Popular legend has it that Guayaquil’s name comes from Guayas (the great Puna Indian chief who fought bravely against the Incas and then later against the Spanish), and Quill, the wife of Guayas, whom he is said to have killed before drowning himself, rather than allowing her to be captured by the conquistadors. However, several historians claim the city’s name comes from the words ‘Hua’ or land, and ‘Illa’ meaning beautiful prairie and ‘Quilca, ’ one of the Guyas River’s tributaries where the Quilca tribe lived until being wiped out in the 17th century. Thus Guayaquil is literally ‘the land like a beautiful prairie on the land of the Quilcas.’
