Spare a Good Name

What’s in a name?

If that name is “Oxnard,” the answer is 101 years of puzzled frowns, periodic punch lines and the occasional campaign to swap it for something more melodious.

Enough, already. We stand with the proud residents of Ventura County’s largest city and say the name Oxnard is just fine, thank you very much.

This long-smoldering nonissue flared anew when the current movie “Hurlyburly,” clearly groping hard for witty dialogue, took yet another cheap shot at this perennial easy target.

In last year’s City Council election, one candidate actually campaigned for changing the name. A similar notion in the early 1980s begat a bumper sticker that read “Oxnard: More than just a pretty name.”

The straight story, of course, is that the city was named after brothers Henry T. and James Oxnard, who built the sugar-beet processing plant that turned the fertile soil of the Oxnard Plain into an agricultural gold mine. The town was officially christened 101 years ago this month, apparently after a meeting of local officials who picked the name in the Oxnard brothers’ absence. The city incorporated in 1903.

Oh, we’ve heard some people ask, “Just what part of an ox is the ‘nard,’ anyway?” and others complain about that letter ‘X’ getting stuck in their throat. Still, the British burg called Oxford has managed OK with a similar handle. And neighboring cities such as Thousand Oaks (often called “Thousand Stumps” by its vigorous anti-development crowd) and Moorpark (city fathers say please don’t spell it backward) have little room to scoff.

Although some may fret over the name, Oxnard has resolutely gone about building a thriving city with an innovative school system and a top-notch public library. The Greater Oxnard Economic Development Corp. has just produced “Made in Oxnard,” a glossy brochure boasting about eight local businesses that have made good.

So once and for all, let’s lay to rest the idea of abandoning this distinctive and historic name.

Another Ventura County city did change names--and discovered that trying to solve one problem merely created another. That would be Nordhoff, named for Charles Nordhoff, a journalist who wrote glowingly of the area and attracted Easterners. In 1917, as anti-German sentiment flared during World War I, Nordhoff’s German-sounding name was scrapped in favor of the inoffensive Chumash word Ojai, meaning “moon.”

Would Ojai’s future have unfolded differently if it had stuck with Nordhoff?

“Really, I don’t know that it would have changed at all,” says local historian David Mason. “Except we wouldn’t have all these problems with people trying to pronounce it.”