Cuba Place Names Explained

Having blogged samples of my books on English place names and also examined the etymologies of the nations of the world and their respective capitals I thought it time to cast my net a little wider. This time Cuba and a look at some of its largest settlements and most interesting names and starting with the capital.

Havana has probably retained its original name given by the Taino people and a reference to local chief Habaguanex. There is an alternative explanation suggesting this comes from the Middle Dutch havene and refers to 'a harbour', best seen as sharing a root with the English 'haven'.

Holguin is named after its founder, Spaniard Captain Garcia Holguin, who came here in 1545.

Guantanamo may be an infamous name but began quite simply as the Taino for 'land between rivers'.

Cienfuegos is easily translated as 'one hundred fires'.

Mantazas literally means 'massacre', a reminder of when 30 Spanish soldiers attempted to cross the river to attack the camp on the opposite side. Having not boats they enlisted the help of local fishermen but, when in midstream, the fishermen rolled the boats. In their heavy armour the soldiers drowned with just two women surviving.

Sancti Spiritus is a typical Spanish place name, this translating as 'Holy Spirit'.

Moa is another from the native Taino tongue and is thought to mean 'water here'.

Florida, as with every other place of this name, comes from the Spanish for 'land of flowers'.

Contramaestre is another related to water, this simply meaning 'boatswain'.

Artemisa has been said to be named from the Greek goddess Artemis, however it seems odd to find Greek mythology recalled at the beginning of the 19th century as a place name, thus the suggestion of Artemisia, this the Spanish for ragweed or Ambrosia artemisfolia then found in abundance.

Baracoa comes from the local Arauaca tongue meaning 'the presence of the sea'. As this is the spot where Christopher Columbus landed on his first voyage west he probably thought of it as 'the presence of the land' after many days without sight of any coastline.

Banes is another from the native Taino language and a word meaning 'valley'.

Note the spellings of the places are English as the piece is written in English.

Croatia Place Names Explained

Having blogged samples of my books on English place names and also examined the etymologies of the nations of the world and their respective capitals I thought it time to cast my net a little wider. This time Croatia and a look at some of its largest settlements and most interesting names and starting with the capital.

Zagreb is also the largest city in Croatia. The name is first seen in a document dated 1134, however the origins of its name are disputed. Taking the Croatian word zagrabiti as the basis, this meaning 'to scoop', has seen a number of suggestions. Traditionally this is held to be from when a Croat viceroy leading his thirsty soldiers across a dry plain drove his sabre into the ground only to see water pour forth. He ordered his men to dig and thus created the first well. Archaeologists and geologists support the story from what is known of the area, yet balance that by pointing out no settlement would ever be founded without a reliable source of fresh water. A similar tale points to what is now the fountain in Ban Jelacic Square, also known as Mandusevac Well. It seems the city's governor ordered a girl named Manda to fetch him water from the well saying "Zagrabi, Mando" or 'scoop it up, Manda'. More plausible explanations include za bregom 'beyond the hill' and this the river bank on the River Sava, for an early use of breg was also 'bank' as well as 'hill'. Alternatively za gragom or 'beyond the moat' is equally possible, this place heavily fortified since early days.

Split is easier to understand, it coming from the local fauna and in particular calicotome spinosa, commonly known as the spiny broom. It was named as such by the Greeks who colonised the region as Spalathos. Later as a Roman possession this was corrupted to Spalatum and eventually the Italian version of Spalato. Over the years the Croatian version began to displace the Italian, with the modern form officially adopted by the Kingdom of Yugoslavia at the end of the First World War.

Rijeka is known by many different names depending upon the language used. Croatian Rijeka, Slovene Reka, Italian Flume, and historically as Tharsatica and Vitopolis, all sharing a single meaning of 'river'. This is correctly Kvarner Bay, an inlet of the Adriatic Sea.

Osijek gets its name from being on dry ground in a flood plain. It is derived from the Croatian word oseka meaning 'ebb tide' and should be seen as the logical place to settle for it provided a natural defensive feature.

Zadar is similar to Rijeka and Osijek in originating from water, although the name is so ancient the exact meaning will never be known. The earliest known forms are as Iadera and Iader, but is certainly older and thought to predate the Indo-European language, the mother of the majority of tongues across Europe, the Middle East and the Indian subcontinent. These early forms is later influenced by the early Dalmatian language as Jadra, Jadera and Jadertina, then by the pronunciation in the Croatian language as Zadra and Zadar, this seen as early as the 12th century.

Velika Gorica is from two words where velika, 'great', precedes the local Kajkavian dialect word gorica or 'vineyard'. The area has produced wine since before recorded history.

Slavonski Brod features the regional name of Slavonia, from the Slav people who settled here. Ther term brod may mean 'ship' in modern Croatian, however its earlier use was as 'water crossing' - not in terms of a ship but in the sense 'ford'.

Pula may have evidence of habitation dating back more than a million years, that is before the time of Homo sapiens, but the name dates back to the era of a Greek colony known as Polai meaning 'city of refuge'. Later forms, such as the Italian Pola and Croatian Pula are simply corruptions of the original.

Karlovac is a much more recent name than others, this from its founder Charles II, Archduke of Austria and thus is a Croatian version of 'Charles' town'.

Sisak can be traced to the Celtic and Illyrian ears when the place was known as Segestica. Later forms, including that of Sisak, are simply corruptions of the original referring to its location by water, there are three significant rivers here.

Dubrovnik was historically known as Ragusa, itself from the earlier Greek name Lausa meaning 'precipice'. The modern name was adopted officially in 1918 after the fall of the Austro-Hungarian Empire, although this name can be found as early as 1189. This comes from dubrava or 'grove of oak trees'.

Vukovar describes itself as 'the town on the Vuka'. While var is the Hungarian for 'fortress', the river gets its name from the Slavic vuk or 'wolf'.

Note the spellings of the places are English as the piece is written in English.

Cote d’Ivoire Place Names Explained

Having blogged samples of my books on English place names and also examined the etymologies of the nations of the world and their respective capitals I thought it time to cast my net a little wider. This time Cote d'Ivoire and a look at some of its largest settlements and most interesting names and starting with the capital.

Yamoussoukro was known as N'Gokro when the French brought the first colonists here in 1929. Under the helm of Queen Yamousso, this village of just 429 inhabitants found itself at the centre, but not part of, unrest which seemed destined to result in war. However when this was averted, with Queen Yamousso playing no small part, the name was changed to honour her and now numbers over 350,000 inhabitants.

Abengourou is held to be from the Akan language where n'pe kro means 'I don't like long discussions', so we'll leave it at that.

Abidjan requires a rather longer explanation. Tradition maintains this is from a misunderstanding where an old man carrying branches to repair the roof of his house meets with a European explorer who asks him the name of his village. The old man did not understand the words but thought he was being asked what he was doing there, and so his reply of min-chan m'bidjan was recorded as Abidjan. However what the old man had actually said in the Ebrie language was "I just cut the leaves".

Bingerville is, as we would suspect with such a suffix, named after an individual. Louis-Gustave Binger was the French colonial governor who raised the profile of this sleepy market town in the early 20th century.

Bouake is named for the Bouale people, their name coming from a legend. Led from Ghana to this region by Queen Pokou, fleeing the Ashanti, they arrived at the Komoe river which they could not cross. With the enemy bearing down on them they thought throwing their most treasured possession into the river would save them. The queen was last and threw her son into the waters, whereupon a great number of hippopotamuses rose to the surface to create a bridge and allowed them to cross. Reaching the other side she gave the people their name when she spoke just one word, baouli or 'the child is dead'.

Jacqueville, despite its French spelling, does not its name to French occupation but marks the raising of the Union Jack when the British first landed here.

Note the spellings of the places are English as the piece is written in English.

Costa Rica Place Names Explained

Having blogged samples of my books on English place names and also examined the etymologies of the nations of the world and their respective capitals I continue an alphabetical search of the countries and their significant settlements. This time Costa Rica and a look at some of its largest settlements and most interesting names and starting with the capital.

San Jose, as with so many settlements named by the Spanish, is simply the name of the saint associated with area, and here that is St Joseph.

Heredia gets its name from a corrupted version of the name of the local tribe inhabiting this region when they arrived, the Huetares.

Nicoya is often held to come from Cacique Nicoa (or Nicoya), this the title and name of the supposed leader of the indigenous people who welcomed the Spanish to this arwa. However the real origin is from the native Nahuati tongue where Necoc iauh describes its position between two significant rivers perfectly as 'on both sides its waters'.

Tirrases takes its name from the local Tirra tree, ulmus mexicana, thought to be the tallest of all elms when reaching a height of 273 feet. It is easily identified by its deeply fluted grey trunk, this also making it disliked by those in the timber trade and, while areas have been felled, the species is not considered under threat.

Puerto Limon, most often known simply as Limon, gets its name from the important port and the Spanish for 'lemon', although it was founded to allow the export of coffee, not lemons.

Siquirres is from a native word, one describing the soil as 'reddish coloured'.

Puntarenas is from the Spanish for 'sand point'.

Note the spellings of the places are English as the piece is written in English.