28 City name etymologies

The etymology of Aberdeen is that of the name first used for the city of Aberdeen, Scotland, which then bestowed its name to other Aberdeens around the world, as Aberdonians left Scotland to settle in the New World and other colonies.

"Beijing" is the atonal pinyin romanization of the Mandarin pronunciation of the Chinese characters 北京, the Chinese name of the capital of China.

Chennai (, Tamil: [ˈt͡ɕenːaɪ̯]; also known as Madras, is the capital city of the Indian state of Tamil Nadu. Located on the Coromandel Coast of the Bay of Bengal, it is the largest cultural, economic and educational centre of south India.

Da Nang is a class-1 municipality and the fifth-largest city in Vietnam by municipal population. It is the third largest city in Vietnam by urban population, and it is considered as the third city of Vietnam. It lies on the coast of the South China Sea at the mouth of the Hàn River, and is one of Vietnam's most important port cities. As one of the country's five direct-controlled municipalities, it falls under the administration of the central government.

Damascus is the capital of Syria, the oldest capital in the world and the fourth holiest city in Islam. It became the country's largest city, following the Syrian Civil War, surpassing the northern city of Aleppo.

Diyarbakır is the largest Kurdish-majority city in Turkey. Situated around a high plateau by the banks of the Tigris river on which stands the historic Diyarbakır Fortress, it is the administrative capital of the Diyarbakır Province of south-eastern Turkey. It is the third-largest city in Turkey's Southeastern Anatolia Region, after Şanlıurfa and Gaziantep.

Edirne, historically known as Adrianople is a city in Turkey, in the northwestern province of Edirne and East Thrace, close to Turkey's borders with Greece and Bulgaria. Edirne was the capital city of the Ottoman Empire from 1369 to 1453, before Constantinople became the empire's capital. The estimated population in 2019 was 185,408.

Eger is the county seat of Heves, and the second largest city in Northern Hungary. Eger is best known for its castle, thermal baths, baroque buildings, the northernmost Ottoman minaret, dishes and red wines. Its population according to the census of 2011 makes it the 19th largest centre of population in Hungary. The town is located on the Eger Stream, on the hills of the Bükk Mountains.

Eisenstadt is a city in Austria, the state capital of Burgenland. It had a recorded population on 1 January 2020 of 14,815.

The city now known as Ho Chi Minh City has gone by several different names during its history, reflecting settlement by different ethnic, cultural and political groups. Originally known as Prey Nôkôr while a part of the Khmer Empire, it came to be dubbed Sài Gòn informally by Vietnamese settlers fleeing the Trịnh–Nguyễn War to the north. In time, control of the city and the area passed to the Vietnamese, who gave the city the name of Gia Định. This name remained until the time of French conquest in the 1860s, when the occupying force adopted the name Saïgon for the city, a westernized form of the traditional Vietnamese name. The current name was given after the Fall of Saigon in 1975, and honors Hồ Chí Minh, the first leader of North Vietnam. Even today, however, the informal name of Sài Gòn remains in daily speech both domestically and internationally, especially among the Vietnamese diaspora and local southern Vietnamese.

Jakarta, officially the Special Capital Region of Jakarta, is the capital of Indonesia. It lies on the northwest coast of Java. Jakarta is the centre of the economy, culture and politics of Indonesia. It has province level status which had a population of 10,562,088 as of 2020. Although Jakarta extends over only 699.5 square kilometres (270.1 sq mi), and thus has the smallest area of any Indonesian province, its metropolitan area covers 6,392 square kilometres (2,468 sq mi), and is the world's second-most populous urban area, after Tokyo. It has a population of about 35.934 million as of 2020. Jakarta's business opportunities, and its ability to offer a potentially higher standard of living than is available in other parts of the country, have attracted migrants from across the Indonesian archipelago, making it a melting pot of numerous cultures. Jakarta's nickname is "the Big Durian", after the thorny, strong-smelling fruit of that name that is native to the region. Calling Jakarta "the Big Durian" is seen as a nod to New York's nickname, "the Big Apple".

Names of Jerusalem refers to the multiple names by which the city of Jerusalem has been known and the etymology of the word in different languages. According to the Jewish Midrash, "Jerusalem has 70 names". Lists have been compiled of 72 different Hebrew names for Jerusalem in Jewish scripture.

Liepāja is a city in western Latvia, located on the Baltic Sea. It is the largest city in the Kurzeme Region and the third largest city in the country after Riga and Daugavpils. It is an important ice-free port. The population in 2020 was 68,535 people.

Makassar is the capital of the Indonesian province of South Sulawesi. It is the largest city in the region of Eastern Indonesia and the country's fifth-largest urban center after Jakarta, Surabaya, Bandung, and Medan. The city is located on the southwest coast of the island of Sulawesi, facing the Makassar Strait. Makassar is not only the gateway of Eastern Indonesia, but also the epicenter of West and East Indonesia, as well as between Australia and Asia. Most of its inhabitants are Makassar people or 'Makassarese'.

Seoul has been known in the past by the successive names Wiryeseong, Namgyeong, Hanseong or Hanyang. During the period of Japanese occupation (1910–1945), Seoul was referred to by the Japanese exonym Keijō , or Gyeongseong in Korean. After World War II and Korea's liberation, the city took its present name, Seoul, which had been in use since at least 1882, at times concurrently with other names.

Tallinn is the capital, the most populous and the primate city of Estonia. Located in the northern part of the country, on the shore of the Gulf of Finland of the Baltic Sea, it has a population of 437,619 in 2020. Administratively a part of Harju County, Tallinn is the main financial, industrial and cultural centre of Estonia; the second largest city, Tartu, is located in the southern part of Estonia, 187 kilometres (116 mi) southeast of Tallinn. Tallinn is located 80 kilometres (50 mi) south of Helsinki, Finland, 320 kilometres (200 mi) west of Saint Petersburg, Russia, 300 kilometres (190 mi) north of Riga, Latvia, and 380 kilometres (240 mi) east of Stockholm, Sweden. From the 13th century until the first half of the 20th century Tallinn was known in most of the world by its historical Danish name Reval.

Tampere is a city in Pirkanmaa in the western part of Finland. Tampere is the most populous inland city in the Nordic countries; it has a population of 238,140 with the urban area holding 334,112 people and the metropolitan area, also known as the Tampere sub-region, holding 385,301 inhabitants in an area of 4,970 km2 (1,920 sq mi). Tampere is the second-largest urban area and third most-populous individual municipality in Finland, after the cities of Helsinki and Espoo and the most populous Finnish city outside the Greater Helsinki area, within which both Helsinki and Espoo are located. Today, Tampere is one of the major urban, economic, and cultural hubs in the whole inland region.

Tartu is the second largest city of Estonia, after Estonia's political and financial capital Tallinn. It is situated 186 kilometres southeast of Tallinn and 245 kilometres northeast of Riga, the capital of Latvia. The distance to Estonia's summer holiday capital Pärnu in the west is 176 kilometres and the fastest route there by car is through Viljandi and Kilingi-Nõmme. Tartu lies on the Emajõgi, which connects the two largest lakes of Estonia, Lake Võrtsjärv and Lake Peipus. The city is served by Tartu Airport.

Tbilisi, in some languages still known by its pre-1936 name Tiflis, is the capital and the largest city of Georgia, lying on the banks of the Kura River with a population of approximately 1.5 million people. Tbilisi was founded in the 5th century AD by Vakhtang I of Iberia, and since then has served as the capital of various Georgian kingdoms and republics. Between 1801 and 1917, then part of the Russian Empire, Tiflis was the seat of the Caucasus Viceroyalty, governing both the northern and southern part of the Caucasus.

Thessaloniki, also known as Thessalonica, Saloniki or Salonica, is the second-largest city in Greece, with over 1 million inhabitants in its metropolitan area, and the capital of the geographic region of Macedonia, the administrative region of Central Macedonia and the Decentralized Administration of Macedonia and Thrace. It is also known in Greek as η Συμπρωτεύουσα, literally "the co-capital", a reference to its historical status as the Συμβασιλεύουσα or "co-reigning" city of the Eastern Roman (Byzantine) Empire, alongside Constantinople.

The name of Toronto has a history distinct from that of the city itself. Originally, the term "Taronto" referred to a channel of water between Lake Simcoe and Lake Couchiching on maps as early as 1675 but in time the name passed southward, and was eventually applied to a new fort at the mouth of the Humber River. Fort Toronto was the first European settlement in the area, and lent its name to what became the city of Toronto.

Trieste is a city and seaport in northeastern Italy. It is located towards the end of a narrow strip of Italian territory lying between the Adriatic Sea and Slovenia, approximately 10–15 km (6–9 mi) southeast of the city. Croatia is some 30 km (19 mi) to the south.

Tromsø is a municipality in Troms og Finnmark county, Norway. The administrative centre of the municipality is the city of Tromsø.

Trondheim, historically Kaupangen, Nidaros and Trondhjem, is a city and municipality in Trøndelag county, Norway. It has a population of 205,332 as of 2020, and is the third most populous municipality in Norway, although the fourth largest urban area. Trondheim lies on the south shore of Trondheim Fjord at the mouth of the River Nidelva. The city is dominated by the Norwegian University of Science and Technology (NTNU), the Foundation for Scientific and Industrial Research (SINTEF), St. Olavs University Hospital and other technology-oriented institutions.

Turku is a city and former capital on the southwest coast of Finland at the mouth of the Aura River, in the region of Finland Proper (Varsinais-Suomi) and the former Turku and Pori Province. The region was originally called Suomi (Finland), which later became the name for the whole country. As of 30 September 2018, the population of Turku was 191,499 making it the sixth largest city in Finland after Helsinki, Espoo, Tampere, Vantaa and Oulu. There were 330,192 inhabitants living in the Turku sub-region, ranking it as the third largest urban area in Finland after the Greater Helsinki area and Tampere sub-region. The city is officially bilingual as 5.2 percent of its population identify Swedish as a mother-tongue.

Udine is a city and comune in north-eastern Italy, in the middle of the Friuli-Venezia Giulia region, between the Adriatic Sea and the Alps. Its population was 100,514 in 2012, 176,000 with the urban area.

Ulaanbaatar, formerly anglicised as Ulan Bator, is the capital and most populous city of Mongolia. The municipality is located in north central Mongolia at an elevation of about 1,300 metres (4,300 ft) in a valley on the Tuul River. The city was originally founded in 1639 as a nomadic Buddhist monastic centre, changing location 28 times, and was permanently settled at its current location in 1778.

Vladivostok is the largest city and the administrative centre of Primorsky Krai, Russia. The city is located around the Golden Horn Bay on the Sea of Japan, covering an area of 331.16 square kilometres, with a population of 606,561 residents, up to 812,319 residents in the urban agglomeration. Vladivostok is the second-largest city in the Far Eastern Federal District, as well as the Russian Far East, after Khabarovsk.