How Each European Capital Got Its Name

etymology is the study of the origin of words and the meaning they have associated to it in this video we're going to find out about the origin of each european capital name it's important to first note two things one in a lot of cases we just don't know what the origin or original meaning is and we just have various options some more likely than others two within those options there are many times mythological stories with little to no historical truth to them two of the examples i used on the thumbnail reflect that with lisbon's origin having to do with ulysses or odysseus and rome having to do with romulus figures that are mostly mythological and are likely to have never existed or even if they did we can't be sure if the names come from them also keep in mind i'm going to try to summarize these as much as possible so they won't be an in-depth analysis just a brief look at the most likely option or options for each capital's name origin and meaning starting with the ones on the thumbnail lisbon is the capital of portugal its name may have been derived from the celtic olisipu or a similar name which other peoples like the ancient phoenicians greeks and romans adapted accordingly it might have come from the local tigers river which in pre-roman times is said to have been called liso or lucio mythology and popular legend mentions the possibility of the city haven't been named olisippo because it would have been founded by the mythical hero ulysses or odysseus another claim is that the name of lisbon could be traced back to phoenician times referring to a supposedly phoenician term ali's meaning safe harbor but this has little historical record the most likely origin seems to be the reference to the river and its name at the time berlin is germany's capital the name has its roots in the language of west slavic inhabitants of the area and may be related to the old pole labian term battle which means swamp since the bed at the beginning sounds like the german word for bear but a bear appears in the court of arms of the city others state that the city takes its name from a west slavic word meaning river rake a scaffold of beams built over a river to prevent logs from jamming the river in question would be the spree which crosses berlin so similarly to lisbon it could be named in reference to its local river in italy rome the mythological origin would be of the legendary founder and first ruler romulus it is said that romulus and his twin brother remus were parented by a wolf after being abandoned then deciding to build a city the brothers argued and romulus killed remus then aiming the city of rome after himself but this is just a legend and there's no reason to believe it's any truer than lisbon being named after ulysses the actual origin of rome or roma rather is uncertain but there are a few options it could come from roman or roman an arcade name for the tiba river related to the greek verb geo which means to flow from the etruscan word huma whose root is perhaps in reference to the legend of the wolf or from the greek word home which means strength i'm gonna mispronounce all the foreign words by the way and then going alphabetically amsterdam is the constitutional capital of the netherlands its name is also because of the river founded at the amstel river it was damned to control flooding and the city's name derives from the amstel dam and doha la vela is the capital of the principality of andorra adding the lavella which means andorra the town to distinguish it from the principality as a whole although in catalan the word vega is derived from the latin word vetula which means old the vela here villa in catalan is derived from the latin word villa and means town andorra itself has a number of possibilities for its name origin you can check out my european country names video to find out which those are before we keep going to the rest of the capitals a quick message from the sponsor of today's video blinkist if you watch the channel you know blinkist is a long-term friend and supporter i'm really happy to have a sponsor whose product i actually use and love so in case you don't know yet what is blinkist blinkist is an app that takes thousands of non-fiction books and condenses them into very short around 15 minutes listening or reading sessions usually divided into even smaller portions this way blinkist eliminates one of the biggest obstacles most people have when it comes to reading having the time and attention span to sit down for a couple of hours a day they summarize the key points of each book and present them to you for quick consumption so that your lack of time doesn't stop you from learning there are a ton of different categories i am unsurprisingly a fan of the history one right now i'm listening to one called the sleepwalkers which talks about the outbreak of world war one as usual the first 100 people to go to blinkist.com general knowledge will get a free week trial as well as 25 discount if they want to try out the full membership and now back to the video ankara is the capital of turkey in the medieval period the city was known as ankita meaning anchor and the origin seems to be the celtic word of ancienta which also meant anchor following its annexation by the seldyuk turks in 1073 the city became known in many european languages as angora it was also known in ottoman turkish as in guru athens in greece is next in antiquity it was debated whether athens took its name from the goddess athena or if athena took her name from the city mythologically the city took the name from the goddess but people now agree that the goddess likely takes her name from the city because the ending inn is common in names of locations but rare for personal names in ancient greek the name of the city was aten the root of the word is probably not of greek origin and is possibly a remnant of the pre-greek settlement in the area then belgrade the capital of serbia the contemporary name of belgrade derives from the slavic words bell meaning white and grad city or castle it was therefore named after the white walls of the fortress that enclosed the city bern is switzerland's capital the origin and meaning of burn is uncertain legend has it that berstold v the duke of zaringen founder of the city of bern vowed to name the city after the first animal he met on a hunt he first met a bear and so the city was named after it also has been considered likely that the city could be named after the italian city of verona which at the time was known as bern in middle high german bratislava in slovakia only received its contemporary name in 1919 until then it was mostly known in english by its german name presburg when it comes to bratislava itself it is assumed to be derived by mistake although i don't know how it works from the name of the czech ruler brettislav the first in belgium brussels the most common theory of the origin of the name brussels is that it derives from the old dutch proexo meaning marsh broad and home cell so essentially being something like home in the marsh bucharest is romania's capital city in romanian it is called bukuresti and has an uncertain origin some connect the founding of bucharest with the name of bukhur a legendary figure it could be related to the romanian word bukuri which means joy or happiness and it is believed to be of dasian origin so the city bucharest would kind of mean city of joy other etymologies are given by early scholars including the one of an ottoman traveler who said that bucharest was named after abu karis of a local tribe and a 19th century book assumed its name to be derived from bukkovi a forest of beach trees budapest the capital of hungary has a similar name but not necessarily a similar origin it comes from the merging of three separate medieval towns buddha or buddha and in 1873 the origin of each of these town's names specifically buddha and pest are uncertain buddha might come from the name of a local castle in turn named after its first ruler who some say was bleda brother of the hanukk ruler attila it could also derive from the local term for twig there are several theories about pests one states that the name derives from a local fortress in roman times called by pession another states that pest originates from the slavic word for cave cheesy now is moldova's capital a theory suggests that the name may come from the old romanian word chisla meaning spring or source of water and noah meaning new because it was built around a small spring the other version states that the name was formed the same way as the name of the location of cheesy neo in western romania near the border with hungary this romanian name comes from the hungarian kisieno kies meaning small and yenno one of the seven hungarian tribes who lived in the area copenhagen in denmark is next the etymology of copenhagen is pretty simple in danish it roughly translates to merchants harbor kobenhavn haavenbein harbour in danish it reflects its origin as a harbor and a place of commerce all the way in ireland is the capital of dublin the name dublin derives from the irish word dublin formed from dub meaning dark and lind meaning pool referring to a dark tidal pool in the area as far back as 841 it is said there was a viking settlement there called difflin then helsinki in finland according to one theory at the time of swedish colonization of coastal finland colonists arrived at the ivanta river and called it helsinka after the helsing river which gave rise to the name of helsing village perhaps in reference to the swedish word helsing an archaic form of the word hulls referring to the narrow west part of a river the rapids and in fact when a town was founded in the forsbee village in 1548 it was named helsing force meaning he'll sing rapids colloquially known as just helsing it would have eventually evolved into the modern form being translated into helsinki down in ukraine is kiev kiev is likely a remnant of the composite name keys castle and is associated with ki the legendary founder of the city a name that dates back hundreds if not over a thousand years to the early stages of russia and eastern europe with the principality of kyiv the obliana is slovenia's capital also with an unclear origin in the middle ages both the river and the town were also known by the german name leibach and in italian ljubljana so i think we can assume the origin is closer to the italian one it is possible the word ljubljana evolved from the roman word aluviana meaning a flooding river in fact apparently leibach in german is also how they called the local marshland but the main theory states that the name ljubljana derives from the original name of the ljubljanika river which flows through the city itself derived from the old slavic male name liubovite meaning the one of a lovely appearance either way coming from the local river when it comes to the uk the capital is london london is an ancient name called londinium all the way back in roman times people today seem to agree the name comes from a local celtic language they call the area or settlement london then adapted into latin as londinium and evolving into english as london the meaning of the original celtic name would have to do with the term lent meaning to sink therefore suggesting that the name originally meant place that floods but i think it also makes sense to quickly mention the capitals of other member countries of the uk scotland's edinboro derives from aden the name for this region in the cumbrick language the name's meaning is unknown but there was a local castle called then aden so perhaps it simply comes from the castle's name cardiff in wales derives from the medieval welsh kairif the first part of the name is the common welsh noun cair meaning fort and the second is the name of the river tough while belfast in northern ireland the rise from the irish bael fairest the word bell means river mouth while ferris refers to a sandbar across a river's mouth again i'm sorry for probably mispronouncing all of these moving south is luxembourg city supposedly named after a roman fort called lucilin buruk commonly translated as little castle some people link the origin of the word with let's meaning fortification which may have referred to the remains of that ancient roman watchtower around the fort of luxembourg a town gradually developed and then becoming a duchy versions of that name were used for it then evolving into the modern luxembourg the city is simply to distinguish it from the name of the country as a whole going even further south is madrid there are three main theories about the origin of madrid none of them are certain or confirmed the first is that it would be of celtic origin maguetoritum with the root ritu meaning ford the other is from the arabic magura meaning water stream or marit meaning spring or fountain as well and most arabic variant of the latin word matrix matrices also meaning water stream is another option for the origin of madrid but all seem to be related to a water source of the area the place where you now cannot fly over minsk in belarus the old east slavic name of the town was mensch or meniscus derived from a river named men the direct version of the name in belarusian today is mjensk which some belarusian speakers continue to use as their preferred name for the city when belarus was under polish rule the names minsk litevsky meaning minsk of lithuania and minsk pialarowski minsk of belarus were used to differentiate between the two the principality of minsk existed as early as the 11th century so the name has been around for a while monaco is simply the name of the city state back in the 6th century bc the first inhabitants of monaco referred to it as monokush monokosh is derived from a greek word which combines the words monosh meaning alone and oikos which means house what they meant by the term is uncertain it perhaps refers to the legend of hercules passing through the land in a single temple in his honor being built although in russia the capital city is moscow the actual name of the city in russian is moskva when the city was founded in 1147 it was called moscov being named after the moskva river on which the city is situated the most linguistically well-grounded theory is from the proto-balto slavic root musk meaning wet so the name moskva might signify a river at a wetland or marsh moving on to the mediterranean cypress's capital is nicosia the earliest mention of nicosia is by the syrian king izar adon in 672 bc this is a mention of the city-state of ledra located on the site of nicosia but back then the city was named libya this name or ledrau remained in use as late as 392 a.d but many variations were used and early christian sources of this period are the first to use similar variations of the name lefkosia the name is recorded in the majority of byzantine sources as leukosia and is accepted in literature that the name most probably derives from the greek phrase leo meaning white state in greek mythology the figure of lefkosias also exists in the name translated to white state eventually i guess it would have evolved from leukosia to the similar nicosia i guess no race capital is oslo the norwegian city of oslo was founded in the year 1040. back then under the name anzlo after being destroyed by a fire in 1624 during the reign of king christian iv a new city was built close by and named christiania in the king's honor in 1925 the city after incorporating the village retaining its former name was renamed oslo modern linguists generally interpret the original oslo as either meadow at the foot of a hill or meadow consecrated to the gods paris in france states its name to a long time ago as well julius caesar referred to the region as lutecium paris jorum lutecia of the parisi the parisi were a local tribe from the iron age lutecia is interpreted as either stemming from the celtic word lucot meaning mouse or from luto meaning marsh or swamp it's weird how many cities come from the way the locals called a swamp the city is later called parisian in the 5th century and then paris in 1265. paris is often referred to as the city of light both because of its role during the age of enlightenment and also because paris was one of the first cities in the world to use gas street lighting to the southwest is potgorica it literally means area below gorika and gorika means little hill so literally a city next to a hill throughout the years it had various names the romans called a nearby town dioclea duklia in south slavic this city itself was called berezinium at its foundation then becoming in the middle ages the name podgorica was used from 1326 onwards but from 1946 to 1992 the city was named hitograd in honor of josep tito the president of yugoslavia at the time then going back to podgorica although in czechia the capital is prague the czech name is derived from an old slavic word pra which means ford or rapid referring to the city's origin at a crossing point of the vltava river prague is also called the city of 100 spires because of its beautiful cathedrals and their pointy spires which are now said to reach 500 or even a thousand way up to the northwest is reykjavik the capital of iceland it is said the first viking settlers made their home in the region we now know as the city of reykjavik the name literally translated to smoky bay and is said to have been used since the moment it became settled deriving its name from the hot springs that existed in the area at the time and esteem they generated moving to the baltic riga is the capital of estonia the origin and meaning is uncertain and various theories exist one is that it comes from the livonian ringa meaning loop referring to the ancient natural harbor formed by the daugava river it could be derived from rieg the german name for the river reed zen or from the latin higata meaning irrigated symbolizing an irrigation of dry pagan souls by christianity according to a local bishop however the most reliably documented of possibilities is that rika's name comes from its already established role in trade apparently locals call the merchant buildings and granaries hij eventually evolving in the riga while san marino's name comes from saint marinos who was a stonemason from the island of robb in today's croatia marinus is said to be the founder of the state in 301 a.d bosnia's capital is sarajevo the name derives from the turkish sarai meaning palace the addition of evo may indicate a possessive noun so making the name of sarajevo city of the palace the official name during the 400 years of ottoman rule was sarai bosna meaning palace of bosnia which remains the city's name in modern turkish sarajevo developed numeral informal names started to be used from comparisons to other cities in the islamic world such as damascus of the north or european jerusalem skopje in north macedonia is next the name of the city comes from scoopi which was the name of an early settlement located nearby the meaning of that name is not known for sure but there is a hypothesis that it derives from greek meaning watcher or observer referring to its position on a high place after antiquity scoopy was occupied by various peoples and consequently its name was translated several times in several languages and so it eventually evolved into skopje in 1392 it was conquered by the ottoman turks who called it uscope when the area was annexed by the kingdom of serbia in 1912 the city officially became scoplia and this name was adopted by many languages the local albanians called the city shkop or shkopi closer to the original name in bulgaria the capital city is sofia the city initially had a thracian name cerrica derived from the local tribe of the serdi after this roman emperor marcos ulpios trajanos gave the city the name of ulpia cerdica opia might come from the latin word lupus meaning wolves or vulps meaning fox the name sophia itself comes later on from the saint sophia church the origin is in the greek word sophia meaning wisdom and even the ottomans came to favor the word sofia stockholm the capital of sweden was established as a town at least in 1000 a.d through a viking settlement the earliest written mention of the name stockholm dates from 1252 the first part of the name stock means log in swedish although it may also be connected to an old german word also stock but meaning fortification the second part of the name home means islet and is thought to refer to the islet el ge anz olmen in central stockholm moving to estonia the capital city is talon in 1154 a town called kolivan was put on the world map by the arab cartographer muhammad al-idrisi the russians apparently also called it this and it may be somehow connected to the estonian mythical hero khalev henry of livonia in his chronicle called the town with the name linda niza referencing a local castle the modern name talin is estonian although usually thought to be derived from tani lin meaning danish town after the danes built a castle in the place of the estonian stronghold at the location of linda nice but it could also have come from talilina meaning winter castle or talolina meaning house castle all the way in albania is tirana whose origin has various theories the most likely seems to be from the greek tirosh which means dairy in the area of tirana there were products made by shepherds from surrounding areas so it could be that this was the origin other options included coming from tirkan the name of a fortress nearby vados is the capital of leechenstein the name was first recorded as the faduzh it is apparently traced back to the old gaeto romans language to the word ao dukt meaning aqueducts which evolved from the latin aqueductas but vadous has apparently nothing to do with aqueduct at least when you look at it so how did it go from one to the other another theory which doesn't have that issue is that it came from the word valdouch which in turn came from the latin valles meaning valley back to the mediterranean we have valetta the capital of malta the city was named after jean parizo de valet who succeeded in defending the island from an ottoman invasion during the great siege of 1565 he was the grand master of the order of the knights of saint john the peninsula was previously called chagritus mewia during the era period and this refers to the meaning of a sheltered place vatican city is named after vatican hill the geographic location of the state which itself comes from the name of an etruscan settlement and also a native tribe vatika or vatikun in austria vienna the etymology of the city's name is still subject to dispute some claim the name comes from veduna meaning forest stream others believe the name comes from the roman settlement named by the celts as vindobona probably meaning fair village or white settlement vindo meaning bright or fair the celtic word vendors may reflect a widespread cult of vindus which was apparently a celtic deity the name of the city in hungarian bex has a different probably slavonic origin and originally referred to an avar fort in the area slovene's speakers called the city dunai which means the river the noob on which the city stands vilnius is lithuania's capital and its name seems pretty straightforward when it comes to its origin and meaning originating from the vilniu river which in turn comes from the lithuanian word for ripple thank you lithuania for having a normal etymology for your capital city further south is varsa the capital of poland the city is called varsawa in polish the exact origin of the name is uncertain but a few theories exist originally it was the name of a small fishing settlement on the banks of the vestula river one theory states that it means belonging to vars with vars being a shortened firm of the masculine name varsizlao which in fact is the name of the first ruler of pomerania whose domain reached into current poland folk etymology attributes the name to a fisherman varse and his wife sawa according to legend sawa was a mermaid with whom vars fell in love in actuality vars was a 12th 13th century nobleman who owned a village located in the region and this seems a likely origin for the name one of these or none might be the actual origin and meaning pristina is kosovo's capital this wasn't in the right alphabetical place because i only noticed in the end that the list i used didn't include it for some reason and i wasn't going to redo the entire order so i fit it in here the name of the city could be derived from the proto-slavic word bricina which means spring of water and finally zagreb the capital of croatia whose etymology is also unclear it was used for the city only from 1852 onwards although the name of the precisely zagreb diocese already included it since the 12th century the older form of the name is zagrab which made it so that in folk etymology the name of the city would come from the verb zagrap meaning to scoop or to dig but this is not confirmed or likely to be historically accurate and so those are the name origins and meanings of each european capital city sometimes related to mythology sometimes being more factual and sometimes being a set of possibilities where we just aren't sure of which one if any is the correct origin and or meaning a lot of them oddly coming from marshland or swamp many coming from the name of a local river the city's economic activity a castle or even after the name of one of their historical founders please let me know in the comments if i forgot any capital city i don't think so and also if you noticed any mistakes or have any additional information about the origin and meaning of europe's capital city names thanks so much for watching this video subscribe if you want and i will see you next time for more general knowledge

Channel: General Knowledge

Views: 331,004

Keywords: generalknowledge, funwithflags, countriesthatdon'texist

Id: BwoO9DPMnEo

Length: 25min 20sec (1520 seconds)

Published: Fri Aug 06 2021