By Audrey Atiyeh

A Petaluma Voice reporter saw a colonia named Petaluma while she was traveling in El Salvador this summer, a curiosity that made her wonder why the name – which the evidence suggests is unique to our town – would appear in Central America, more than 2,600 miles away. We set out to find an explanation, while also wondering where else in the world the name is found, and why.

The word “Petaluma” derives from Péta Lúuma, the original name of a Coast Miwok village located a few miles northeast of today's Petaluma, writes local historian and fourth-generation Petaluman John Sheehy in his 2018 book with photographer Scott Hess “On a River Winding Home.”

Where did that name come from? We’re still not sure, and may never be. That doesn’t mean we don’t have ideas. One frequently floated translation is “little hills" – but that's more of a theory because historians are unsure of its origin.

The most commonly accepted translation among historians, according to Sheehy, who writes the blog The Petaluma Historian, is “flat” or “flat back,” as in “flat back hill,” referring to the Sonoma Mountain hills seen from one side of the valley.

A surprising thing about Petaluma, however, is that no matter how rare the name is, or where it came from, there are numerous streets, songs, and businesses named after the town in unexpected places.

The small colonia in Ciudad Delgado, San Salvador, El Salvador, spotted by reporter Jennifer Sawhney, has little explanation for its name. Sheehy had no answers, and this reporter could not find any documentation about the name. Unfortunately, that remains a mystery.

However, other examples were easier to track down.

A silver mine and a street in Virginia City, Nev., carry the Petaluma name, due to a local connection. Back in the 1860’s, John Fritsch – a prominent wagon maker, blacksmith, and grocer on Petaluma Boulevard where the Aubergine thrift shop now resides – wanted to expand their business eastward, according to an article on Sheehy’s website titled “A Bend in the Road: A Legacy of Columbus.”

Fritsch and his partner Andrew Zartman, acting on promised riches in silver mining, leased out their shop and established a granite processing mill in the Gold Hill district of Washoe County. Fritsch dubbed his enterprise the Petaluma Mill, as an homage to his hometown. When a new street was built nearby, it was bestowed the name West Petaluma Street, after the silver mine.

There have also been several songs with Petaluma in their title, including a 2015 single called “Petaluma” by the songwriter Blimes Brixton. The song is about that uncertain moment of falling in love. When a fan on her Facebook page asked what the song had to do with Petaluma, she wrote, “The producer is from there and the video was shot there. I spent a lot of time up there as a kid. Love the city.”

A 2019 song titled “Petaluma” by punk act Tsunami Bomb also has local roots. Bassist Dominic Davi grew up in a northwest Petaluma home now owned by one of our editors, where a drum cover with the band’s name on it still hangs in the garage. Keyboardist and vocalist Oofliette Sparks also was one of the Petaluma-raised founding members, long before the band became staples of the Vans Warped Tour in the early 2000s, according to an article in “Salad Days” magazine.

Yet another, penned by T. Howard Hanson in the early 1900s, is called "Petaluma Song.” The famous lyrics celebrate the Petaluma poultry industry: “There’s a country in the West where there’s poultry by the millions/Way out in California, oh it’s cackle, cackle, cackle, or it’s quack, quack, quack, in the country ’round Petaluma.”

New York City even has a connection to Petaluma through an Italian-American grill called Petaluma that opened in 1984 and closed permanently in 2021. The name came from restaurateur Elio Guaitolini’s business partner, Anne Isaak, who grew up in Petaluma, surrounded by its farms and restaurants. As a nod to California’s culinary influence, Isaak and Guaitolini collaborated on the menu to signify the fusion of Italian food with California cooking techniques, according to a 2007 Press Democrat article.

Whatever "Petaluma" truly means, it is clear the city and its name have inspired people and places reaching far beyond the valley and hills we call home.

Audrey Atiyeh is an intern at Petaluma Voice. She can be reached at news@petalumavoice.org.