REAL ESTATE

Spanish Translations: Some historical notes for the tens of thousands of people who have moved to Orange County in the past 25 years and sometimes get confused by all the ranchos and missions and viejos.

Mission Viejo, a planned city, was once part of Rancho Mission Viejo but was carved off and made a separate development in 1962.

The original owners of Mission Viejo Co. were members of the O’Neill family, which has owned Rancho Mission Viejo since it was formed from several Spanish land grants in the late 1800s. (Developer Donald Bren, who now owns Irvine Co., is not an O’Neill family member but was one of the original partners in Mission Viejo Co.--which was sold in the early 1970s to its present owner, Philip Morris Cos.)

After selling their stake in Mission Viejo Co. and its 11,000-acre master-planned community, the O’Neills turned their attention to the future of the remaining 40,000 acres of Rancho Mission Viejo.

Though the ranch itself is still called Rancho Mission Viejo, a separate company was formed in the 1980s by Anthony Moiso, nephew of family patriarch Richard J. O’Neill, to manage the ranch and oversee development of those parts of it that were suited for housing. The company was called Santa Margarita Co., and the first of its developments, on a plateau at the northern end of the ranch, is Rancho Santa Margarita.

The short version:

Rancho Santa Margarita is part of Rancho Mission Viejo.

Mission Viejo isn’t, but it was.

Aliso Viejo never was. It got its last name because it is owned by Mission Viejo Co., which is a subsidiary of Philip Morris Cos. and no longer has anything to do with Rancho Mission Viejo.