SOUTH BAY CITIES NAMES AND THEIR ORIGINS

How many of us have often wondered about the name of The South Bay town we live in and where it came from? Well, we’ll solve that problem for you. Here are some of the Origins for the names of some of the South Bay cities. As we find more, we’ll let you know.

* CITY OF HAWTHORNE: Named after the American novelist Nathaniel Hawthorne
* CITY OF GARDENA: This one is tuff as there are many different stories as to where this name came from but most agree that it came from “Garden Spot” which one of the original founders called it because it layed in a beautiful green and lush valley.
* CITY OF CARSON: Named after the son of the the developer of the South Bay who was also head of the Dominguez Water Corp., John Manuel Carson.
* CITY OF EL SEGUNDO: Named by the executives of Standard Oil in 1911 when they were searching for a location for their second refinery. In Spanish, El Segundo means second.
* CITY OF HERMOSA BEACH: Named in 1907, Hermosa means beautiful in Spanish.
* CITY OF LAWNDALE: The founder, Charles B Hopper named it that in 1905 after a Chicago suburb as a way of attracting more settlers from the east.
* CITY OF INGLEWOOD: The story says that a new resident of the area named Inglewood after the town he had just moved away from, his home town.
* CITY OF MANHATTAN BEACH: Named by developer Stewart Miller after his hometown in New York
* CITY OF PALOS VERDES: Means “green sticks” in Spanish, and probably named after Canada de Los Palos Verdes, a wooded area near the current day Machado Lake in Harbor Regional Park.
* CITY OF REDONDO BEACH: Named after the nearby land grant ‘Rancho Sausal Redondo’ (“Ranch of the Round Clump of Willows”).
* WILMINGTON: Named by developer Phineas Banning after his home town of Wilmington, Delaware.
* SAN PEDRO: Named by Spanish explorer Sebastian Vizcaino in honor of St. Peter.