largest of the Solomon Islands, discovered 1568 by Spanish explorer Álvaro de Mendaña de Neira and named for his hometown in Spain. The place name contains the Spanish form of Arabic wadi "river" which occurs in other Spanish place names (such as Guadalajara, from Arabic Wadi Al-Bajara "River of the Stones," either a parallel formation to or ultimately a translation of the ancient Iberian name for the river that gave the place its earlier name, based on caruca "stony;" Guadalquivir, from Arabic Al-Wadi Al-Kabir "Big River;" and Guadalupe, from the Arabic river word and the Roman name of the river, Lupus, literally "wolf").