I was talking with my father for our regular Sunday morning phonechat. He is a history buff, even runs two history groups. The topic of Guadalcanal came up, and he recalled as a kid searching over the map of the island, looking for the canal!
Which made us wonder, why is it called that?
So I’ve just spent an hour googling, and visited a lot of battle memoir sites, dictionaries, and geographical information, with no luck at all. I’ve also learned more than I wanted to know about the renaming of Henderson Field.
So–does anyone here know, or can anyone help me find out, why the island is called Guadalcanal?
The island was named by Spanish explorer Álvaro de Mendaña de Neyra after a small town in Spain, about 50 miles north of Seville. How the small town in Spain got the name, I don’t know.
Unfortunately, I can’t get that link (or even http://www1.elpais.es/ ) to work at the moment.
Other than noting that Guadal- is a fairly common beginning to several Spanish names, but that I am not aware of a Spanish word guadal, and then throwing out the wild guess that it is either an obsolete word that continues to appear in old names or a borrowing from the Moors, I can’t add anything.
Well, aguada means a watering hole, so aguadal might just be the adjectival form.
At any rate, I think you already have the answer. Spanish canal can mean canal, but also channel and narrow valley. The village of Guadalcanal in the northern tip of Sevilla province (state? department?) is in the Sierra Morena, near the border with Badajoz. I suspect that putting “Extension of sandy terrain that, when it rains and there is no runoff grade, turns to mud” together with “channel” or “narrow valley” up in the low mountains of the Sierra Morena gives you a description of the terrain around the village of Guadalcanal.
Whether de Mendaña de Neyra named it for the village because he or one of his crew came from there or for some other reason, you may need to find a Spanish site to tell you.
One of those foreign language courses that used to advertise on the radio said that “Guadalajara” (sp?), the Mexican/Spanish city is a Spanicized version of an Arabic term that means “place where water flows over rocks.” That lends more credence, if true, to the term “Guadal” being related to “wadi” as a Moorish loan word.
I’d like to see a cite for that. The word “aguadal” is (a) quite obsolete and (b) unrelated to the prefix “Guadal” As has been said, Guada- is a common prefix in Spanish and derives from Arab. For example: Guadalquivir = Ued-el-kebir = Rio Grande = Big river. The prefix became common to use with aboriginal names which sounded vaguely like it so it can be found in place names which do not derive from Arab directly.
Sailor is mistaken, as tomndebb did not build the meaning off aguadal, only commenting on that word, separately, and instead, building the meaning off guadal as provided by El Mariachi Loco, and canal as noted in most Spanish dictionaries, plus speculation based on the Times of London World Atlas.
Leaving aside the aguadal <=> guada- controversy, tomndebb will have been mistaken if it is demonstrated that guadal (not aguada) does not mean a sandy wash inclined to turning muddy when it rains.
My stone, a present from Guadalcanal, Andalucia. Since ancient times this area was famous for its argentiferous minerals. Its etimology (Guad-al-canal)means in Arabic “River of Creation”. In 1241 it was conquered by the Order of Santiago. Three churches were built: Santa Maria, la Major, Santa Ana", built in 1307. It has lost a great number of it population, at present (1983-1984)time consisting only of 3,500 inhabitants. Located 120 kilometers north of Seville, it is the farthest town from it in this province.
Pedro Ortega Valencia was born here around 1520. Eventually, he discovered, conquered and pacified the Island of Guadalcanal in the Pacific Ocean, archipielago of the Solomon Islands, so well known during the Second World War.
I was born in Guadalcanal September 8, 1941. In September 6, 1964 the Navies of Spain and the United States paid homage to Pedro Ortega Valencia.
I took it from Diccionario de la Lengua Española, Real Academia Española, 19th Edition, 1972: Guadal. Por aguadal, de aguada. Extensión de tierra arenosa, …et seq. as translated in my earlier post.
And on Guadalajara, Earl is right, according to the official city site the name is derived from Arabic “Wad-al-hidjara”, meaning water that runs through rocks, and is based on the homeland of Spanish founder Nuño Beltrán de Guzmán.
Well, it seems we agree “Guadalcanal” does not derive from “aguadal” but I think it is a reasonable interpretation of your post that it implied it. The question in the OP is the origin of Guadalcanal and your answer is
You never say it is not related and you imply you are answering the OP. Furthermore:
The name does NOT derive as you suspect from “Extension of sandy terrain that, when it rains and there is no runoff grade, turns to mud”. Please explain to me how this can be interpreted to mean the exact opposite of what it says. Maybe I am missing something.
