Novato, California

Novato is a city in Marin County, California, in the North Bay region of the San Francisco Bay Area, and its name comes from a Spanish form of Novatus. The 2020 census counted 53,225 residents. The land was first home to several Coast Miwok villages. In 1839 the Mexican government granted the 8,876-acre Rancho Novato to Fernando Feliz, and the rancho took its name from a local Miwok leader who had probably been baptized with the name of Saint Novatus. Several more land grants followed in the area. A railroad built in 1879 connected Novato to Sonoma County and San Rafael, and the area around the train depot became known as New Town and forms the edge of what is today Old Town Novato. After World War II the area grew quickly with tract homes and a freeway, largely unplanned because it was unincorporated, and Novato was finally incorporated as a city in 1960. Today it is home to the Buck Institute for Research on Aging and several biotechnology firms, and it is served by the Novato Unified School District.