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.

Callender

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

Edna

Grover Beach named for founder D.W. Grover

Harmony

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

Templeton

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.