In the native languages there is also a constantly recurring ending "tso-noma", from "tso", the earth; and "noma", village; hence "tsonoma", "earth village." Other sources say Sonoma comes from the Patwin tribes west of the Sacramento River, and their Wintu word for "nose." Per "California Place Names," "the name is doubtless derived from a Patwin word for 'nose', which Padre Arroyo (Vocabularies, p. 22) gives as "sonom" (Suisun)." Spaniards may have found an Indian chief with a prominent protuberance and applied the nickname of "Chief Nose" to the village and the territory. The name may have applied originally to a nose-shaped geographic feature.