The Maidu lived in the region when Spanish and Mexican scouting parties first encountered them. One account says the name Yuba comes from such an expedition, which saw wild grapes by a river and called it Uba, from the Spanish uva, "grape." Jean Jacques Vioget's map of 1841 shows a Maidu rancheria called Buba, recorded by Stephen Powers in 1877 as the village of Yu-ba, at the present site of the city.
More about Yuba City
The Mexican government granted a large tract including the site to John Sutter, on whose land gold was found in 1848, and he sold part of it to men who wanted to build a town where the Yuba and Feather rivers meet, as a commercial center serving miners bound for the gold fields. At the same time Marysville was growing across the Feather River. By 1852 Yuba City was a steamboat landing with a hotel, a grocery, a post office and about 20 houses, home to about 150 people. It was chosen as seat of Sutter County in 1854, but that year voters moved the seat to Nicolaus, and in 1856 they returned it to Yuba City, where it has stayed.
Yuba City's first big population boom came after World War II, as orchards gave way to new homes. In December 1955 torrential storms sent the region's rivers over their banks, and a levee break on Christmas Eve flooded Yuba City, killing 38 people and badly damaging downtown, while helicopters rescued 550 to 600 Sutter County residents.
Sources
Wikipedia: Yuba City, California