sourced story
early April 1513Reputable source · 2 sourcesWell documented

Ponce de Leon Names Florida

A former governor of Puerto Rico lands on a flowered coast during Spain's Easter season and gives it a name that stuck

On the timeline · around early April 1513 · Conquest and CircumnavigationConquest and CircumnavigationPonce de Leon Names Florida150815101512151415161518

Quick facts

Explorer
Juan Ponce de Leon
Prior role
First Spanish governor of Puerto Rico
Name given
La Florida
Colony founded
No; he never established one

What happened

Juan Ponce de Leon, Puerto Rico's first Spanish governor, led an expedition of three ships, the Santiago, the Santa Maria de la Consolacion, and the San Cristobal, that made landfall near present-day St. Augustine in early April 1513. The coast, thick with vegetation, led him to name it La Florida, both for the lush flowers and because the landing fell about a week after Pasqua Florida, the Spanish term for the Easter season, or feast of flowers. He continued exploring south along Florida's coast before returning to Puerto Rico, and never succeeded in founding a colony there before his death.

Why it matters

Ponce de Leon is credited as the first European known to have reached what is now the continental United States. His voyage did not establish a lasting settlement, but it drew more Spanish explorers toward Florida in the following decades.

How we know

The Mariners' Museum's Ages of Exploration entry on Ponce de Leon gives the ship names, the landing date, and the origin of the name La Florida.

Sources

See something wrong? . Corrections with a source get fixed fastest.

Part of a timelineThe Age of Exploration27 events · How Portuguese and Spanish voyages connected the world's oceans between 1415 and 1600, and what that connection cost the people already living thereView all →
Ponce de Leon Names Florida · The Age of Exploration · SourcedStory