Nevertheless, the name 'Patagonia' stuck, as did the notion that the local inhabitants were giants. It is now understood that the etymology refers to a literary character in a Spanish novel of the early 16th century. However, this etymology remains questionable, since amongst other things the meaning of the suffix -gon is unclear. Since Pigafetta's time the assumption that this derived from pata or foot took hold, and 'Patagonia' was interpreted to mean 'Land of the Bigfeet'. The original word would probably be in Ferdinand Magellan's native Portuguese ( patagão) or the Spanish of his men ( patagón). 'Patagon', or Patagoni in Pigafetta's Italian plural), but he did not further elaborate on his reasons for doing so. Pigafetta also recorded that Magellan had bestowed on these people the name 'Patagão' (i.e. He was so tall that we reached only to his waist, and he was well proportioned. When the giant was in the captain-general's and our presence he marveled greatly, and made signs with one finger raised upward, believing that we had come from the sky. Having done that, the man led the giant to an islet where the captain-general was waiting. The captain-general sent one of our men to the giant so that he might perform the same actions as a sign of peace. One day we suddenly saw a naked man of giant stature on the shore of the port, dancing, singing, and throwing dust on his head. Antonio Pigafetta, one of the expedition's few survivors and the chronicler of Magellan's expedition, wrote in his account about their encounter with natives twice a normal person's height: The first mention of these people came from the voyage of Ferdinand Magellan and his crew, who claimed to have seen them while exploring the coastline of South America en route to the Maluku Islands in their circumnavigation of the world in the 1520s. Tales of these people would maintain a hold upon European conceptions of the region for nearly 300 years.

They were said to have exceeded at least double normal human height, with some accounts giving heights of 13 to 15 feet (4 to 4.5 m) or more. The Patagones or Patagonian giants were a race of giant humans rumoured to be living in Patagonia and described in early European accounts. by French explorer Jules Dumont d'Urville Mythological giants from Patagonia 1840s (fanciful) illustration of a Patagon chief from near the Strait of Magellan, bedecked in costume of war from Voyage au pole sud et dans l'Oceanie.

2 headed human kap dwa