Every time the Santa Ana winds kick in, we get calls and e-mail from a handful of readers -- usually older readers -- saying that the winds should be called Santanas, not Santa Anas. There's a belief among some that the name of the winds date to Spanish settlers, and that we should use the original version.
The National Weather Service disagrees, saying that the correct term is Santa Ana winds, a reference to Santa Ana Canyon, a main passageway to the sea. Robert Lovell, a researcher at UCLA, concurs, saying in an online primer:
Q. Where did the name for the Santa Ana winds come from?
A. Sources vary. The most common explanation has the wind being named for the Santa Ana Canyon in Southern California's Orange County, which would seem to belittle its rather more regional scope and impact. However, alternative explanations also seem dubious. It is often claimed that "Santa Ana" is a corrupted version of "Santana" which is purported to mean "devil" in Spanish or an Indian language. Yet, the Spanish word for devil is "diablo" and its Satan is "Satana", conspicuously missing an extra "n". The Indian language in which "Santana" means devil has not yet been identified. I am not a linguist, but I suggest it is more likely for a term like "Santana" to have evolved from "Santa Ana" than vice-versa (think "San Francisco" becoming "Frisco" or "New Orleans" devolving into "N'orleans").