Argentina's 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 began casting my net a little wider. This time the country is Argentina and some of its largest towns and cities and beginning with the largest.

Buenos Aires was originally named Santa Maria de los Buenos Aires by Spanish sailors upon their arrival in the River de la Plata. This was to thank 'the Holy Virgin Mary of the Good Winds' for bringing them safely across, what must then have seemed, a most formidable journey across the Atlantic Ocean. When the city was first founded it was known as Holy Mary of the Fair Winds, but this settlement had been abandoned by 1541. In 1580 the present settlement Ciudad de la Santisima Trinidad y Puerto de Santa Maria del Buen Aire or 'City of the Most Holy Trinity and Port of Saint Mary of the Fair Winds' had been named. Its current shortened form had become the norm by the end of the seventeenth century.

Cordoba was founded by the Spaniard Jeronimo Luis de Cabrera in June 1573. The name was probably coined by him to honour the home of his wife, Cordoba in Spain, itself named by the Carthaginian general Hamilcar Barca as Kartuba or 'City of Juba' after a Numidian commander killed in the battle for the region.

Rosario was officially declared a city as recently as August 3rd 1852, at the time known as Pago de los Arroyos or 'land of the streams' and there are a number of small rivers crossing the landscape here. However Rosario had been the name of the settlement since its earliest record from October 1793, when it was said to already have 457 inhabitants. Rosario translates as 'rosary'.

Mendoza was founded on March 2nd 1561 by Pedro del Castillo and named Ciudad de Mendoza del Nuevo Valle de La Rioja after the then governor of Chile, Don Garcia Hurtado de Mendoza.

La Plata has been designed on a grid system revealed by its nickname of la ciudad de las diagonales 'City of Diagonals', although other sources refer to it as la ciudad de los tilos 'the city of linden trees' and there are a large number. The name comes from the river, the Rio de la Plata being 'the river of silver'.

Tucuman, in full San Miguel de Tucuman, is thought to come from the Quechua language and probably began as Yucuman or 'place of several rivers'. Alternatively this may represent Tucma or 'the end of things' and then a reference to the outer limits of the Inca Empire.

Mar del Plata shares an origin with La Plata, this being 'the sea of the River Plate region'.

Salta is nicknamed Salta la Linda or 'Salta the beautiful', the origin of the name of the Salta Valley in which it lies depends upon which language it came from. Perhaps it is an Indian tribe, or has the meaning 'craggy place', or possibly 'meeting of the outstanding', or even from the Aymara for 'very beautiful'.

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

Angolan 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 I cast my net a little wider. This time the country of Angloa and some of the largest towns and cities beginning with the largest.

Luanda, earlier given as Loanda, is of uncertain origins but with two most commonly cited meanings. The most popular is this is derived from a native word meaning 'tax' and a reference to the tribute of shellfish sent to the ruler of Congo. Others point to the earlier name of Loanda being a word meaning 'flat land'. From an etymological perspective the second explanation is more likely as it comes from a known word, while also being a typical definition of a place name. While it is easy to see why the first explanation is the most popular, it can almost be discounted entirely and for three good reasons: not least because the root word is unrecorded; conversely the word loanda is known and fits the topography; and the latter definition is exactly what we would expect from a place name (the most simple is invariably correct even if the least desirable).

Huambo, known to the Portuguese as Nova Lisboa or New Lisbon, and gets its name from the Wambo, one of the former Ovimbundu kingdoms of Angola. The Wambo were a Bantu tribe, one of several who migrated here from Namibia. The origin of their name is completely unknown but the word 'wambo' is found elsewhere, although the ancient Proto-Germanic wambo meaning either 'belly, bowels, uterus' and even meaning 'heart' as in the sense 'central' depending upon the context, is certainly not related. From an implausible ancient offering to an impossible contemporary source, yet still worth a mention. The 'word' was used in a scene from Spongebob Squarepants when the eponymous character is discussing a setting on Mermaidman's belt with Patrick Star. Patrick informs Spongebob he has the setting wrong: "You've set it to 'M' for 'mini' when it should be 'W' for 'wambo'. Spongebob: "Wambo? Don't think that's a real word." Patrick: Of course it is! I wambo, you wambo, he, she, me wambo. Wambology, the study of wama. It's first grade, Spongebob!" Having said the latter is an impossible origin for wambo it is quite likely, now this has appeared on the internet, that Patrick Star will one day be cited by someone as the man who named an Angolan city.

Lobito is a city named because of its long use as a trading post, a fitting excuse for also naming the Bay of Lobito as it is one of the finest natural harbours on this coast of Africa. It comes from pitu, an Umbundu word which, when prefixed by olu, can be defined as something akin to 'passageway, door' even 'pathway'. The pronunication has changed from the original Olupitu to Lupitu and through Portuguese influence to the modern form.

Uige was renamed in 1955 as Vila Marechal Carmona, to honour the former president of Portugal, Oscar Carmona. When declared a city it was reduced to Carmona and, in 1975, returned to Uige which is also the name of the province. Pronounced 'weej', the origins of the name are unknown and yet there is an Irish name which comes from a word with the same spelling. The name 'Higgins', and every variant spelling, is derived from the Old Irish uige meaning 'knowledge, skill, ingenuity'.

Namibe, somewhat predictably, shares an origin with the neighbouring Namib Desert and which is from a Nama word meaning 'vast place', a fairly apt description of a strip of land along the coast which has an average width of 124 miles wide but over 1,200 miles long. Note the Nama language is officially called Khoekhoe and is the most widespread of the non-Bantu languages containing click sounds.

Soyo was originally known as Sonho and a province of the Kingdom of Kongo and ruled by the Mwene Soyo or 'Lord of Soyo', he usually a member of the Kongo royal family. Again the meaning of the name of the Angolan place is unknown but, just as with Huambo and Uige, we do find the word used in quite unrelated areas. There is an example found in Tahiti, most often used for the name of a cocktail, and means 'out of this world. Similarly there is a reference to soyo in Paraguay, this a shortened form of so'o josopy where so'o meant 'meat' and josopyre 'crushed'.

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

Algerian 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 I cast my net a little wider. This time the African country of Algeria and some of its largest cities and towns which are listed in terms of population and begins with the biggest ....

Algiers reflects the French colonial days and comes from the French name of Alger and the Catalan Alger. In turn this comes from the Arabic name of al-Jaza'ir and translates as 'the islands'. Look at a map today and the islands will prove a mystery, yet until 1525 there were four very distinct islands which became a part of the mainland. Al Jaza'ir is an abbreviated form of the earlier name of Jaza'ir Bani Mazghana or 'the islands of the sons of Mazghana', a Berber people. Earlier this had been a Roman town known as Icosium which, as with just about every place name in the Roman Empire, was there version of the existing name, in this case the Phoenician trading post known as Ikosim. This Phoenician name is derived from a Greek legend, the place said to have been founded by twenty companions of Hercules with this being from the Greek word for 'twenty'.

Oran has a link to the capital city of Algiers in the Berber people and, at least in the example, their language. Here we find the Berber root hr meaning 'lion'. Around 3,000 years ago it is said there were lions to be seen around here. Legend has it the last two were killed on a nearby mountain which is now known as The Mountain of the Lions and large statues of these creatures stand outside the city's administrative centre.

Constantine was named in honour of the Roman emperor Constantine the Great, although originally the Romans had known the place as Cirta. To the Phoenicians this was Tzirta, but destroyed by the Romans at the beginning of the fourth century and rebuilt by them. The original name simply referred to this as a trading post.

Annaba has some of the earliest examples of advanced flake-tool techniques in the Middle Palaeolithic and has been occupied for at least 200,000 years. While we have no idea what the place was called for the vast majority of its existence - although it would be surprising to find anything other than the most simplistic names such as 'place' or 'home' - we do know it was settled by the Phoenicians around 1300 BC and later known as Hippo Regius by the Romans. Hippo is from the Punic ubon meaning 'harbour' with Regius 'of the king' referring to this being home to Numidian kings. The present name of Annaba is also from the origin ubon.

Blida is from bulaydah and ultimately from the Arabic word belda meaning 'city'.

Sidi Bel Abbes is named after Sidi bel Abbass a Muslim marabout who is buried here. A marabout being a religious leader and teacher.

Biskra was known to the Romas as Vescera although some records refer to this as Ad Piscinam a reference to the large pool of water heated by sulphurous springs to 45 degrees celsius and literally means 'at the waterworks'. It seems Vescera may have been a rather bad translation of the earlier native name. The modern name is Arabic and also refers to the hot waters, although the literal translation of 'boil' should be seen more as a reference to the bubbling of the hot waters.

Tebessa has seen its name change little over many centuries. The Romans, Arabs, French all simply using the existing name, albeit with a little corruption through pronunciation. This comes from the Greek name for the place which translated to 'one hundred gates'.

El Oued is known as 'the City of a Thousand Domes' and yet the name has a much simpler origin from the Arabic for 'river'. The city is built around an oasis, itself fed by an underground river which gave the place its name and helped the people grow their new home by growing dates and the quite rare production of bricks in the desert.

Tiaret is another name of Berber origin and, like Oran, has its origins in a big cat. However here the meaning is 'lioness', pointing to the Barbary lions once living in this region. Barbary lions, also refered to as the Atlas lion, is a species now considered extinct in the wild. The last recorded death by shooting being in 1942, although the species was certainly still in existence until at least the 1950s and some unconfirmed reports speak of sightings in the 1960s. It is thought to be extinct in captivity but, at least genetically, must survive in some form among the many animals bred in European zoos and a programme is looking at a selective breeding programme to eliminate the hybrid elements.

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

Zimbabwean City 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 I cast my net a little wider. It would seem logical to find any links with English place names to be fewer the further we get from the British Isles, yet this is not always the case.

Harare was, as any trivia buff will delight in telling you, known as Salisbury until 1982. This name came from the 3rd Marquess of Salisbury, he being prime minister of Great Britain at the time. Harare took its name from the nearby village now known as Mbare and, with nearby Harare Kopje, taken from the Shona chief Neharawa whose name means 'he who does not sleep'.

Bulawayo was founded in the middle of the nineteenth century. The Ndebele king Lobengula, son of King Mzilikazi kaMatshobana who had brought his people here all the way from Zululand, naming the place KoBulawayo which means 'a place where he is killed'. This is thought to refer to a dispute between two factions of the Ndebele people, those who questioned Lobengula's right of succession fighting his supporters. Indeed at this time Bulawayo was referred to as KoBulawayo UmntwaneNkosi or 'the place where they are fightint or risin against the prince'.

Mutare is a long-established outpost on an ancient trade route - soapstone carvings and figurines have revealed much of its unwritten history. The modern city was founded as a fort in 1897 between the Tsambe and Mutare rivers. Clearly the place took the river name, itself dervied from utare meaning 'iron' or, more likely, 'gold' as the river runs through the Penhalonga Valley where gold was discovered.

Gweru was known as Gwelo until 1982, however neither were original name. Originally this was Kwelu, this the Kalanga word for 'pheasant' and the name given to their chieftain, but when the English arrived they corrupted the pronunciation to Gwelo and thereafter, the original name now largely forgotten, became pronounced as the modern version.

Kwekwe was known as Que Que until 1983 which is not named from the noise of frogs, as is often thought. The true meaning is even stranger, for this was originally isikwekwe and had the rather unusual meaning of 'scurvy', 'mange' or 'scab'.

Kadoma is a corruption of the earlier name of Gadooma, known as such from 1890 until 1982. Previously this was Katuma, named after the cattle enclosure associated with Chief Katuma.

Chinhoyi had been known as Sinoia during its days as a British colony. Both names are simply corrupted versions of the original Tjinoyi, the Lozwi chief who was the son of Lukuluba, himself the third son of Emperor Netjasike.

Norton is clearly of Old English origin and means 'the northern tun or farmstead'. However it came to Zimbabwe as a surname, the Norton family farming this area from the 1890s and who were murdered when nationalist guerrillas rose up against the Rhodesian government in the 1960s.

Marondera was known as Marandellas until 1982. This latter name was the original recording of the place name, in full known as Marandella's Kraal. Bringing this full circle the original place name was a corruption of the present name of Marondera, he the chieftain of the Barozwi people.

Note the spellings are mostly English as the piece is written in English.

Albania’s City 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 I cast my net a little wider. It would seem logical to find any links with English place names to be fewer the further we get from the British Isles, yet this is not always the case.

Tirana is often said to have been named by the Turkish general Barkinzade Suleyman Pasha, who founded the place around 1600 and naming it Tigran in honour of his home of Tehran. However there is enough evidence to show this was known as such some 1300 earlier and certainly the Emperor Justinian built a castle in the early 6th century named Tirkan. Thus it seems likely this city was named as ‘the village of Tirania’, this being the ancient name of Tuscany inhabited by the Etruscans. While the Etruscans gave their name to the Tyrrhenian Sea, this being the Greek version of their name, the names have never been explained.

Durres was once recorded as Dyrrhachion and this comes from the Greek and means something akin ‘bad shoreline’. Undoubtedly the rocky coastline around here would have made landing here extremely hazardous. Roman historians claimed this represented the hero Dyrrachius, yet if there is anyone to link with he will have been named from the place.

Vlore was first known as the Greek Aulon meaning ‘valley’, likely a Greek translation of the existing ancient name for the area. Later pronunciations, notably the Italian Valona, resulted in the modern form.

Elbasan shares an origin with the name of Albania, where the Indo-European alb has been seen as ‘place of eagles’ and has been influenced by the Turkish il-basan ‘the fortress’.

Fier is certainly not from the Italian fiera or ‘trade fair’ despite there being an important Venetian marketplace here in the 14th and 15th centuries. There is a record of this name well before the heyday of the market and comes from the Albanian word for ‘fern’.

Berat was earlier known as Beligrad, itself meaning ‘white city’ in the Slavic tongues and a reference to stone buildings.

Sarande has undergone several minor changes, these solely down to pronunciation differences as successive cultures came and went. This name came from the Greek for the Byzantine monastery of Agioi Saranada or ‘forth saints’. This refers to the Forty Martyrs of Sebaste, a group of Roman soldiers of the twelfth legion who were martyred on the orders of Licinius in 316.

Pogradec is another Albanian name of Slavic origin where po gradec literally means ‘under the city’. This not only defines the name of this place but also shows it was overlooked by the Illyrian settlement of Istarova located on the hill which still dominates the skyline.

Gjirokaster has often been recorded as being named after the legendary Princess Argjiro which, had she ever have existed, would be impossible as the name is known before her reputed lifetime in the 15th century. The true origin is Greek argyron kastron ‘the silver castle’.

Note the spellings are mostly English as the piece is written in English.

Afghanistan City 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 I cast my net a little wider. It would seem logical to find any links with English place names to be fewer the further we get from the British Isles, yet this is not always the case.

Kabul is by far the largest city of Afghanistan and indeed the only one with a population in excess of half a million. It stands on, and gets its name from, the River Kabul. While this name has never been defined with any certainty, suggestions it may be related to the Iranian for ‘storehouse’ can be dismissed as the river name is certainly the original. There are similar words from the same language which meaning either ‘red’ or ‘horse’, although just how these relate to the river name is a mystery.

Kendahar was founded in the third century BC as Alexandria Arachosia and named after its founder, Alexander the Great. It shares its name with Kandahar Province of which it is the capital,

Herat is derived from the Hari River, itself Old Iranian for ‘silken water’. This, as with so many rivers in this region, is described as shining or glistening, two adjectives which are invariably regarded as valuable and nothing can be more precious than a good and reliable water supply.

Mazar-i-Sharif has a name meaning ‘the noble shrine’. This refers to the city’s large sanctuary renowned for its resplendent blue tiling also known as the Blue Mosque or Shrine of Hazrat Ali. Some muslims believe it contains the tomb of Ali ibn Abi Talib, cousin and son-in-law of the prophet Muhammad.

Kunduz is derived from the Persian kuhan diz meaning ‘the ancient fortress’, although Turkic konak ‘residence, house’ is not beyond possibility.

Jalalabad, originally known as Adinapur, was renamed as recently as the end of the sixteenth century to honour Jalala, son of Pir Roshan who led the fighting against the Mughals.

Sheberghan is thought to have come from Shaporgan or ‘City of Shapor’. Two Sasanian kings named Shapur were associated with the general area but there is no evidence to link the two.

Lashkar Gah is from the Persian tongue and simply refers to the ‘army barracks’ created by the Saffarids in the ninth century and where soldiers were stationed on the route to the winter home of the Ghaznavid nobles.

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

The Phoenicians

Last time I highlighted the influential Greek tongue in the development of Indo-European languages. The biggest influence on ancient Greek had been the earlier Phoenician tongue. It is quite surprising to discover just how much influence the Phoenicians have had and continue to have on our modern world.

The Phoenicians are probably best remembered as navigators. Dominating the Mediterranean for more than five centuries, their initial wealth came from salt. Every Phoenician city stood on the coast and allowed the sea to flood the marshland by means of a series of man-made channels. Subsequently dammed, these were dried by the reliable Mediterranean sun. Compared to processes this was almost labour-free. This salt enabled them to cast their fishing nets much further from shore and keep the catch fresh for much longer.

The Phoenicians would never have referred to themselves as such, for this is a Greek term used to describe the Canaanite towns and comes from the Greek for ‘land of purple’. This is a reminder of the murex-shell dye exported from the region. As with Greece each city state was an independent unit. With little arable land they were forced to trade and built a great number of vessels from the one natural resource they did have – wood.

Not only did the Phoenicians leave us salt and sailing, their writing proved the basis for almost every modern alphabet – the language is held to have been very closely related to Hebrew but whether one is a dialect of the other or the two have an unknown common ancestor is disputed.

A culture with a wealth built on salt enabled their vessels to travel great distances and bring back wonderful and rare spices, the most valuable of which was pepper. The two are inseparable on 21st century tables and yet ironically it was pepper which devalued salt. Another link between the Phoenicians and the modern era is that of climate change. A few years of extreme weather destroyed half the salt marshes and abnormally heavy rains ruined the cycle of evaporation. They never recovered and eventually even the most famous of them all, Carthage, was no more.