the name "cro-magnon" was created by louis lartet, who discovered the first cro-magnon skull in southwestern france in 1868. he called the place where he found the skull "abri de cro-magnon." "abri" means "rock shelter" in french; "cro" means "hole" in the occitan language; and "magnon" was the name of the person who owned the land where lartet found the skull. basically, cro-magnon means "rock shelter in a hole on magnon's land."