By Hemet Museum
2017
Expanded and updated by Chuck Coker
October 26, 2025
There is no agreement on the origin of the name Hemet.
However, there is agreement that the city of Hemet received its name from the Lake Hemet Land Company, the land development firm that established the town. The company took its name from Hemet Valley—an area in the San Jacinto Mountains that is now known as Garner Valley. At first, the town was named South San Jacinto, but the name was officially changed to Hemet when the company submitted a plat map on November 11, 1893.
How the valley in the mountains was named remains a subject of speculation.
One theory is that Scandinavian immigrants brought the word hemmet (home) to the New world. But no such Scandinavians have ever been identified in either the oral or documentary record. While the individual Scandinavians are unknown, Scandinavia most commonly refers to Norway, Denmark, and Sweden, so it should refer to a word in one of those languages. If they spoke Norwegian, hemmet, or the very close Danish hæmmet, means “inhibited”. In Swedish hemmet means “home”, and that is the story many folks go with.
Various indigenous words have been suggested as the source, but none has ever been authenticated.
A number of folk tales about the name are described in Jane Gunter’s 1984 book, Riverside County, California, Place Names: Their Origins and Their Stories. These are amusing, but not helpful in pinning down a source.
On April 10, 1879, the Los Angeles Herald mentioned Hemmet Valley (with two Ms): “Mr. Charlie Thomas, of Hemmet Valley, San Diego County, is paying Los Angeles a visit…” Charles H. Thomas was the earliest non–indigenous land owner in the valley. It say San Diego County because in 1879, Riverside County hadn’t been formed yet.
On December 19, 1930, the Hemet News reported that the Lake Hemet Water Company issued a statement that several old maps and deeds in their files identify the Hemet Valley as Hemica, an Indian word meaning “surrounded by trees”.
Indian word, in this case, probably means it comes from the Cahuilla language, although the language is not identified. Luiseño, Cupeño, and Serrano were also spoken nearby. This is true for other indigenous “Indian word” theories below.
The Hemet News article mentioned another theory that in the Tahquitz legend, Hemetica is the name of the beautiful maiden pursued by Tahquitz.
Tahquitz was the first shaman created by Mukat (the Creator of the Cahuilla people) and when Tahquitz began to abuse his immense power, he was banished to a secret cave below the towering rock formation known today as Tahquitz Peak.
The Hemet News article offered a third theory that according to William Bradford, the first manager of the Hotel Mayberry and Hemet’s second postmaster, a man named Hemmet (with two Ms) lived in the vicinity of the valley.
The final Hemet News theory, that it said was the most common explanation, was that hemet is an Indian word meaning “box”, an appropriate description of the valley Lake Hemet sits in. The article mentions Mrs. Victoria Brooke of Hemet, who was born there, and said it was called Hemet by the Indians before her father’s time.
A Wikipedia article about the etymologies of place names in Riverside County mentions another Indian word, jemet, meaning “acorn valley”, as a possibility.
For now, until some intrepid researcher uncovers new information, the Hemet Museum’s official position on the origin of the name Hemet is:
We don’t know.
There Is Only One Hemet
Hemet is unique as a city name. There is only one Hemet in the entire world.
Compare that to the uniqueness of San Jacinto. There are 76 cities named San Jacinto in the world, all in the Western Hemisphere, except for 6 in the Philippines. They can be found in the United States (4), Mexico (12), Argentina (1), Bolivia (5), Colombia (7), Cuba (4), Ecuador (6), El Salvador (3), Guatemala (3), Honduras (4), Nicaragua (3), Peru (8), the Philippines (6), Venezuela (9), and Uruguay (1).
Sources
“How many places are named Hemet?” Geotargit.com. https://geotargit.com/called.php?qcity=Hemet&all=cities. Accessed October 12, 2025.
“How many places are named San jacinto?” Geotargit.com. https://geotargit.com/called.php?qcity=San+jacinto&all=cities. Accessed October 12, 2025.
King, Homer D. “Observations”. The Hemet News. December 19, 1930, page 1.
“The Legend of Tahquitz”. TahquitzCanyon.com. Agua Caliente Band of Cahuilla Indians. https://www.tahquitzcanyon.com/the_legend. Accessed October 26, 2025.
“Local Brevities”. Los Angeles Daily Herald. April 10, 1879, page 2.
Whitney, Mary E. Important Dates in Hemet History. Hemet Museum. 2017, page 8.
Wikipedia contributors, “List of Riverside County, California, placename etymologies,” Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=List_of_Riverside_County,_California,_placename_etymologies&oldid=1299164844. Accessed July 6, 2025.