Galápagos Islands
Names

The Galápagos or Galapagos Islands are named for their giant tortoises, which were more plentiful at the time of their discovery. The Spanish word galápago derives from a pre-Roman Iberian word meaning " turtle ", the meaning it still has in most dialects. Within Ecuadorian Spanish, however, it is now also used to describe the islands' large tortoises. The islands' name is pronounced in most dialects of Spanish but by locals. (The accent over the second A does not change the name's pronunciation but moves the stress from the 3rd syllable to the 2nd.) It is usually read / ɡ ə ˈ l æ p ə ɡ ə s / in British English and / ɡ ə ˈ l ɑː p ə ɡ ə s / in American English. The name is first attested as the Spanish/Latin hybrid Insulae de los Galopegos ("Islands of the Turtles") on the map of the Americas in Abraham Ortelius 's Theater of the Lands of the World (Theatrum Orbis Terrarum), first published in 1570.

The islands were also previously known as the Enchanted Isles or Islands (Islas Encantadas) from sailors' difficulty with the winds and currents around them; as the Ecuador Archipelago (Archipiélago de Ecuador) or Archipelago of the Equator (Archipiélago del Ecuador) following their settlement by Ecuador in 1832; and as the Colon or Columbus Archipelago (Archipiélago del Colón) in 1892 upon the quadricentennial of Columbus 's first voyage.

The islands were mapped by the English buccaneer William Ambrosia Cowley in 1684 and by the British captain James Colnett in 1793. The names they chose to honour British kings, nobles, and naval officers of their eras continued to be used for the major islands until recently and are still used for many of the smaller islets. The Spanish names have varied over time, but the current official names have gradually supplanted the English ones for most of the major islands.
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