Gilroy is a city in Santa Clara County, California, United States. Gilroy is a city south of the San Francisco Bay Area, with a population of 59,520 as of the 2020 Census. Gilroy's origins lie in the village of San Ysidro, which developed in the early 19th century from Rancho San Ysidro. This land had been granted to Californio ranchero Ygnacio Ortega in 1809. Following Ygnacio's death in 1833, his daughter Clara Ortega de Gilroy and son-in-law John Gilroy inherited the largest portion of the rancho, and began developing the settlement. When the town was incorporated in 1868, it was renamed in honor of John Gilroy, a Scotsman who had emigrated to California in 1814, naturalized as a Mexican citizen, adopted the Spanish language, and converted to Catholicism. These changes made him eligible to own land in this area of the Spanish Empire. In the process, he took the name Juan Bautista Gilroy. Gilroy is known for its garlic crop, and is nicknamed the "Garlic Capital of the World". It is also known for boutique wine production, as part of the Santa Clara Valley AVA, mostly consisting of family vineyards around the base of the Santa Cruz Mountains to the west.