of California Press, Berkeley, 1916.