Jupiter Name Stumbled Upon by Mapmakers

Written by Susanne Quirk

I thought it would be nice to provide a little history on Jupiter and Juno Beach.  Only fitting since the two names combined make up the name of our blog, Blogging Jupino.  I did a little research and was surprised to learn that the name for Jupiter was the result of a little misunderstanding from a few mapmakers long ago.

Most believe that the town was named after mythology.  They were but it wasn’t intended to be that way.  Before our town was named Jupiter, it was inhabited by the Hobe Indians who lived along the banks of the Loxahatchee River.  Our neighboring town of Hobe Sound is named after the Hobe Indians.

Apparently, a mapmaker misunderstood Hobe to be translated in Spanish as Jobe and was then misspelled as Jove.  Subsequent mapmakers misunderstood the meaning to be that of the roman god, Jupiter.  Jupiter was the husband of Juno, the god of light, and the name of Jupiter’s neighboring town, Juno Beach.