A few controversial hypotheses account for the original meaning of the name given to the town of Batatais. One hypothesis has the name – which in Portuguese means potato fields – associated with the plantations of the indigenous peoples that were discovered by early settlers in the region. Another hypothesis has it as a slurred version of the word Emboitata (or Boitatá), which in the Tupy language denotes the fire snake, a “genie that protected fields against fires” (CARDOSO, 2001:147). However these definitions are far too fragile.
According to another and apparently more consistent version, the words “batatal” and its plural, “batataes”, are commonly found in 18 th-century documents to denote both the placer gold deposits and the mining technique, rather than to designate potato plantations.
In view of the controversy about the origin of the city’s name, what we know for sure is that on August 5, 1728 Antônio da Silva Caldeira Pimentel, then governor of the captaincy of São Paulo, granted to Pedro Rocha Pimentel a sesmaria title over the land that comprised “the Batataes field, on the Guayazes Route, and the Corda thicket bordering on the first creek between the rivers Pardo and Sapucahy.
This colonial land grant doubled as birth certificate for the town of Batatais, so to speak. The village was only granted township status in 1875. The Senhor Bom Jesus Cemetery founded in the 19th century, at the heyday of the coffee boom, was named after the town’s patron saint. Well in agreement with the eclectic style in vogue at the time, the graveyard was furnished with tombs boasting fine craftsmanship, most of which were executed by Italian-born marbleworkers and their descendants.

• 1726 – The discovery of placer gold deposits in the backlands of Goiás was officially announced by the leaders of the expedition Anhangüera II. As a result, the region known as “ Campos dos Batataes” became a compulsory passage in the routes of pioneers and early settlers,
• 1728 – Pedro da Rocha Pimentel was granted a sesmaria title that comprised the lands known as “Batataes fields”.
• 1810 – The original settlement included a small graveyard and four farming estates with timber boards fencing in the grazing pastures.
• 1815 – Campos dos Batataes was granted hamlet status within the township of Mogi-Mirim, which in turn belonged in the jurisdiction of Itu County.
• 1821 – Official authorization was granted for the transfer of the hamlet seat to another site. The local population engaged in fierce disputes over the relocation versus the permanence of the hamlet administration near the farming estate called “Fazenda dos Batataes”.
• 1822 – Germano Moreira and his wife Ana Luiza donated to the Catholic Church the area known as “Campo Lindo das Araras.” As a consequence, two urban centers developed into one that turned the old hamlet into a village.
• 1839 – The village of Batatais was granted the status of township.
• 1875 – The township was granted city status under the jurisdiction of a county created to include it.
• 1886 – According to official records, 304 births, 176 deaths and 75 weddings took place in Batatais.
• 1890 – Opening of the Cemetery Senhor Bom Jesus de Batatais (Decree 789 of 27 September 1890, article 2°, in fine and article 4°, sole paragraph).
• 1911 – The city of Batatais comprised the districts of Batatais, Mato Grosso de Batatais and Brodósqui.
• 1938 – The districts of Batatais, Brodósqui and Jardinópolis belonged in the same jurisdiction of the Batatais County.
• 1994 – The city of Batatais was granted tourist resort status.