The Barbareño, who lived on the coast of the Santa Barbara Channel, were the best known of the Chumash people. There were many more villages along the coast, both here and to the north, than there were inland. There were also Chumash villages on three of the Channel Islands. The names of several hundred Chumash villages are recorded.
There were at least six Chumash languages. The name Chumash comes from the word used by the people for one of the islands, Mi-tcú-mac. They did not use this name to refer to themselves.