“Pronounced EYE-LA Morada, not ISLAM- orada!”
Still can’t seem to find the history of the name. Is it old Spanish? How is islam pronounced in Spanish?
Islamorada=Purple isles.
There is some lore on the naming. Most reliable is that it the area is named after a ship that went down in the area of a similar name. Most frequently repeated is that is stands for “purple island” bastardized in spanish. Probably just a construct from spanish and indian. And probably not named correctly. In those days there was no GPS and the land from sea is very confusing and hard to pick out (unless you look at buildings). And it did not make sense for seaman to approach. There are very few deep channels and lots of sand flats. Off shore winds are rare and early explores hated to downwind towards land unless they had a good reason.
A common Fox News geography mistake is to call areas and/or cities of the Keys islands. They do this all the time in Marathon. You can be in Marathon but no ON Marathon. The main Island that upon which Marathon sits is Vaca Key. Major secondary island is Boot Key.
The relatively new City of Islamorada was actually an area of the Keys with three major Islands. The City of Islamorada includes the Island and area of Plantation Key.
The Isla portion is island; I haven’t looked up the morada part.