Silicon Valley is a part of the San Fransico Bay Area and is made up of over 40 cities. Some of these cities include San Jose, Belmont, Santa Clara, and Fremont. Silicon Valley got its name from a newspaper writer. The reason for this is because Silicon Valley is the birth place of the semiconductor chip. To build the chip, companies have to use silicon which is a fine sand.
Silicon Valley has held its name since 1971, which is about 41 years. Don Hoefler was the one who coined the nickname "Silicon Valley." The reason Silicon Valley is so important is because of the major companies that are in Silicon Valley. Some of the companies include Apple, Google, AMD, and Yahoo.