Why is it called San Diego?

San Diego didn't get its name from its first European visitor. The bay was named once, ignored for six decades, and then renamed by a second Spanish expedition that arrived in time for a saint's feast day. Here's how it happened.

Who was San Diego?

San Diego de Alcalá, Saint Didacus in English, was a 15th-century Franciscan lay brother from Spain, linked to the university town of Alcalá de Henares near Madrid. His feast falls on November 12. When Vizcaíno's ships anchored in the bay on November 10, 1602, the San Diego History Center says he named the port both for his flagship, the San Diego, and for the saint whose day was two days away.

Why Cabrillo's name didn't stick

Cabrillo reached the bay in September 1542 and called it San Miguel, but Spain didn't return for 60 years, and Vizcaíno's detailed charts and names were the ones later expeditions used. When the Spanish finally settled in 1769, they kept Vizcaíno's name for the presidio, the mission and eventually the city. Cabrillo gets his monument on Point Loma instead: see Cabrillo National Monument.