How did the city of San Fernando get its name?
San Fernando was named after the valley in which it is located, “El Valle de San Fernando.” The valley was named by the founders of the San Fernando Mission. The mission, the seventeenth to be established in California, was named in honor of King Ferdinand III, the thirteenth king of Castile and Leon in Spain. For almost a decade before the mission was established in 1797, Spanish explorers who first came through the area called the valley “El Valle de Santa Catalina de Bononia de los Encinos,” which means The Valley of St. Catherine of Bononia of the Live Oaks. Prior to the arrival of white explorers, the native Tataviam Indians called the area Achois Comihabit.
