The history of Santa Monica, California, covers the significant events and movements in Santa Monica's past. Population by decade 1880 – 417 1890 – 1,580 1900 – 3,057 1910 – 7,847 1920 – 15,252 1930 – 37,146 1940 – 53,500 1950 – 71,595 1960 – 83,249 1970 – 88,289 1980 – 88,314 1990 – 86,905 2000 – 84,084 2010 – 89,736 Pre-history Santa Monica was long inhabited by the Tongva people. The village of Comicranga was established in the Santa Monica area. One of the village's notable residents was Victoria Reid, who was the daughter of the chief of the village. During the Spanish period, she was taken to Mission San Gabriel from her parents at the age of six. The general area of Santa Monica was referred to as Kecheek. 1760s The first non-indigenous group to set foot in the area was the party of explorer Gaspar de Portolà, who camped near the present day intersection of Barrington and Ohio Avenues on August 3, 1769. There are two different versions of the naming of the city. One says that it was named in honor of the feast day of Saint Monica (mother of Saint Augustine), but her feast day is actually May 4. Another version says that it was named by Juan Crespí on account of a pair of springs, the Kuruvungna Springs (Serra Springs), that were reminiscent of the tears that Saint Monica shed over her son's early impiety. Regarding the latter, Crespi did note in his diary that the group found a Tongva village at the springs (where the SE corner of the campus of University High School is today). However, as is also recorded in his diary, Crespí actually named the place San Gregorio, while the expedition soldiers called it "El Berendo" after a deer they wounded there. The "Santa Monica" name for the springs came later. The springs were probably commonly called by the name "Santa Monica" by the turn of the 19th century, as they did indeed remind incoming settlers of the weeping eyes of the saint. What is known for certain is that by the 1820s, the name Santa Monica was in use and the name's first official mention occurred in 1827 in the form of a grazing permit, quickly followed by the grant filing for the Rancho Boca de Santa Monica in 1828. It remains slightly curious that the City of Santa