SONOMA
Sonoma, the name of the northern county, and of the town in the beautiful Sonoma Valley, forty-five miles north of San Francisco, is of doubtful origin. It is probable that it comes from Indian, rather than Spanish sources. In the native dialect of that region there is the constantly recurring ending tso-noma, from tso (the earth), and noma (village), hence, tsonoma (earth village or earth place). The name was given by missionaries to a chief of the Indians there, and later applied to all the Indians at the mission. From Indian sources it seems there was a captain among them who was commonly called Sonoma, but who was known by a different name among his own people.—(University of California Publications in American Archaeology and Technology.)
The name Sonoma is explained in a different way by Dr. Vallejo, who says it was named for an Indian chief called Sono, a word signifying “nose,” given to the chief as his appellation because of the very large development of that feature of his face. The suffix ma is said by Dr. Vallejo to mean “valley” or “land,” and thus Sonoma would bear the meaning of “nose valley,” or “nose land,”—(Memoirs of the Vallejos, edited by James H. Wilkins, San Francisco Bulletin, January, 1914.)
It has been said that Sonoma means “valley of the moon,” in reference to the shape of the valley, but there is probably more of poetry than of truth in this story.
At this place, San Francisco de Solano, the last of the great chain of missions, was founded July 4, 1823. The mission buildings have been put in a fair state of preservation and the church has been restored by the state.
NAPA VALLEY
“ ... said to have been the cradle of the Suisún race.”