The formation was named "El Capitan" by the Mariposa Battalion when they explored the valley in 1851. El Capitan("the captain", "the chief") was taken to be a loose Spanish translation of the local Native American name for the cliff, variously transcribed as "To-to-kon oo-lah" or "To-tock-ah-noo-lah" (Miwok language).[4] It is unclear if the Native American name referred to a specific tribal chief or simply meant "the chief" or "rock chief".