Etymology
The true origin of the name of Catalan Bay is unknown, but a couple of theories exist. The first suggests that the bay is named after a group of around 350 Catalan (from Catalonia) military men believed to have settled here after having assisted the Anglo-Dutch forces who won the Capture of Gibraltar during the War of Spanish Succession on 4 August 1704. However, no evidence exists to prove that Catalans settled in Catalan Bay and although this theory is regularly used as the supporting argument for the origin of the name, it is only a supposition that they ever did.
The name La Caleta (meaning 'small bay or cove') considerably pre-dates that of Catalan Bay. The fishing villages of La Tunara (La Línea de la Concepción, Spain) and La Caleta are mentioned in a Royal Dispatch of the 6 March 1634 of being under the jurisdiction of the "Tercio del Mar de Marbella y Estepona" in the Kingdom of Granada. Since it has been called La Caleta for much longer than it has ever been called Catalan Bay, the second theory and the most probably just in 1704 on the capture of Gibraltar by an Anglo-Dutch combined operation, that expedition landing in that place around 350 Catalans followers of Charles of Austria, third theory suggests that the latter could simply be an English mispronunciation of Caleta.
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