The body of water and the surrounding region have carried various historical names on early European maps dating back centuries, long before the modern metropolitan area grew into its current prominence. Early Spanish explorers and cartographers frequently labeled the expansive coastal inlet as Bahia de Espirito Santo, or the Bay of the Holy Spirit, on their navigation charts. Over time, as British and American influence expanded in the region during the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, cartographers began applying older indigenous-derived terms like Tampa to the specific arms of the water body, eventually standardizing the geographic nomenclature used today.