Origins of Major City Names

hello and welcome the fire of learning I'm Justin Paris London New York Rome Tokyo some of the great cities of the modern world but what is a Paris or Chicago or Madrid well in this video we'll be talking about how and why the great cities of the world got their names so let's get right into it first up Paris France believe it or not not related to the Paris of Troy who got his home city destroyed because he thought a girl was hot the parisi were a group of Celts who lived in the area of modern-day Paris prior to the Roman conquest of Gaul after the Roman conquest the Romans founded the city of loot Asia on their land but the name of the original inhabitants stuck around Chicago Illinois means onion or at least a wild relative which the Miami Illinois people consumed which they called shakakwa the French explorer and soldier always you tell noted in the 17th century - the plant grew abundantly in the area Detroit Michigan from the French the tois meaning straights the cities of course named after the French fort which was constructed there in 1701 Los Angeles California Los Angeles the Angels was named by the Spanish in 1781 originally calling it the people of Our Lady of the Angels Toronto Canada likely named either after an Iroquoian or here onward perhaps Toronto hen or two curanto meaning place where trees stand in the water the city however was originally named York it was not New York though as that name had already been taken the city of New York New York was established by the Dutch and first called New Amsterdam after their capital however when the British claimed the city it was renamed not simply for the city of York in England which takes its name from the Latin a welcome but the Duke of York at the time who later became King Ottawa Canada first called by town it was renamed Ottawa in 1854 after the Ottawa River which itself is said by the Algonquin people to mean to trade it is therefore perhaps the place of trading the origin of Moscow Russia's name is not clear but there are a few theories Moskva as it is known in russian was named after the Moskva River what that means is uncertain it may mean black river or more likely marshland Stockholm Sweden founded around 1000 AD Stockholm comes from the Old Norse stock and home meaning log Island or fortified island Copenhagen the capital of Denmark naturally has an Old Norse origin as well from cope mana - or merchants Haven Philadelphia Pennsylvania is known as the city of brotherly love that is indeed what the city's name means from the Greek feel o love and a delphos brother the original ancient city of Philadelphia however was in Anatolia Houston Texas was named after Sam Houston a Texan revolutionary and the third president of the independent Texas Phoenix Arizona was as you might guess named after the mythical bird which is cyclically reborn it was so named in 1867 as the city was founded on the ruins of a former Native American civilization Tokyo Japan was originally called Edo but the name changed in 1868 and simply means East capital a similar trend is seen with Beijing China which simply means northern capital and again with Seoul South Korea which means capital Hong Kong the romanized version of the cantonese hwang gong means fragrant Harbor a reference to the incense that was traded there London England takes its name from the settlement of Londinium founded by the Romans in 43 ad which itself likely takes its name from the brittonic name of the area with an unknown meaning suggestions include the place of King Ludd the place that floods and Lake fort Dublin comes from the old Irish dove line' meaning Blackpool Edinburgh Scotland or as my fellow Americans sometimes mistakenly call it Edinburgh is sometimes attributed to king edwin of Northumbria but the name predates him from Celtic origin it likely means fort or a settlement on a slope Bombay India now known as Mumbai is named after the Hindu goddess Mamba Istanbul Turkey the city of Constantinople was conquered by the Ottoman Turks in 1453 it comes from a corruption of the Greek East teen bullying meaning to the city a phrase uttered by the natives likely when giving directions warsaw poland from the polish warszawa has an unclear origin but may mean vores place berlin germany in german baleen sounds quite a bit like the word bear in german meaning there and accordingly a bear appears on bear leans flag however the truth is that it most likely is of Slavic origin meaning something along the lines of swamp Vienna Austria has an uncertain origin but may be descended from the duniya meaning forest stream or the Latin Vindobona meaning fair settlement the very ancient city of Rome Italy is according to legend named after its founder and first King Romulus Madrid Spain has an unknown origin perhaps being Celtic or Arabic and likely has something to do with a stream or water the name of Lisbon Portugal has uncertain origins but it is very ancient it may be from a proto Celtic Phoenician or Greek origin a folk etymology states that the city takes its name from Ulysses the Greek mythical hero but there is no evidence that this is the case several cities in the southwestern US especially were named by the Catholic Spanish after saints such as San Francisco named after Saint Francis of Assisi San Antonio for Saint Anthony of Padua San Diego for the darkest of alcalá and San Jose after Joseph husband of Mary Dallas Texas was named after George M doubtless America's eleventh vice-president though he was from Philadelphia Rio de Janeiro and Portuguese means the river of January named after the Bay mistaken for an estuary by Amerigo Vespucci discovered on January 1st 1502 wano Sarris capital of Argentina is Spanish for Goodwin's it is therefore the place of the Goodwin's referring to the winds which brought the Spanish explorers there Trung Kien in China the largest city in the world as of 2020 means redoubled a celebration Shanghai China the world's second-largest city means upon the sea with this name dating back to the 11th century the city of Cincinnati Ohio was named after the Society of the Cincinnati in 1790 in order of Revolutionary War veterans which itself took its name from the Roman hero King Kannada surah Cincinnatus who assumed dictatorial power in Rome but voluntarily gave it up after he saved it from a crisis Cleveland Ohio originally spelled with an A was named after its founder from Connecticut Moses Cleaveland delhi india perhaps simply means threshold referring to the watershed boundary between the Ganges and Indus River Boston was named after a town in England from which many original settlers came in the 17th century which itself has an anglo-saxon origin deriving from both wools stone were originally called auroria the city of Denver was renamed after General James W Denver in 1859 a governor of the territory Cairo Egypt was founded by the Arabs in 900 AD it's name comes from Alec Ajira the Conqueror though who this Conqueror is is unclear whether it be the conquering star or planet Mars which was rising when the city was founded or a fad amid Khalif some believe it has a Coptic origin Las Vegas Nevada was named by the Spanish it simply means the meadows Barcelona Spain has an ancient name although its origin is unclear it is often attributed to the Carthaginian general Hannibal Barca but there is no evidence that he was connected to the settlement Munich Germany in German is mention coming from the german word for monk the city was founded in the 12th century by Benedictine monks Milan it comes from the Roman name for the city of media Alanna but what exactly this meant remains unclear possibly simply the middle of the plain Prague and Czechia likely comes from a Slavic root premiering Ford Tehran the capital of Iran possibly derives its name from his over a streon figure tear the equivalent of the Greek god Hermes Calgary in Canada takes its name from the Calgary in the UK which itself is Old Norse likely meaning old garden vancouver was named after the British explorer George Vancouver Sydney Australia is named after the adjacent Sydney Cove which was named after Thomas Townsend 1st Viscount Sydney Wellington New Zealand takes its name from the famous Arthur Wellesley the Duke of Wellington who defeated Napoleon at the Battle of Waterloo in 1815 Tucson Arizona comes from the native Odum cusan meaning black base Cardiff the capital of Wales comes from Old Welsh and might mean the fort of the Taff Manchester like many major cities of England also has a romanized Peconic named mom meaning breast or breast like Hill and Chester from castra and Latin meaning fort Belgrade capital of Serbia means the white city Honolulu Hawaii means calm port in Hawaiian Baltimore Maryland was named after Cecil Calvert 2nd Baron of Baltimore Birmingham Alabama was named after Birmingham in England England's second largest city from the old english birmingham a' meaning homestead of the place Liverpool in England comes from the old english Leifer and pole meaning muddy water Islamabad the capital city of Pakistan in order means the city of Islam lagos capital of Nigeria means Lakes in Portuguese the Portuguese or originally founded the city and called it Lego Dukey Rommel Johannesburg South Africa has an unclear origin due to the number of people involved in the settlement named Johannes or Johannes such as Christian Johannes Hubert or Stephanus Johannes Paulus Kruger Damascus Syria has an unclear etymology but it is very ancient first mentioned by the Egyptians in the 15th century BC suggestions include place of dwelling and well watered land Baghdad Iraq is a newer but still very old city the name may be Persian and mean bestowed by God Alexandria Egypt is one of many places named after Alexander the Great after he conquered the area Amsterdam the affer mentioned capital of the Netherlands takes its name from the national Dutch pastime dams the Amster comes from the river Amstel brussels capital of Belgium or Brazil in French likely comes from the Dutch bro Scala meaning home and the marsh Zurich capital of Switzerland may have a very ancient origin perhaps being Gaulish from Turek meaning the place of two rows and so there we have it I hope you enjoyed this video if so I invite you to come check out the rest of fire learning and to subscribe to see more videos like this in the future to help with the cost of production of the nation on patreon would be a big help a special thanks to those patrons listed here you're also on Instagram Facebook and Twitter so come check us out there too thank you for watching

Channel: Fire of Learning

Views: 131,343

Rating: 4.8976274 out of 5

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Id: is_5yqMn5YQ

Length: 11min 50sec (710 seconds)

Published: Fri Feb 07 2020

Reddit Comments

[u/TheBeetle2]

Wrong flair buddy

[u/Alphadragon601]

My only problem with this kind of thing is it kinda needs conglangs to name cities, an area I have little to no skill in