Island Namesake's First Name was Bill, not Conrad

Back in 1663, an English explorer and sailor by the name of Captain William Hilton, was checking out real-estate for some Barbadan planters and came upon a "fayre and fitte place," an island paradise the Yemassee Indians had known for centuries and Spanish sailors since 1521.

The captain "discovered" a headland on this island he used to identify the entrance to Port Royal Sound in his notes to King Charles. It's just around the bend from where you're sitting, in Hilton Head Plantation!

As was the custom in those days, Bill named the headland after himself. The name stuck.

The famed hotelier, Conrad Hilton, learned about the island much later.