Looking at the word vuvuzela this week made me think of one of my favorite place names: Albuquerque.
According to various etymology sources, the largest city in New Mexico was named after a person, who was named after a city in Spain, but the word itself means white oak if looking at Latin roots. If traced from Arabic, land of the cork oak or the plum, and from Galician, apricot. Whatever the meaning, Albuquerque is a great looking word and fun to say. Plus, it's the home town of one of my favorite picture book author/illustrators Jill McElmurry.