Hoopa, a village in Humboldt County, on the Trinity River, was named for the Hupa Indians, a tribe on the lower Trinity River. Hoopa Mountain was named in the same way.
Point Laguna (lagoon point).
Oro Fino (fine gold), is the name of a village in Siskiyou County, twenty-five miles southwest of Yreka. This name is in contrast to the place called Oro Grande (coarse gold), in the southern part of the state.
Petaluma, the name of a town in Sonoma County, forty-two miles northwest of San Francisco. Petaluma was the name of an Indian village situated near the site of the present town on a low hill, and according to S. A. Barrett the word is compounded of peta (flat), and luma (back), making Petaluma (flat back), but Dr. Vallejo has another explanation of its meaning. He holds that the suffix ma means “valley” or “land,” and that Petaluma is a combination of three Suysun words, Pe-talu-ma, signifying “Oh! fair valley,” or “Oh! fair land.”—(Memoirs of the Vallejos, edited by James H. Wilkins, San Francisco Bulletin, January, 1914.)
Pomo is northeast of Ukiah. “Pomo was an Indian village on the east bank of the Russian River, in the southern end of Potter Valley, a short distance south of the post-office at Pomo. The word is an ending, meaning ‘people of, village of’.”—(S. A. Barrett.)
Tomales Bay is just north of Drake’s Bay, in Marin County. The word is a Spanish corruption of the Indian tamal (bay).
Ukiah is the county-seat of Mendocino County, and is on the Russian River, 110 miles northwest of San Francisco. “The word is said to be derived from the Indian yokaia, yo (south), and ka-ia (valley), the name of a village about six miles southeast of the present town of Ukiah.”
