There's a Laguna Avenue and a Laguna Canyon Road in Laguna Beach. So where's the lagoon? Phil Brigandi says, "Oh, my. How many Lagunas are there?" Brigandi should know. He wrote "Orange County Place Names A-Z."

"The names all begin, though, with two actual lakes. Lagunas, in Spanish, which were at the upper end of Laguna Canyon. And of course, natural lakes are a rarity in this part of Southern California, so they were a landmark. And by mission times, you see that name Laguna or Lagunas for the two lakes being used. And from there it just spread naturally."

Today, the larger laguna is known as Barbara's Lake, named for Barbara Rabinowitsh, a local conservationist who fought development of the area. The smaller lake is called Bubble's Pond, named for the hippopotamus that escaped Lion Country Safari in 1978 and hid out in the "lagunita."

(Airdate: 8/3/2008)