NIZHNY NOVGOROD, July 31 (RIA Novosti) - Lawmakers in a Russian Volga province voted on Thursday to remove a deserted village named California from maps, local authorities said.

The Nizhny Novgorod regional legislature said last week that a committee of lawmakers had proposed ending the village's existence as "there is now not a single person living there."

An official in the region's Sechenovskoye district said on Thursday that several other villages will also be disappearing under reforms aimed at expanding agricultural lands.

"California is not the only village that is disappearing from maps of the region and our district. The local administration has adopted a draft law on abolishing seven villages and settlements, which has been approved by the regional legislature," Lyubov Krupnova said.

Locals say the village of California, around 400 kilometers (250 miles) northeast of Moscow, was given its name in the 19th century by a landowner who had been impressed by a visit to North America.

According to another account, the village had been called Kaliforovka, but was renamed by a landowner who wanted to create 'his own California' after Russia sold Alaska to the United States in 1867.

The village had been deserted since 1992 as most of its citizens had moved to nearby settlements.

Russia has around 13,000 completely deserted villages, and 35,000 with fewer than 10 inhabitants.