The name "Pasadena" doesn't come from Spanish (or from some hispanized Native Californian name or word), as I'd always imagined and assumed. It certainly, and conveniently, sounds vaguely Spanish, doesn't it? Perhaps that's why I've never been able to discover the etymology. Until today. And now I have a new piece of useless trivia to clutter my brain.
The name "Pasadena" means "of the valley" and comes from the Minnesota Chippewa language (more properly, Ojibwe). And all those other Pasadenas out there in the world were named for the California one – I've verified this, via a few minutes with google: Pasadena, Texas; Pasadena, Newfoundland; and Pasadena, South Australia – all named for the old California city. So, probably the other Pasadenas, also (e.g. I know there's a Pasadena Park, Missouri, and a Pasadena in Florida, I believe).
So how did a Minnesota Ojibwe name get attached to what was originally an 1880's California resort community?
