Indigenous
Pensacola
Florida (FL)est. 1559pop. 54,312/pen-suh-KOH-luh/
The meaning
“Hair people / long-haired people”
How it got the name
Spanish colonists in 1559 recorded the local people as Panzacola, from a Choctaw compound generally read as 'hair people' — a reference to how they wore their hair long. The 1559 settlement was destroyed by a hurricane weeks after landing, making Pensacola America's first and briefest European city.
Former names
- Panzacola
- Santa Maria de Ochuse
- Pensacola