Colma

Colma is a small incorporated town in San Mateo County, California, near the northern end of the San Francisco Peninsula in the San Francisco Bay Area. The population was 1,792 at the 2010 census. The town was founded as a necropolis in 1924.With most of Colma's land dedicated to cemeteries, the population of the dead — about 1.5 million, as of 2006 — outnumbers that of the living by nearly a thousand to one. This has led to Colma's being called "the City of the Silent" and has given rise to a humorous motto, now recorded on the city's website: "It's great to be alive in Colma."EtymologyThe origin of the name Colma is widely disputed. Before 1872, Colma was designated as "Station" or "School House Station", the name of its post office in 1869. Currently, there seem to be seven possible sources of the town's being called Colma: William T. Coleman, allegedly known as the "Lion of the Vigilantes" and a significant landowner in the areaThomas Coleman, a registered voter in the district in the 1870sA transfer name from Europe: Alsace has a ColmarA re-spelling of an ancient Uralic word meaning deathA literary origin from MacPherson's Songs of Selma, in one of the Ossianic fragmentsNative American languages:"Kolma" means "moon" in one dialect of Costanoan, or Ohlone, who lived in the area; however, this name does not appear on any design ("diseño") of Indian rancherias at the timeAn undisclosed Native American word meaning "springs" Read more: http://www.nationsencyclopedia.com/mexico/Aguascalientes-M-xico/Colima.html#ixzz4Jhftp9Mp