Urban Legends

How Tarzana Got Its Name

The Legend

In 1910, Edgar Rice Burroughs purchased a huge amount of land in Southern California's San Fernando Valley. On this land he built a ranch where he could make a living and still have the peace he needed to write his works of fiction. Years later, Burroughs' land became the community of Tarzana, named after the title character of his Tarzan novels.

Behind the Legend

The story of how Tarzana got its name is as stated above. It is, in fact, not unusual for a city or other large entity of land to be named after something in a beloved piece of literature, as can be seen from a few more examples.

Place	Named for
Great Falls, Minnesota	The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald
Main Street (numerous examples; see also Tobacco Road)	Main Street by Sinclair Lewis
Odessa, Texas	The Odyssey by Homer
Orange County, California	A Clockwork Orange by Anthony Burgess
Oslo, Norway	The Wizard of Oz by L. Frank Balm
Santa's Village, California	The Satanic Verses by Salman Rushdie (anagram)
Sargasso Sea, North Atlantic	Wide Sargasso Sea by Jean Rhys
Tequila Flats, New Mexico	To Kill a Mockingbird, by Harper Lee
Tucson, Arizona	The Son Also Rises, by Ernest Hemingway
Winesburg, Ohio	Winesburg, Ohio, by Sherwood Anderson
Earth, Sol system	Battlefield Earth, by L. Ron Hubbard
Honorable mention: Fire Island, New York	Sons and Lovers by D. H. Lawrence

Literature has been the inspiration for other items as well. For example, back when telephone exchanges were used instead of area codes, CAtch 22 and FArehneit 451 were a popular phone numbers.And there are numerous business whose names are literary references, such as the Lord of the Fries restaurant, The Hairy Potter ceramics workshop, and carpet store Atlas Rugged.

Of course, literature also refers to itself. It's a little known fact that Scarlett O'Hara in Gone with the Wind was named for The Scarlet Letter. And the main character in Chuck Palahniuk's Fight Club was named for the main character in Daphne Du Maurier's Rebecca.

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