How Petaluma got its name

The name “Petaluma,” given to a modern city and a river, has its origins in the distant past.

The Petalumas were a group of native Americans whose main village was at the base of Sonoma Mountain, east of what is now called the Petaluma River. In the 1830s, General Mariano Vallejo took the name for his Rancho Petaluma. He said it meant “Oh Fair Vale,” which is a nice flowery Victorian phrase but a poor translation.

A better translation comes from Tom Smith, a Bodega Miwok elder interviewed in 1932 by anthropologist Isabel Kelly. He said petaluma meant “back” in his language. Another source gives the meaning as “flat back.” It seems likely that this refers to Sonoma Mountain, with its long, nearly level summit ridge rising behind the village. The name carries an easy familiarity, just as we might nickname a friend “Slim” or “Curly” after his or her most notable feature.

In those days, the mountain (also known as oona-pais) had meanings and associations that went far beyond its name. Ages ago, according to legend, it was an island in the primordial ocean, the place where o-ye the Coyote-Man landed his tule boat, flipped it over and sat down. In fact, the mountain’s shape resembles an overturned boat and it’s easy to imagine that the creeks tumbling down its slopes are still carry water draining from o-ye’s boat.

One of the first things the first people to arrive here must have done was to name prominent features. Place names are mirrors of culture, reflections of how we relate to the world. Where natives sometimes named individuals after places, western culture regularly names places after people. One drawback to this approach is that you can’t pick out Hood Mountain or Mount St. Helena with only their names to guide you.

As a name, Petaluma, or “flat back,” carries no pretension of ownership. Its value is in its straightforward honesty. Even if you’ve never seen Sonoma Mountain before, you could identify it just from the name. That ridge is so steady and unchanging and visible for miles around that you could use it to navigate by.

Petaluma may have a simple meaning, but it provides a glimpse of what other human beings noticed long ago. Sonoma County has changed dramatically over the past two centuries, and the village of Petaluma has been replaced by a modern city. But the name and the flat-backed ridge of Sonoma Mountain remain, as enduring as the North Star.