“Sarasota” is the name of a bay, a county, and a proud, growing city.
By the mid-1700s, the name “Zara Zote” appeared on maps of southwest Florida, but no one is precisely certain how the name originated. Frankly, it’s a mystery. Several possibilities have been offered by Sarasota’s historians and promoters.
One prominent myth about the name is easily debunked; it did not originate with Hernando DeSoto’s daughter Sara. The Legend of Sara Desoto was a piece of short, imaginative fiction written in 1900 by Sarasota pioneer George F. Chapline. In the story, DeSoto’s beautiful daughter falls tragically for a strong, handsome Seminole warrior. The fictional romance fails, however, when it comes to actual history: no Seminoles were in Florida at the time DeSoto arrived in the early 1500s, and the famous conquistadorè never had a daughter.
It’s quite possible that the name was indigenous all along. “Zota” was the native word for “blue waters.” The name “Zara” may have indicated to the natives which blue waters, but one 20th-century researcher offered a different speculation. In 1936, Sarasota historian Edna Mosely Landers theorized that Spanish explorers spotted the white sands on the barrier islands from a distance and were reminded of the Sahara Desert. “Sahara,” in this account, became “Zara” so that “Zara Zota” meant “the Sahara by the blue waters.”
Probably neither theory will ever be confirmed. How did the natives specify which blue waters? Did Spanish crews sailing to Florida include sailors with experience of the Sahara? We’ll almost certainly never know. It’s not even precisely clear how the two words became the one-word name “Sarasota” known today around the world. While a 1776 map shows the name of the harbor waters as “Boca Sarazota,” others used the 2-word name as recently as the late 1800s. In fact, in 1878 the first U.S. Post Office was opened in “Sara Sota.” It’s thought by some researchers that the Post Office itself either encouraged or mandated the use of “Sarasota” as one word, but no documents to verify that theory have ever been found.
As the 20th century began, the current name was finally established in law. The community of Sarasota was incorporated as a town under Florida guidelines in 1902, and the town was reincorporated as a city in 1913. While 21st-century Sarasota is both urban and urbane, the white sands and blue waters still attract explorers, adventurers, and romantics.