'''' is Spanish for "ancient" and '''' is Spanish for "bearded". The island of Antigua was originally called '''' by Arawaks and is locally known by that name today; Caribs possibly called Barbuda ''''. Christopher Columbus, while sailing by in 1493 may have named it Santa Maria la Antigua, after an icon in the Spanish Seville Cathedral. The "bearded" of Barbuda is thought to refer either to the male inhabitants of the island, or the bearded fig trees present there.