"Cucamonga" comes from a Tongva place name that is assumed to have meant "sandy place". However, Vera Rocha, Chief of the Shoshone Gabrielino branch, has stated that the meaning is "Place of the villages where the waters come out". Cuc or Kuc refer to the word come, come from, or come to. Amo is the word for water, wet, or spring, and Nanga means place of a village. An alternate theory states that the name means "light over the mountain".
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