Street Name Decoder
Why is it called that?
In 1851 the new city had a sea captain survey its grid, and a committee of three named the streets after local families, governors, the land and a few good stories. Here are 50 of them, from Salsipuedes to Hollister. Tap a street to light it up on the map.
50 streets
Santa Barbara
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Salsipuedes is Spanish for "leave if you can." The story goes that the lower Eastside was marsh and gully, and getting through took some doing.
Source: Santa Barbara Independent
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Anacapa Street points toward Anacapa Island. The island's Chumash name is usually translated as "mirage" or "ever-changing."
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De la Viña means "of the vineyard." Presidio comandante Felipe de Goicoechea planted vines along today's De la Vina Street, between Carrillo and Castillo.
Source: Santa Barbara Independent
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Cota Street is named for the Cota family. A Cota served as first lieutenant under Captain Ortega at the presidio.
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Haley Street is named for Captain Salisbury Haley, the sea captain the city hired in 1851 to survey its street grid.
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Carrillo Street honors the Carrillo family. The 1851 survey started at State and Carrillo, and Judge Joaquín Carrillo sat on the committee that picked the names.
Source: Noozhawk
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Micheltorena Street is named for Manuel Micheltorena, appointed governor of Alta California in 1842.
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Cabrillo Boulevard is named for Juan Rodríguez Cabrillo, who sailed this coast in 1542, the first European known to do it. The beach road went by other names before.
Source: VoiceMap walking tour
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Milpas has Nahuatl roots and means "cornfields." From the 1860s, people worked to turn Eastside wetlands into farmland.
Source: Santa Barbara Independent
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Gutierrez Street carries one of the old Californio family names the 1851 committee put on the grid.
Source: Wikipedia
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Ortega Street carries one of Santa Barbara's old Californio family names.
Source: Wikipedia
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Cañon Perdido means "lost cannon." In 1848 a cannon salvaged from the wrecked brig Elizabeth vanished, and the military governor fined the town $500.
The argument: Michael Redmon's Independent history puts the theft in April 1848; Ancestors West's March 1991 account says early May.
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Mason Street is named for Colonel Richard B. Mason, the U.S. military governor who fined the town over the lost cannon.
Source: Santa Barbara Independent
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Quinientos is Spanish for 500, the dollar amount of the lost-cannon fine.
Source: Santa Barbara Independent
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Arrellaga Street is named for José Joaquín de Arrillaga, a Spanish governor of the Californias. The spelling drifted along the way.
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Garden Street was also called Jardines. Its line, if extended, would have crossed the De la Guerra gardens.
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Chapala Street is named for Lake Chapala in Mexico, said to be home to some of the early settlers.
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Bath Street was the old path down to the beach for a swim. A bathhouse opened at its foot in 1873.
Source: Santa Barbara Independent
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Castillo means "castle" or "fort." The street led toward the old Spanish fort on the Mesa.
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Figueroa Street is one of the streets named for California's former governors.
Source: Santa Barbara Independent
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Victoria Street is one of the streets named for California's former governors.
Source: Santa Barbara Independent
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Sola Street is one of the streets named for California's former governors.
Source: Santa Barbara Independent
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Islay is a Spanish form of a Salinan name for the native holly-leaved cherry.
Source: Santa Barbara Independent
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Valerio Street is named for Valerio, a Robin Hood figure of local legend who could supposedly turn invisible.
Source: Santa Barbara Independent
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Yanonali Street is named for Yanonali, chief of the Chumash village of Syuxtun near the mouth of Mission Creek.
Source: Chumash place-names list
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Anapamu is Chumash for "rising place," a hill with a shrine.
The argument: The city's historical marker calls Anapamu a shrine hill or "rising place." Ancestors West's March 1990 account says it was a chief's name.
Source: Historical Marker Database
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State Street is named for California becoming a state in 1850, the same year Santa Barbara became a city.
Source: Noozhawk
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Laguna Street recalls the lagoon that once covered part of the lower Eastside.
Source: Santa Barbara Independent
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Quarantina recalls quarantine. Historian Neal Graffy ties it to sick crews isolated here in 1797 and 1798.
Source: Santa Barbara Independent
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Punta Gorda is Spanish for "broad point," for the bluff the street runs toward.
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Los Olivos means "the olives," for the Mission's olive orchards. The street leads to the Mission.
Source: Santa Barbara Independent
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De la Guerra Street is named for the De la Guerra family, among the leading Californio families, Pablo de la Guerra among them.
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San Andres is a tongue-in-cheek sainting of Andrés Pico, the Californio commander at the 1846 battle of San Pascual.
Source: Santa Ynez Valley News
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San Pascual, Chino and Gillespie streets form a Mexican-American War cluster: the 1846 battles of San Pascual and Chino, and U.S. Marine Archibald Gillespie.
The argument: Ancestors West's June 1990 account places San Pascual at Rancho del Chino. Neal Graffy's history describes two separate battles.
Source: Santa Ynez Valley News
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Pitos is Spanish for flutes. Reeds that grew there were cut to make them.
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Carpinteria Street was the way toward Carpinteria, which Portolá's party named for a Chumash canoe-building "carpenter shop."
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Robbins Street is named for Thomas Robbins, a Yankee sea captain who got a land grant here in the 1840s.
Source: Wikipedia
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Voluntario Street is named for the volunteer cavalry from Mazatlán sent here after the pirate Bouchard's 1818 raid.
Source: Wikipedia
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Modoc Road was so bitterly fought over in 1873 that people nicknamed it after the Modoc War, then in the news. The name stuck.
Source: Wikipedia
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Hutash Street is named for Hutash, the Chumash earth mother. The city renamed it in 2020, replacing Indio Muerto ("dead Indian").
Source: City of Santa Barbara
Goleta
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Hollister Avenue is named for W.W. Hollister, a rich sheep-and-wool rancher called "Colonel" as an honorific, who improved the road out to his Glen Annie ranch.
Source: Goleta History (Tom Modugno)
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Fairview Avenue takes its name from Albert Hollister's Fairview Ranch, started in 1874. It became a county road in 1889.
Source: Goleta History (Tom Modugno)
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Patterson Avenue is tied to John Patterson, a New York investor who bought and subdivided La Goleta land between 1868 and 1878.
Source: Goleta History (Tom Modugno)
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Los Carneros means "the sheep" or "the rams." The name appears on local rancho maps from 1842 and 1846.
Source: Wikipedia
Montecito
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Coast Village Road was once called Coast Highway, a name listed in Montecito's 1899 road-naming effort.
Source: Montecito Journal
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San Ysidro Road is named for San Ysidro Ranch, which honors St. Isidore, patron saint of farmers.
Source: Wikipedia
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Hot Springs Road was officially mapped by the Montecito Land Company in 1887.
Source: Wikipedia
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Olive Mill Road is named for the Gould family's olive mill, El Molino, which pressed oil until it closed in 1905.
Source: Siteline Santa Barbara
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Sycamore Canyon Road was on Montecito's 1899 list of road names, drawn up for rural mail delivery.
Source: Montecito Journal
Carpinteria
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Casitas means "little houses," for Chumash dwellings. The name spread to the pass, the springs and later the lake.
Source: Ojai Valley Museum
No street matches that. Try part of a name, like "cota".
The stories are in our own words, each with the source we checked on October 30, 2026. Where the sources disagree, we say so. The street committee of 1851 was Joaquín Carrillo, Antonio María de la Guerra and Eugene Lies (Santa Barbara Independent). Street lines: U.S. Census Bureau TIGER/Line 2025, pulled 2026-10-30. Map by OpenFreeMap, © OpenMapTiles, data © OpenStreetMap contributors. Know a better source? hello@sbsavvy.com
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