Sebastopol - origins of the name

[Dustyg]

Σεβαστος = venerable, respectable (Sebastos)
Πόλης + city (Polis)


The origins of the name are Greek. There are cities in the old Russia by that name too; that happened when the Greek missionaries left Constantinople (the mother church of Eastern Orthodoxy) to carry the word to the world, and settled in Russia as well as other places. It means: city of respect, or venerable city. The name came to our area via the Russian settlers who came down from Alaska to Ft. Ross and south of that area.This information came from a Greek, also Greek-language teacher, who was born in Greece. Look it up online if you like, so we can settle the name once and for all. Another Greek, local.

[clayman]

Σεβαστος = venerable, respectable (Sebastos)
Πόλης + city (Polis)


The origins of the name are Greek. There are cities in the old Russia by that name too; that happened when the Greek missionaries left Constantinople (the mother church of Eastern Orthodoxy) to carry the word to the world, and settled in Russia as well as other places. It means: city of respect, or venerable city. The name came to our area via the Russian settlers who came down from Alaska to Ft. Ross and south of that area..

I've lived here for 40 years and used to believe that our name came from the Russian settlers on the coast. However, more recently, maybe from the West County Historical Society though I'm not sure of that, I heard that a fight had broken out, I believe in a bar in town, and that someone had said that it was like the Battle of Sebastopol and that the name of our town, which until then had been Pine Cone, I believe, stuck as Sebastopol.
Anyone else heard that story?

[Dustyg]

I've lived her 40 years also. My good friend, a realtor who was in his 70's when I moved here, knew a lot about this, his home town, and told me a story similar to the one you mention. The point I was making was not how this town, which used to be Analy (or Annaly) and Pine Cone, got the name Sebastopol--but I wanted to talk about the origin of the name itself.

I've lived here for 40 years and used to believe that our name came from the Russian settlers on the coast. However, more recently, maybe from the West County Historical Society though I'm not sure of that, I heard that a fight had broken out, I believe in a bar in town, and that someone had said that it was like the Battle of Sebastopol and that the name of our town, which until then had been Pine Cone, I believe, stuck as Sebastopol.
Anyone else heard that story?

[Gene]

I heard the fight story about ten years ago from one of the downtown bank managers who seemed quite knowledgeable. The way the story went is that a fight broke out between two men and one said he was going to kill the other one. The threatend man ran into the bar to hide and stayed there for weeks while the other man waited outside saying he was going to kill him when he came out. Crowds gathered around the bar named " Hearns Sevastopol" a combination of his name and his home town in Russia. The locals starting calling Analy, Sevastopol and the name stuck. How much truth is in this story I really can't say but I find it much more interesting and colorful than what was originally asked here which is the meaning of the name of a Russian town. After a month the man came out of the bar and no blood was shed. Has anyone else been told this story? It would be interesting to know what really happened.

[Nancy M Prebilich]

I've lived her 40 years also. My good friend, a realtor who was in his 70's when I moved here, knew a lot about this, his home town, and told me a story similar to the one you mention. The point I was making was not how this town, which used to be Analy (or Annaly) and Pine Cone, got the name Sebastopol--but I wanted to talk about the origin of the name itself.

I myself am nearly 40, but my father's family settled in Sebastopol in 1919, while my mother's settled in Bodega in 1856. The history of this area is not just lore to me, it's my heritage. "Analy Township" was the name given to this area by my great relative by marriage, Jasper O'Farrell (who's son Cathol married my great-great grandfather's sister, Margaret Gleason). Jasper o'Farrell, who lived in Freestone, is an un-celebrated historical icon who was the first surveyor and engineer of San Francisco in 1839, California State Senator in 1862, and a great benefactor who donated the Palace Hotel in S.F to the Sisters of Charity for an orphanage, and donated the land and lumber to build St. Teresa's church and cemetary in Bodega. There he and and the entire lineage of my family rest eternal, as will I. He named this area, the greater west county, from Bodega to Forestville to Santa Rosa to Petaluma, "Analy Township" in 1851 after the ancient principality in Ireland which was ruled for centuries by the family of the O'Farrell, Prince of Annaly, before the English conquest.

The City of "Sebastopol" was first founded in 1853 by J.H.P.Morris who called it Pine GROVE. Then in 1855 there was indeed a street fight that broke out and the loosing party took refuge in a store, whose owner refused entrance to the other combatant, and the witnesses shouted that the store was the loser's "Sevastopol" as it was at this time that the Allies were besieging Sebastopol, the fortified town in the Crimea.

I have always found it fitting that Barry and this website have always served in historical form to protect those with whom I have battled; a "Sebastopol" in it's own rite. Now back to the etymology of the word "Sebastopol."

[Dustyg]

A thousand thank you's. This is the most accurate version I have yet heard as to the history of our town and how and what the names have been. Thank you Nancy.

I myself am nearly 40, but my father's family settled in Sebastopol in 1919, while my mother's settled in Bodega in 1856. The history of this area is not just lore to me, it's my heritage. "Analy Township" was the name given to this area by my great relative by marriage, Jasper O'Farrell (who's son Cathol married my great-great grandfather's sister, Margaret Gleason). Jasper o'Farrell, who lived in Freestone, is an un-celebrated historical icon who was the first surveyor and engineer of San Francisco in 1839, California State Senator in 1862, and a great benefactor who donated the Palace Hotel in S.F to the Sisters of Charity for an orphanage, and donated the land and lumber to build St. Teresa's church and cemetary in Bodega. There he and and the entire lineage of my family rest eternal, as will I. He named this area, the greater west county, from Bodega to Forestville to Santa Rosa to Petaluma, "Analy Township" in 1851 after the ancient principality in Ireland which was ruled for centuries by the family of the O'Farrell, Prince of Annaly, before the English conquest.

The City of "Sebastopol" was first founded in 1853 by J.H.P.Morris who called it Pine GROVE. Then in 1855 there was indeed a street fight that broke out and the loosing party took refuge in a store, whose owner refused entrance to the other combatant, and the witnesses shouted that the store was the loser's "Sevastopol" as it was at this time that the Allies were besieging Sebastopol, the fortified town in the Crimea.

I have always found it fitting that Barry and this website have always served in historical form to protect those with whom I have battled; a "Sebastopol" in it's own rite. Now back to the etymology of the word "Sebastopol."

[Scott McKeown]

As much of this same discussion was happening last week on the "Sebastopolians or Sebastopuddlians or ???" thread about how the town of Sebastopol got its name, I thought I would re-post a paper written in 2009 titled, "The Origin of the Name Sebastopol" by John Cummings (does anyone know him?). The paper seems well-researched and gives some more historical background details, for those who are interested. Link is here:

https://library.sonoma.edu/regional/...sebastopol.pdf

Scott

[Dustyg]

This is from your suggested reading by John Cummings "Without question Sebastopol is one of the many Russian names we have today (the Russian River, for example,) which are remnants of the county’s Russian heritage. "

Sebastopol is not a Russian name it is Greek in origin. If you'll read my original post, I'm referring only to the origin of the name itself, not why our town was named Sebastopol after a time. Again, it is not Russian, but Greek.

I thought I would re-post a paper written in 2009 titled, "The Origin of the Name Sebastopol" by John Cummings (does anyone know him?). The paper seems well-researched and gives some more historical background details, for those who are interested. Link is here:

https://library.sonoma.edu/regional/...sebastopol.pdf