This 1922 street was named after the beachside San Diego community of La Jolla, probably because La Jolla was by then already recognized as a lovely and relaxing destination – and who wouldn’t want to live on a lovely and relaxing street? As for the etymology of “La Jolla”, coined by 1870 if not earlier, there is some disagreement. Laypeople believe it’s an old-fashioned spelling of la joya, Spanish for “the jewel”. More learned scholars say it’s a corruption of la hoya, meaning “the hole” or “the hollow”. That was how Spanish-speaking settlers translated a local Kumeyaay word for that area, pockmarked as it is with coastal caves.
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