Los Gatos, California
incorporated town in Santa Clara County, California, United States
Los Gatos (US: ; Spanish: [loz ˈɣatos]; Spanish for 'The Cats') is an incorporated town in Santa Clara County, California, United States. The population was 33,529 at the 2020 census. The U.S. Census Bureau estimated the population of Los Gatos at 32,576 as of July 1, 2025.
It is located in the San Francisco Bay Area just southwest of San Jose in the foothills of the Santa Cruz Mountains. Los Gatos is part of Silicon Valley, with several high technology companies maintaining a presence there. Netflix, the streaming service and content creator, is headquartered in Los Gatos and has developed a large presence in the area.
Etymology
Los Gatos is Spanish for "The Cats". The name derives from the 1839 Alta California land grant that encompassed the area, which was called La Rinconada de Los Gatos ("The Corner of the Cats"), where the cats refers to the cougars (mountain lions) and bobcats that are indigenous to the foothills in which the town is located. The pronunciation is often anglicized to lawss-GAT-əs, although one also hears pronunciations truer to the original Spanish, lohss-GAH-tohss.
History
Overview
The first inhabitants of the area that is now Los Gatos were the Ohlone Native Americans.
The public source identifies “Los Gatos, California” as incorporated town in Santa Clara County, California, United States. This brief keeps that definition visible, then builds a research path around Gatos, California and incorporated.
Why this record matters
A short description can identify a subject without explaining its stakes. For “Los Gatos, California”, the useful work is to connect “incorporated town in Santa Clara County, California, United States” to the records capable of establishing context and consequence.
Place names and jurisdictional language are key evidence: both can reveal earlier catalogue descriptions and overlooked record series. The source revision retrieved here is dated Aug 10, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q747509. VIAF identifies the subject as 261814847. The Library of Congress control number is n81119251. Authority coordinates are 37.236, -121.962. 3 of 4 selected statements include explicit references; 1 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 2020, 2025 and 1839.
Modern boundaries and familiar names can conceal earlier jurisdictions or structures that do not align with the present site. The source lead contains qualifying language; that uncertainty should survive quotation, summary and reuse. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.
How to read it
Treat names, boundaries and functions as historically changeable. Maps, plans, inventories and administrative records can clarify what the place meant at different dates.
- Historic place names
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Contemporary maps, plans, listed-building records, estate papers and the responsible local or national archive.
Three-step research path
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Questions for further research
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Search terms from this dossier
This entry incorporates text from “Los Gatos, California” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.