Galapagos Islands

• Galápagos Islands, Galapagos, Galápagos

From Spanish islas Galápagos, first attested as New Latin insulae de los galopegos (“islands of the turtles”) in Abraham Ortelius's 1570 atlas Theatrum Orbis Terrarum, from a variant spelling of Spanish galápago (“turtle”), from a pre-Roman substrate of Iberia *calappacu (“turtle”). Cf. Catalan calàpet (“toad”) and Portuguese cágado (“turtle”).

Galapagos Islands

1. An archipelago off the coast of Ecuador, in the Pacific Ocean, famed for their influence on Darwin's theory of evolution by natural selection.

• (official names): Baltra, Bartolomé, Caldwell, Crossman, Daphne Major, Darwin, Eden, Enderby, Española, Fernandina, Floreana, Gardner, Genovesa, Guy Fawkes, Isabela, Macgowen, Marchena, Nameless, North Seymour, Pinzón, Pinta, Rábida, Redonda, San Cristóbal, Santa Cruz, Santa Fe, Santiago, South Plaza, Tortuga, Watson, Wolf
• (alternative names): Albemarle, Barrington, Bartholomew, Bindloe, Charles, Chatham, Culpepper, Duncan, Hood, Indefatigable, Louis, Jervis, Narborough, South Seymour, Tower, Wenman
• (former names): Bolivia, Chavez, Duke of Norfolk's Island, Duke of York's Island, King Charles's Island, Norfolk, Salvador, San Clemente, San Salvador, Santa Maria