Located at 19km southeast of Oranjestad and known as the island's Sunrise Side, San Nicolaas is Aruba's second largest city, with a population of 18,126. It was named after Nicolas van der Biest (1808-1873), who owned a big piece of the land there. Landowners were then addressed by their subordinates by their first names preceded by 'Shon' meaning 'master'. So he was called 'Shon Nicolas', as was the area. It is thought that the change from Shon Nicolas to San Nicolaas was due to the influence of Spanish.
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