San Jose, which means Saint Joseph in the Spanish language is California´s third largest city and is tenth largest in the over-all United States. It is Santa Clara County´s county seat and is located in the southern end of the bay area of San Francisco in a region more commonly referred to as Silicon Valley. San Jose attracted a lot of newcomers in new suburban housing developments between the sixties and the nineties while continuing to remain a small farming city. At present, it is Northern California´s largest city with an estimated approximate population of 948,279. It is the largest and one of the primary cities in terms of land area, industrial development and population. Founded in 1777 with the name El Pueblo de san Jose de Guadalupe, it was the first town in the Spanish colony of Nueva California which later became known as Alta California. In order to support the Spanish military at Monterey and San Francisco, San Jose served as a farming community as well as its first capital when it became a state in 1850. By the time the nineties arrived, San Jose´s proximity to the booming local technology industry made it end up with the nickname the Capital of Silicon Valley.