Quote:
Originally Posted by C.Evans
The original name for this island was Wadi al Qunar--Guadalcanal is a derivitive of this Arabic name. This name was given to this island some 1,000 years ago by Muslim migrants.
ANd as Jack Palance used to say: " Believe it or not."  |
The way I understand it is that Guadalcanal was named by one of the officers of the Spanish expedition to the island in 1568. Pedro de Ortega, the officer, named the island after his hometown in Spain, Guadalcanal. Ortega's hometown derives it's name from the Arabic "Wadi al-Khanat" meaning something along the lines of "valley of the [food] stalls," named so because the invading Moop army set up food stands in the riverbed.