Southern California has a rich history that stretches beyond the modern record. The original inhabitants of the area were the Kizh Nation (Gabrieleños), sometimes referred to as the Tongva people.
They lived and worked with the land as seafaring coastal people, utilizing the abundance of the Channel Islands to fish, harvest shellfish and pinnipeds, and make tools. The Gabrileños were bounded on all sides by tribes from various other Nations, and by the time the first overland group of Spaniards arrived in the area in 1769, they found over 5,000 Gabrileños living in over 100 villages.

Fast forward many years and wars later, the United States acquired southern California from Mexico in 1848. By 1850, California entered statehood as the 31st state, and with that was the creation of its 27 original counties, one of which was Los Angeles County.

Although the county is still relatively large today, its area used to be even greater, extending all the way to the Nevada border. Its domain was divvied up into the surrounding counties you see on the map today: Inyo, Kern, Orange, Riverside, San Bernardino, and Ventura Counties.

By 1887, an oil and real estate boom sparked the proliferation of many new cities and the county grew steadily into the next two millenniums congealing into the mega-metropolis it has now become.

Ciudad de los Ángeles
LA Almanac reports that there is likely no other major city in America with a namesake more disputed than that of Los Angeles. The original city names were either: El Pueblo de la Reyna de los Ángeles, or El Pueblo de Nuestra Señora de los Ángeles de Porciúncula. Either way, both names talk about angels, so regardless of what the original name actually was—you get the gist. The city’s name was shortened too, (thankfully), arriving at Ciudad de los Ángeles, Los Angeles, preserving the angel portion of the namesake nonetheless.

The naming of Los Angeles County, being one of the originals and the very epicenter of the region—growing from tiny pueblo into a major metropolis— is an homage to the city’s roots.