1. Moscow is the capital of our Motherland. The name of the capital comes from the Moscow River, and not vice versa, as many people think. But why the river was named Moscow is still under debate. The most common opinion is that the word comes from the ancient Slavic root “mosk” - a wet or marshy place.
2. St. Petersburg - The city was named by Peter I in honor of the Holy Apostle Peter, and not in honor of himself, as many people think.
3. Yaroslavl - The city was named after its founder Yaroslav the Wise.
4. Khabarovsk - The city is named after Erovey Khabarov, an explorer.
5. Ufa - translated from Bashkir means “Dark Water”.
6. Ekaterinburg - The city is named after Empress Catherine I.
7. Smolensk - there are several versions of the origin of this city. The most common one is from the name of the river Smolnya (Chernozem). The second version comes from the ethnic group - Smolyan.
8. Penza - like Moscow, it was named after the river, respectively Penza. The word itself is translated as “Fire water”.
9. Omsk - the same. The name comes from the river Om.
10. Perm - comes from the Vespic word “Pera Maa”, which translates as “Distant Land”.
11. Murmansk is a city on Murman. Initially, the Norwegians were called Murmans, and later they began to call the coast of the Barents Sea.
12. Kolomna - there are several versions of the origin of the names of this city. The first version is that the name comes from the Kolomenka River. This river was located near the market (at that time it was called menok), that is, it turned out to be “a river near menok.” The second version says that there was a quarry nearby, after which the city was named. From the Latin "columna", which means "Column", which is depicted on the city's coat of arms.
13. Yoshkar-Ola - Red City (from Mari).
14. Gelendzhik - translated from Arabic (Helenj) means “Polar”.
15. Vorkuta - translated from German as “Bear Territory”.
16. Vologda - “river with white (clean) water” translated into ancient Vespic.
17. Vladimir - everything is clear here. The city is named after the ruler Vladimir Monomakh.
18. Barnaul - There are two versions of the origin. According to the first version, the name came from a camp called “Aul Barna” (Barn is one of the nomads of the Khanate of Siberia). The second version says that the name comes from the “Barnaulka” river, which means “Wolf River” or “Muddy River”.
19. Arkhangelsk - the name of the city was given in honor of Archangel Michael.
20. Chelyabinsk - comes from the name of the fortress “Chelyaba”, which translates as “Depression” or “Deep Pit”.
21. Bryansk - the name of the city comes from the word D'bryansk, which in turn comes from the word D'br, which means cliff, ditch, slope.
22. Irkutsk - translated from Buryat means “Capricious”.
23. Kaliningrad - as you already understood, in honor of Mikhail Ivanovich Kalinin.
24. Kemerovo - from the Turkic “Kemer” - slope, cliff. (Essentially the same as Bryansk).
25. Kursk - the name comes from the folk term “Kurya”, which means “river bay” or “backwater”.
26. Lipetsk - like many old cities, this city was named after the river. IN in this case it was the Lipovka River.
27. Ryazan - here again there is no commonality and consensus. One opinion says that the name of the city is derived from the word “Ryasa” - swamp, or from the word “Duckweed” - river algae. Another opinion says that the name is derived from the word “Erzya” - the name of the Mordovian ethnic group.
28. Ulyanovsk - the city is named after Vladimir Ilyich Lenin (Ulyanov).
29. Krasnoyarsk - the city is named after the phrase “Krasny Yar”. Yar in the Kachin language meant a high bank or hill. That is, Krasnoyarsk can be translated as “Red Coast” or “Red Coast”.
30. Stavropol - the name is formed by the merger of two words - “Stavros”, which translates as “Cross”, and “Polis”, which translates as a city, that is, “Cross City”.
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Municipal educational institution "Sharnutovskaya secondary school named after B.S. Sanzharykov"
Origin of American city names
Completed by the student:
Fomin Roman
Supervisor:
English teacher
Muchkaeva B.D.
- Introduction
- The history of the origin of cities and their names
- Classification
- Conclusion
- Literature
The purpose of this studyis the study of the origins of American city names.
In accordance with the goal, we can distinguishnext tasks:
- study of toponymy of American names cities;
- studying the history of education cities;
- studying unusual names of US cities.
Object of study: cities of America.
Subject of study:Origin of city names.
Hypothesis: Let us assume that the origin of city names was influenced by:
Historical events that took place in the specific state in which the city is located;
Geographical features of a particular city;
People who glorified this city;
Research methods:
- Studying literature.
- Search necessary information on Internet sites.
Introduction
Every state has cities and settlements with interesting, and sometimes even funny, names. And even more interesting is the origin of these names. Most often, cities are called by individuals or groups of people who first settled on the site of the future city, and only God knows what comes into their heads. But the United States “outdid” other countries in this regard - either they have such a sense of humor, or simply because of their “great mind.”
The study of the etymology of topographic names allows us to better understand the features of the material and spiritual culture of the people inhabiting a given territory. The very appearance of the name of a particular area can relate to different eras, be rooted in different languages, being a unique phenomenon in the history of human exploration of the geographical space of the planet.
The names of cities, like any other toponymy, are monuments to the history of the territory and language, and, as S.B. notes. Veselovsky, they are reflections of people’s history. Because a people can disappear, but memories of it are preserved in topographic names.
The study of the names of American cities is of particular interest due to the fact that in this territory there was a very intense mixing of races, traditions, culture, languages of the most different nations, who arrived here from different parts of Europe, and also inhabited the territory from time immemorial. Since the discovery of America, millions of people have moved here and become the creators of a new culture, a new language, and new traditions.
There are many reasons that formed the basis for the names of American cities.
For example, people who moved to America from other countries used to name their new homeland after the city where they lived previously. This is how many cities in the United States of America got their name.
Famous American city Boston got its name in honor of the city of the same name in the English county of Lincoln. It is worth noting, however, that, unlike American Boston, its English namesake is very Small town, its population is only about 60,000 people.
Cities were often named after famous politicians and other important people. Yes, city Baltimore in the eastern United States, the largest population center in the state of Maryland, was named after the Irish landowner Lord Baltimore, the first ruler of the Maryland colony. Its name (Baltimore) is an anglicization of the Irish Baile an Tí Mhóir, meaning Town of the Big House.
The largest American city and the capital of the state of Colorado were named in honor of the governor. Denver . On November 22, 1858, General William Larimer Jr., a land speculator from eastern Kansas, purchased a tract of land at the confluence of the South Platte River and Cherry Creek for logging. He named the settlement formed on this site Denver in honor of the Governor of the Kansas Territory, James Denver. W. Larimer hoped that such a name would help the city become the administrative center of Arapahoe County, but, unfortunately, the governor had already left office by that time.
The American capital, founded in 1791, was named after the first American President George Washington.
The name of the city appeared in a similar way. Seattle . The first European settlement on the site of Seattle was in 1851 and was called New York Alki ( New York Alki ), which translated from the Chinook dialect as "Future New York". In 1853, it was proposed to rename this settlement Seattle, in honor of the leader of the local Suquamish and Duwamish tribes.
Houston , founded in 1836, was named after Sam Houston, commander in chief of the Texas Army during the Texas Revolution, president of the Republic of Texas, and a key figure in the history of the region as a whole.
Dallas was named after George Dallas, the eleventh Vice President of the United States. However, the exact origin of the city's name is still unknown.
Pittsburgh got its name in the 18th century. in honor of William Pitt Sr., who was Foreign Secretary and Prime Minister of England, leading the Whig group - supporters of active colonial expansion.
The original reason lies behind the appearance of the city's name Phoenix - the capital and largest city of the American state of Arizona. His name is associated with the name of Confederate Army veteran Jack Swilling, who in 1867 founded at the foot of the mountains White Tank Mountains own farm on the ruins of an old Indian settlement. Gradually a settlement grew around the farm, and people thought about the name of their settlement. They chose the name Phoenix, based on the idea that their new city had risen from the ruins of a former civilization like this mythical creature.
Origin of the city name Minneapolis in Minnesota is due to the large amount of water around this city. Firstly, the city is located on the banks of the Mississippi River; secondly, it has 24 lakes located within its boundaries. It is believed that the name of the city was given by the first city teacher, who combined the word mni , translated from Dakota languages meaning “water”, and the Greek word polis (city).
American cities often changed their names. For example, city Cincinnati , founded by John Cleaves Simms and Colonel Robert Patterson in 1788, was formerly known as Losantiville. He received this name from four words in different languages. It meant "a city located opposite the mouth of the Licking River" ( Ville translated from French means city, anti translated from Greek -opposite, os in Latin means mouth and "L " - everything that was inherited from the Licking River). In 1790, Governor Arthur St. Clair of the Northwest Territory changed the city's name to Cincinnati in honor of the Society of the Cincinnati, of which he was a member.
The American city also received a different name. Atlanta , Georgia. Initially, it was only a railway station on the Western Atlantic Railroad, but after two other railroads were connected at this point, a whole settlement, and then a city, was formed here. Throughout the history of the city, its name has changed several times. So, in 1843 it was called “Marthasville” in honor of the daughter of the former governor of the state. After several name changes, the railroad's chief engineer, John Edgar Thomson, proposed the name "Atlanta", which was approved by the city's residents. The city has officially had this name since 1847. There are versions that the name of the city "Atlanta" came from an abbreviation of the name of the Western Atlantic Railroad. It is also believed that the city owes its name to Greek mythology.
The etymology of the name of the largest American city seems very mysterious. NY . There are various versions revealing its origin. Thus, it is assumed that New York was named after the Duke of York - the English king James II. According to another version, the British who moved to America named the city after the English city of York - New York, which translated means New York. And the name “York” itself is derived from the Latin Eboracum (via Old English Eoforwic and Old Norse Jorvik ), which, in turn, presumably comes from the British eborakon - "yew estate"
It is also interesting to note that New York City changed its name several times. City " American dream“It was founded not by the British, but by the Dutch. At the beginning of the 17th century, Dutch settlers bought the island of Manhattan from the Indians, where they founded a settlement, which they named New Amsterdam in honor of the capital of their homeland. However, already in 1664 the city was captured by the British and renamed in honor of the initiator of this military operation– King James II, Duke of York. Then, however, the Dutch managed to recapture the city, and this time they named it New Orange. But after the city was recaptured by the British, it finally became New York.
City name Los Angeles has Spanish roots. The city is known as the "City of Angels". It is often abbreviated as L.A. . Once upon a time, Spanish colonists founded a village here calledEl Pueblo de Nuestra Señora la Reina de los Ángeles sobre El Río Porciúncula,what does it mean in spanishVillage of the Virgin Mary, Queen of Angels, on the Porsyunkula River). By 1820, this settlement had grown into the largest secular settlement in California and received more than short name Los Angeles.
According to one version, the name of the city Chicago (Chicago) is a word modified by the French from the language of the local Miami-Illinois Indians shikaakwa , which translated means wild onion or garlic, which grew abundantly in those parts. However, there are other hypotheses about the origin of this name. Thus, there is evidence that one of the Illinois tribes was ruled by a leader named Chicagou. In 1725 he visited Paris and met with the young King of France, Louis XV. It is possible that it was his name that formed the basis for the name of the city - Chicago. It is worth noting, however, that most historians reject this version.
San Francisco originally called Yerba Buena (Spanish Yerba Buena ). After the California fever began, the city began to grow rapidly. In 1848, the Spanish renamed it San Francisco in honor of St. Francis.
Hell City
Many Kazan residents are planning to go on vacation this summer, but have not decided where. Don’t you want to go to Hell... To the American city of Hell, in the state of Michigan. Scary? Now imagine that Halloween is also celebrated in Hell - you must agree, it’s much scarier! And in Hell there is a festival called “Satan’s Holidays”. In general, a haven for modern “goths”. And the city got its name in 1841, when George Reeves, who came here, in response to a question about the name of the settlement, said: “Call it “Hell” - I don’t care.” Well, I got what I wanted.
Noodle City
In the 19th century, Texans often used the word "Noodle" as slang to refer to empty space. It was an empty place that they discovered when they arrived at the territory of the future village. That’s how the village was named – Noodles.
Peculiar City
The population of the city of Osobenny is about 2000 people, and they rightfully consider themselves special. And it is located 100 km south of Kansas City. This town got its name when the local postmaster decided to take the initiative in naming the town. However, the authorities constantly refused the proposed names: either another city was already named as he wanted, or the name sounded incorrect. In the end, the postal worker suggested that the authorities themselves name the city “something special.” And the authorities, apparently being very busy people, did not think twice and called the city Special.
City Spot
This village in the state of Tennessee became famous for its name thanks to the head of a sawmill, who wrote his name in response to a question from the authorities about the name of the city, but the ink accidentally ended up in exactly the place where the name of the village was. The authorities of this village, apparently, are also very busy, so they took everything too literally. This is how the city of Spot appeared.
City of Embarrass
It is a very cold city where the average annual temperature is -16 degrees Celsius. The city is considered the coldest place in the United States after Alaska. The origin of the name of this city is interesting: “embarrass” is also a French word meaning “obstacle”. It was this word that the first settlers used to describe the obstacles that they had to overcome in this “icy” place.
Also in the USA there are such cities as Idiotville, Monkey's Eyebrow and Toad Suck.
Truth or Consequences, New Mexico
Named after a radio show broadcast in the 1950s, the city lies between major cities El Paso and Albuquerque. It attracts tourists with its unusual name and famous waters. Truth or Consequences is well known for its geothermal springs, which provide hot water many saunas located in the center of the historical district. Sierra County is rich in ghost towns, deserts and mountains. Named the most affordable resort by Americans, Truth or Consequences is truly an inexpensive city.
Boring, Oregon (Boring)
Named this way at the turn of the last century, you won’t be bored in the city of Skuchny. The city is located about 30 minutes from Portland. City guests can visit the only forge in the United States that specializes in making garden tools hand forged. The city has its ownnews agency
.
Cool, California (Cool)
The city is located in the foothills of the Sierra and offers its guests, in addition to a large number of activities in fresh air, “taste” the California gold rush. Named after an itinerant preacher who lived in the 1800s, Cool is located on the famous Highway 49, just steps from where gold was discovered in 1848.
Uncertain, Texas
The City of Uncertain is sure of one thing: it is the best secret keeper in the state of Texas. This city is home to Caddo Lake, the only natural lake in Texas. Why Uncertain? There are several stories about the origin of the name: some say that this was the name of a boat dock on the lake, others talk about the literal origin of the name, when in the early 1960s, before becoming a city, the name of the city was marked “undefined” (there was due to the fact that it was unclear whether the settlement was a city or a town).
Carefree, Arizona (Carefree)
The city is located in the Sonoran Desert region. It was created in the 1950s as a place dedicated to relaxation. It has many golf courses, spa centers, and also hosts regular events. a large number of outdoor events. The city's proximity to transport hubs makes it very convenient for tourists to visit.
Last Chance, Idaho
Last Chance is part of the Island Park community, created in the 1940s to circumvent state law prohibiting the sale alcoholic drinks outside the city limits. Last Chance is a small town, but it will seem like a paradise for nature lovers. Fishing and tourism are the most popular entertainment in the city.
Normal, Illinois (Town of Normal)
Some might think that the city's name is a symbol of appreciation for the city itself, but in fact the name “Normal” dates back to the 19th century, and comes from the French École Normale (a college for teachers). The city is connected by transportation to many major cities, including Chicago, located approximately 115 miles southwest of it. In Normal you can find a lot of interesting things, including a discovery museum for children and even a winery.
Classification of the origin of city names.
In connection with the information obtained, it is possible to classify the origin of city names.
- Abbreviations or distortions of the official name
- Indicating the name of the founder of the city or its famous resident: Denver, Chicago,
- Indicating geographical location
- Indicating the political, cultural role or industrial specialization of the city, the word "capital" is often used
- Pointing out common stereotypes
- Aphorisms and famous quotes
- Joking nicknames usually play on relevant topics for the city: size, personality of the head of the city or his famous representative, ethnic composition, etc.
- Hostile, offensive nicknames usually play on the name of the city, its acute problems or negative features
- Pointing to the name famous person: Boston, Baltimore
- The name comes from a randomly spoken word: Hell,
Conclusion
In conclusion, I would like to note that there are many cities, both in the United States and abroad, whose names remain a mystery until the end. Therefore, toponymy will long remain a huge layer of work for researchers, since it helps us penetrate deeper into the culture and language of the people who inhabited the territories at the time of their naming.
The population of America was originally formed by mass immigration mainly from Europe and the importation of black slaves. The ethnic spectrum includes the indigenous population of America - Indians, Eskimos, Aleuts, as well as Spanish-speaking peoples. All these peoples and ethnic groups influenced the toponymy of the names of American cities.
The average population density of the United States is about 28 people per square kilometer. If we divide the population into groups based on race (according to 2007 data), then whites make up 83.4% of the population (among them the diasporas of the Irish, Italians, Jews, Russians, Poles, Ukrainians) and Africans (mainly descendants of slaves) , brought from the African continent in the 18th century) - 12.4%, Asians and Pacific Islanders - 3.3% American Indians(natives of the United States) - less than 1%.
This analysis showed that most of the names of cities came from the Indian language, 10 cities were named after famous people, 5 names are of Spanish origin, the remaining names come from Aleutian, French, English, Aztec, Iroquoian, Dutch and Sioux. Maloletko A.M. Geographical onomastics [Text]. – Tomsk: TSU Publishing House, 2004. – 198 p.
Do you know how the names of the cities to which you have planned your next trip came to be? For example, where do names like “Paris”, “Beijing”, “London”, “Madrid” or “Berlin” come from?
Historians and etymologists offer different options for the origin of names, based on the surviving data and the relationship of different languages.
BERLIN. For example, take Berlin - one of the largest European cities (more than 3.4 million people live here). There are 3 versions of the origin of the name ( Berlin):
BEIJING, TOKYO.
Let's talk about the capital of the People's Republic of China.
Beijing (Chinese: 北京) has ancient history. The territory where the city with a population of more than 21 million people is now located has changed its name several times. For example, for more than 70 years in the 14th century and for more than 20 years in the 20th century, it ceased to be the capital of China and was called “Beiping”.
Few people know that the real Chinese name of the capital of the Celestial Empire does not sound like “Beijing”. Pronounce correctly Beijing(Beijing), which translates as “Northern Capital”. But in many languages, including Russian, the old name remains, which is not consistent with the normative northern pronunciation.
Returning to the question of the origin of the city's name, it remains only to note that in East Asia There is a tradition according to which all names of capital cities should reflect their status. And so it happened:
PARIS. Where Paris now stands, in the 3rd century BC there was a small settlement called Lutetia. From Latin this word is translated quite unromantically - “ lutum", i.e. mud or swamp.
The inhabitants of Lutetia were the Celtic tribe of the Parisians. To prevent the city from falling to the Romans, who besieged it in the 50s BC, the Parisians burned their settlement. But the Romans rebuilt the city again. At the beginning of the 3rd century Lutetia began to be called the city of the Parisians ( Civitas Parisiorum), and a little later renamed Paris ( Paris).
PRAGUE. More than 1.3 million people now live in Prague, the capital of the Czech Republic.
There are still debates about how and why the name of the city, which has existed for about 12 centuries, appeared. Name of Prague (Czech. Praha) some historians and linguists associate with the word “threshold” (Czech prah). At the same time, some mean the threshold of a house, others mean the threshold of a river.
There is even a legend about the wise ruler Libush, who predicted the founding of the city. Having become the leader of the tribe, Libush sends his servants into the local forest. There they meet a man who was cutting the threshold of the house. This is how the word “Prague” appears.
There is a third hypothesis, according to which the name of the Czech capital was based on the word “pražení”, which translates as “roasting” and refers to the baking craft.
ROME.
The Eternal City - so for the first time Rome (Italian. Roma) was named in the 1st century BC by a local poet. It has the oldest and richest history. It’s not for nothing that Napoleon once said that “the history of Rome is the history of the whole world.”
The city, according to legend, received its name from its founder, Romulus, who was the first king of Ancient Rome. As the legend says, Romulus’s mother was the priestess of the goddess Vesta, and his father was the god Mars. Romulus and his twin brother Remus were thrown out of the royal palace by the illegitimate heir. The children were saved from certain death by a she-wolf who fed them with her milk. Having matured, the brothers return to the palace and kill the offender, returning the rightful king - their grandfather - to the throne.
However, there is another, less romantic version. The name of the city, to which all roads lead, could come from the word “Rumon,” as the Tiber River was called in ancient times. Thus, Rome literally is a “city on a river.”
MADRID.
There are several versions of the origin of Spanish Madrid.
The Spanish capital, according to some experts, has Arab roots. Therefore, according to one version, his name is based on the word “ majra", which means "water source" in Arabic.
Initially, the name of the city sounded like “majer-it”, that is, “full-flowing source”. Then - as "Magerit", and finally received its final name - Madrid. But everything could be even simpler: perhaps the city itself was at one time a fortification, and its name comes from the Arabic word “madarat” - city.
Some scientists believe that the name appeared even earlier, has not Arabic, but Old Spanish roots and comes from the word “ maderita”, which translates as “forest thickets”.
There is also a rather romantic hypothesis, according to which the Greek soothsayer Manto gave birth to a son from Tiberin, the god of the Tiber River. Named Ocnius, he became the founder of the future Madrid, which was originally named after Ocnius's Italian homeland of Mantua.
LONDON.
What about London?
Its name is directly related to the name of the ancient Roman city of Londinium, the origin of which can only be guessed at. Perhaps the name appeared in memory of the ancient legendary king, whose name was Lud.
It is likely that one of the largest cities in the world owes its name to the Celts, who called the flow of the river that way (“ Lundonjon") and fortifications on the river (" Llyndid»).
The Roman historian Tacitus mentions in 117 an important trading center - the city of Londinium. It was renamed Augusta by the Romans in the 4th century, and next to it an Anglo-Saxon settlement appeared, which they called Lundenwic. After the Romans left, the Anglo-Saxons moved to Augusta, abandoned by them, restored the settlement and gave it a new name - Lundenburg, which later became shorter - Lunden.
Many names, simple and understandable to contemporaries of cities, remain for us just a set of sounds. But unearthing the truth is not so difficult. During their resettlement, the Russians met with many peoples, gradually assimilating them. Therefore, one should not be surprised that the names of many ancient cities contain borrowings from the languages of those peoples who lived on the territory of future settlements before their lands were annexed to Rus'.
Moscow - founded by Prince Yuri Dolgoruky in 1147. The city received its name from the Moscow River, near which it was founded. The origin of the name of the river, according to the modern version, is derived from the ancient Slavic root “mosk”, which means a wet, swampy place.
The ancient version of the name is Moskov.
3.St. Petersburg
St. Petersburg - the name of the city was given by its founder, Tsar Peter the Great, in honor of his heavenly patron, the Apostle Peter. Peter I was baptized on June 29, 1672, on Peter’s Day, so the desire to name a new city in honor of his saint is quite understandable for the great tsar. However, initially this name was given to the fortress founded on Hare Island, from which the construction of the city began in 1703
year. After the construction of the Peter and Paul Cathedral, the fortress began to be called Peter and Paul, and the name Petersburg became the name of the city built around it.
4.Vladimir
Named after Prince Vladimir Monomakh, the founder of the city.
5.Yaroslavl
The city is named after the founder, Prince Yaroslav the Wise. What does the name mean - old possessive form from the word Yaroslav. Although, judging by the finds of archaeologists, settlements existed on the site of the city earlier.
6.Suzdal
The ancient form of the name is Suzhdal, sometimes spelled Souzhdal. The name comes from the Old Church Slavonic word “to zizhat”, that is, to build.
7.Veliky Novgorod
Novgorod, a new city founded by Slavic settlers in 859, but some researchers, relying on archaeological finds, date the foundation of the city to the middle of the 8th century AD. Novgorod has not changed its name since then. For a long time was one of the centers of trade. There are names of the city in other languages, of which the most famous are Holmgard, as Novgorod was called by the Scandinavians, Ostrogard from German sources and Nemogard, as the city was called in Byzantium.
8.Nizhny Novgorod
Founded in 1221 by Prince George Vsevolodovich at the confluence of the two great rivers Volga and Oka as a stronghold for the defense of the borders of the Vladimir principality from the Mokshans, Erzyans, Mari and Volga Bulgars. The town was named Novgorod of the Nizovskaya land (the Vladimir principality was called the Nizovskaya land by the Novgorodians) - later this name was transformed into Nizhny Novgorod.
In 1932, the city received the name Gorky in honor of the writer Maxim Gorky (Alexey Maksimovich Peshkov)
In 1990, the city again began to be called Nizhny Novgorod.
9.Voronezh
A city whose appearance is associated with the organization of the protection of Russian territories from steppe nomads. The archive contains the order of boyar Nikita Romanovich Yuryev dated March 1, 1586 on the reorganization of the guard service on the southern outskirts of the Moscow state. However, the entry in the Discharge Order of 1585 “about the assignment of Ryazan boarding grounds and fishing grounds to the new city of Voronezh” proves that Voronezh already existed in 1585. Nevertheless, 1586 is officially considered the year of Voronezh’s founding. According to one of
most likely versions, the name “Voronezh” comes from the possessive adjective “Voronezh” ancient Slavic name"Voroneg".
Subsequently, the name “Voronezh” ceased to be associated with the name, and the emphasis moved to the second syllable. The place and then the river began to be called Voronezh. The city built on it became known as Voronezh.
10.Saratov
The city was founded on July 2, 1590 by order of Tsar Fyodor Ioannovich Grigory Zasekin and boyar Fyodor Turov, as a fortress to protect against raids by nomads. However, settlements on the site of the city have been known since much more ancient times. There is currently no generally accepted hypothesis about the origin of the name. In the recent past, it was believed that Saratov got its name from Sokolova Mountain, which was called in Tatar “sary tau” - “yellow mountain”. However, now this hypothesis has been refuted, since Sokolovaya was never yellow, and forest always grew on it. There is an assumption that the name of the city comes from the words “sar atav” - “low-lying island” or “saryk atov” - “hawk island”. There is an assumption that Saratov got its name from the Scythian-Iranian hydronym “sarat”.
11.Samara
The city is named after the Samara River, on the banks of which in 1586, by order of Tsar Fyodor Ioannovich, under the leadership of Prince Grigory Zasekin, the Samara Town fortress began to be built. The name of the river that gave the city its name has been known since earlier times as “Samur” and in 922 was mentioned in the travel notes of the secretary of the Arab embassy to the Volga Bulgars Ahmed Ibn Fadlan and comes from the ancient Iranian samur, meaning “beaver”. Russian and Turkic names of rivers in the Samara basin based on this animal are not isolated at present (such as Konduzla, Bobrovka). According to another version, the name comes from the Greek word “samar”, that is, merchant. V.F. Barashkov associated the name of the river with the Mongolian word Samar with the meaning “nut, nutty”. The name of the river is also derived from the Mongolian “samura, samaura” - to mix, stir; from the Arabic “surra min raa” - “he who sees will rejoice”; on behalf of the son of Noah Shem (Sama), who allegedly owned lands from the Volga and Samara banks to the southeast, including the countries of Asia; from biblical Samaria; from the old Russian “samara”, “samarka” - long-skirted clothing.
In 1935, Samara was renamed Kuibyshev.
On January 28, 1991, the name Samara was returned to the city.
12.Volgograd
The name is based on the Volga River, on which the city stands. The first name of the city, Tsaritsyn, was first mentioned by the English traveler Christopher Barro in 1579, but did not refer to the city, but to an island on the Volga. The origin of the name is usually traced to the Turkic “sary-su” (yellow water), “sary-sin” (yellow island) or to the name of the old Khazar city of Saracen, destroyed by a river flood. The founding date of the city is considered to be July 2, 1589, when the name of the Tsaritsyn fortress was first mentioned in the royal charter, but excavations have shown that primitive settlements existed on this site long before the formation of the Russian state. The fortress was located slightly above the confluence of the Tsarina River with the Volga on the high right bank.
The settlement was located at the site of the crossing of the Itil River (now the Volga) and the intersection of many trade routes, including the main Great Silk Road from China to Europe.
On April 10, 1925, the city was renamed Stalingrad.
On November 10, 1961, the city was named Volgograd.
13.Izhevsk
The city is named after the Izh River, on the banks of which it is located. It grew out of the Izhevsk ironworks, founded in 1760, and the adjacent village.
14. Rostov-on-Don
Founded as a customs post on December 15, 1749. Later, in 1760−1701, to protect against attacks by nomads, a fortress was built in the settlement that arose near the customs house, named in honor of St. Dmitry of Rostov. The name of the city of Rostov comes from the name of this fortress. To distinguish it from Rostov the Great, the city is called Rostov-on-Don.
15.Arkhangelsk
The first Russian settlements on Cape Pur-Navolok, on the bend of the swampy right bank of the Northern Dvina, were founded by Novgorodians back in the 12th century. At the same time, according to legend, the emergence of the Archangel Michael Monastery, named after the Archangel Michael, dates back to this place. However, the monastery was first mentioned in the chronicle only in 1419. Near the monastery there were Pomeranian villages of the Nizovsky volost - Lisostrov, Knyazhostrov, Uyma, Lyavlya and others. In 1583, due to the danger of attack from Sweden, Ivan IV the Terrible decided to strengthen the defense of Pomerania.
The following year, 1584, according to the plan received from the tsar, governors Pyotr Afanasyevich Nashchokin and Alexei Nikiforovich Zaleshanin-Volokhov built a fortified city around the monastery and adjacent settlements, named Arkhangelsk City in honor of the monastery. This name was officially approved on August 1, 1613, after the city gained independence in governance.
16.Khabarovsk
Founded in May 1858 as a military post called Khabarovka - in honor of the 17th century explorer Erofei Khabarov. The founding date is considered to be May 31, 1858. In 1880, Khabarovka received city status. On November 2 (October 21, old style), 1893, the city was renamed Khabarovsk.
17.Kirov
A city that was “lucky” to change its names. The first name by which he was known was the name Khlynov. There are several versions of the origin of the name Khlynov. The first is based on the cry of the Hly-Hly birds that lived in the area where the city was formed. According to the second, the city was given the name of the Khlynovitsa River, which flows nearby into Vyatka. The third theory connects the name with the word khlyn (ushkuynik, river robber), although most experts attribute a later appearance to this word.
The second name of the city was Vyatka. Nowadays, the most relevant version is L.N. Makarova - she considers the original toponym to be the name of the river (Old Russian in origin) with the meaning “bigger” (cf. Old Russian vyache “more”).
The city received the name Kirov after the murder in 1934 of a native of the city of Urzhum, Vyatka Territory, Sergei Mironovich Kostrikov (Kirov).
The chronology of the city's renaming is extremely complex and ambiguous, since few historical documents have been preserved confirming the very fact of the renaming. Usually, when they talk about the old names of Kirov, they use a simplified chain of transformations Khlynov - Vyatka - Kirov, and indeed, when it was founded in 1181, the city was named Khlynov. Starting from 1374 (the first mention of Vyatka), the word Khlynov does not appear in any official document or chronicle; on the contrary, Vyatka was found on maps of that time, and was even included in the “List of all Russian cities near and far”, where it was in the section the so-called “Zalessky” cities after Nizhny Novgorod and Kurmysh. In 1455, in Vyatka, for defensive purposes, a wooden Kremlin with an earthen rampart was built, which was given the name of the leaking
near the Khlynovitsa river. Subsequently, the name Khlynov spread to the township part of the city, and from 1457 to the entire city
began to be called Khlynov. In 1780, by the highest decree of the All-Russian Empress Catherine II, the name Vyatka was returned to the city, and the Vyatka province was transformed into the Vyatka governorate and transferred from the Siberian province to the Kazan province. On December 5, 1934, by decree of the Central Executive Committee of the USSR, Vyatka was named after Sergei Mironovich Kirov.
18.Ekaterinburg
Construction of the city began in the spring of 1723, when, by order of Emperor Peter I, the construction of the largest ironworks in Russia began on the banks of the Iset River. The date of birth of the city was November 7 (18), 1723, the plant-fortress was named Yekaterinburg - in honor of Empress Catherine I, wife of Peter I. “... a new fortress, which was built in the Ugric province near the Iset River, and in it factories with different factories and manufactories, named after Yekaterinburg, for the memory of eternal generations and for the eternal glory of Her Majesty, the most merciful empress; ..." On October 14, 1924, the Yekaterinburg City Council decided to rename the city to Sverdlovsk in honor of Yakov Sverdlov, a leader of the Communist Party and the Soviet state. On September 4, 1991, the name Ekaterinburg was returned to the city. The name "Ekaterinburg" was returned to the railway station on March 30, 2010.
19.Chelyabinsk
The city was founded in 1736; on September 13, Colonel A.I. Tevkelev “founded the city in the Chelyabi tract from the Miyas fortress, thirty miles away.” The origin of this toponym is ambiguous. The oldest explanation, which existed among the descendants of the first settlers and old-timers, says that the name of the fortress “Chelyaba” goes back to the Bashkir word “Silebe”, that is, “depression; a large, shallow hole." It was given by the name of the tract. This version is supported by the notes of the German traveler I. G. Gmelin, who visited Chelyabinsk
fortress in 1742. Today this version can be considered the most common. Subsequently, various alternative versions: According to researcher A.V. Orlov, the Chelyabinsk fortress was named after the village of Selyaba, which stood on the river. Selyabka.
20.Perm
The founding day of the city is considered to be the official date of the start of construction of the Yegoshikha (Yagoshikha) copper smelter - May 4 (15), 1723. Until now, the origin of the name Perm has three interpretations: either it is the Finno-Ugric expression “pera maa” - “distant land”, or it is the Komi-Permyak “parma”, which means “taiga”. Often a connection is found in the name Perm and ancient land Biarmies from Viking legends. According to another hypothesis, the origin of the word is connected with the name of the hero of the Komi-Permyak epic Pera - the hero. In some
In Finno-Ugric languages, “peri” means spirit (Udmurt “peri” - evil spirit, Mordovian “peri” - spirit of the winds). Perhaps the Kama Komi were called Permyaks because they were patronized from ancient times by the omnipotent spirit - the god Pera.
21.Kazan
There are several versions and legends about the origin of the name Kazan. The generally accepted version is the boiling cauldron: the sorcerer advised the Bulgars to build a city where a cauldron of water dug into the ground would boil without any fire. As a result, a similar place was found on the shore of Lake Kaban. This is where the name of the city of Kazan came from - “kazan” in ancient Bulgarian, as well as in modern Tatar, means “cauldron”. Other versions connect the name of the city with the landscape, the Tatar words “kaen” (birch) or “kaz” (goose), Prince Hassan and other options. According to official version As currently accepted, the city was founded at least 1000 years ago. The basis for this dating is a Czech coin found during excavations on the territory of the Kazan Kremlin, dated to the reign of St. Wenceslas (presumably minted 929-930)
22.Astrakhan
The history of Astrakhan dates back to the 13th century. We find the first mention of it in the Italian traveler Francesco Pegalotti, who visited Gitarkhan (as Astrakhan was called in the first quarter of the 14th century) and wrote a description of his journey from Tana (Azov) to China. The city was located on the right bank of the Volga, 12 km from modern Astrakhan and at different times was called: Adzhitarkhan, Ashtrarkhan, Tsitrakhan. Over the years, disputes have flared up every now and then about the origin of the name Astrakhan. One theory explains the name of the city by the fact that the descendants of warlike Sarmatian tribes - the Ases - lived in these parts. For their military merits, they received from Batu Khan a letter - tarkhan, exempting them from duties in favor of the state. It was a great honor. To commemorate this event, the Ases gave the name to the city “As-Tarkhan”. But there is a written source - a description of the Arab traveler Ibn Batuta in 1334: “This city received its name from the Turkic haji (pilgrim to Mecca), one of the pious people who settled in this place. The Sultan gave him this place duty-free (that is, he made it a Tarkhan), and it became a village, then it expanded and became a city.
This is one of best cities with large bazaars, built on the Itil River." In “Walking beyond the Three Seas,” Afanasy Nikitin in 1466 confirms that “Aztorkhan, Khoztoran, Astrakhan is a Russified form of Khadzhi Tarkhan.”
According to one version, initially ancient city, located on the territory of modern Ufa, bore the name Bashkort. This is indicated by a number of sources: Western European cartographers (Catalan Atlas, Mercator, Pitsigani brothers, etc.), eastern historians (Ibn Khaldun, “Kunkh al-akhbar”), Bashkir sources themselves (“Bashkir History” by Kidryas Mullakaev, "Usargan Tarihi"). Modern name the city - Ufa, was obviously a later name. Thus, in the Bashkir chronicle of the 16th century. The “Daftar-i-Chingiz-name” palace at the mouth of the Ufa River appears under the name Ulu Oba. Here “ulu” is the eldest, ancient, “both” is a high place, mound.
Obviously, the term “Oba” became the progenitor of the modern “Ufa”. In a memorial book of the Orenburg province, published in 1865, the following version of the origin of the city’s name is given: “On the right elevated banks of the Belaya is the city of Ufa, (a Bashkir word meaning “dark water”), so called long ago by the Bashkirs.”
24.Orenburg
There are different versions of the origin of the name Orenburg. The classic version is: a fortress on the Or River. The author of the phrase Orenburg, in all likelihood, is the founder of the city, I.K. Kirilov. In 1734, in accordance with his project, a package of government documents was developed on the founding of a fortress city at the confluence of the Or and Yaika (Ural) rivers. On June 7, 1734, Empress Anna Ioannovna signed the “Privilege for Orenburg,” and although the construction site main fortress region was later transferred several times downstream of the Yaik (Ural), the name of the city, established by the “Privilege”, has remained to this day for the fortress founded in 1743 at the mouth of the Sakmara River.
From 1938 to 1957, the city was called Chkalov, in honor of the famous Soviet pilot Valery Chkalov, although he not only was not born and did not live in Orenburg, but had never even been to this city. A bronze sculpture of V.P. Chkalov, six meters high on a seven-meter pedestal, was installed in honor of the 50th anniversary of his birth in 1954 on the Boulevard (embankment of the Ural River)
25.Novosibirsk
The emergence of the first Russian settlement on the territory of modern Novosibirsk dates back to the last decade of the 17th century - the beginning of Peter the Great's reign. Named Krivoshchekovskaya (after the nickname of the Tomsk serviceman Fyodor Krenitsyn, who was called Krivoshchek for the saber scar on his face), this village, at least until 1712, served as shopping center between the Russians and the Teleuts, who were the owners of the lands on the other side of the Ob. This circumstance determined the nature of the settlement of the territory of the future Novosibirsk: the right bank of the Ob was not popular among Russian colonists, since there, even after the departure of the Teleuts, a fortress of one of the tribes subordinate to them continued to stand. In any case, by the end of the 18th century, the territory of the modern Novosibirsk Left Bank was completely populated. The history of the right bank of the future capital of Siberia developed on April 30, 1893, when the first batch of bridge builders arrived here. This moment is considered to be the official date of birth of Novosibirsk. On December 28, 1903, Emperor Nicholas II issued the highest order, according to which “the settlement of Novo-Nikolaevsk at the Ob station” was elevated to the status of a city without a district.
On November 17, 1925, the city was renamed Novosibirsk.
Named after the Omka River. The first Omsk fortress was founded in 1716 by a Cossack detachment under the command of I. D. Buholts, who set out to expand and strengthen the borders Russian Empire by personal decree of Peter I. Omsk served as a border fortress to protect against raids by nomads, and until 1797 it was a fort. By folk legend, the name comes from an abbreviation of the phrase “a remote place of exile for convicts,” however, this version remains simply folklore.
The city was built as a stockade (fortress). According to the plan, the name was to be Verkhneiseisky fort, or Kachinsky fort. At first, in documents the fort was called New Kachinsky fort. It is likely that there was previously a winter hut, or yasak collection point, on the Kach River. N.V. Latkin wrote that in 1608 there was already a fort in the valley of the Kachi River, built by people from the Ket fort.
G. F. Miller in “History of Siberia” uses the names “New Kachinsky fort” and “New Kachinsky Red fort”. From the middle of the 17th century, the name “Krasny Yar” began to be used. “Red Yar” - from the name of the place of its construction - “Khyzyl char”, which in the Kachin language meant “Yar (high bank or hill, cliff) of red color.” In Russian, “red” at that time also meant “beautiful”: “The place is nice, high and red. It is possible to build a sovereign prison in that place,” Andrei Dubensky wrote in a letter to the Tsar.
The name "Krasnoyarsk" was given when receiving city status.
28.Vladivostok
The name “Vladivostok” is derived from the words “to own” and “East”. For a long time, the Russian government was looking for a stronghold on Far East; this role was alternately performed by Okhotsk, Ayan, Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky, Nikolaevsk-on-Amur. By the middle of the 19th century, the search for an outpost had reached a dead end: none of the ports met the necessary requirement: to have a convenient and protected harbor, close to trade routes. Through the efforts of the Governor-General of Eastern Siberia Nikolai Muravyov-Amursky, the Treaty of Aigun was concluded, active exploration of the Amur region began, and later, as a result of the signing of the Tianjin and Beijing treaties, the territories of modern Vladivostok were annexed to Russia. The name Vladivostok itself appeared in mid-1859, was used in newspaper articles and meant the bay. On June 20 (July 2), 1860, the transport of the Siberian flotilla “Manjur” under the command of Lieutenant Commander Alexei Karlovich Shefner delivered a military unit to the Golden Horn Bay to establish a military post, which was now officially named Vladivostok.
The city is named Chita because it is located on the banks of the Chita River. But there is still ongoing debate about what the word chita means.
At different times and in different sources, the city was called differently. Most likely, the word chita comes from one of the local languages.
The most common is the Orochen word chita - “birch bark rug”, which suggests that somewhere in the valley of the Chita River birch bark of special quality was found. The Evenki word chata, or chatala, means “clay”; they also mean mud (on the shore), shale, coal. At the same time, the mud is not only of very high quality, but also more bluish in color, and “blue” in Evenki sounds like chaturin and chatuma. There is also the word chate - “black earth (carbonaceous shale), coal,” which is associated primarily with the Chernovsky brown coal deposit, located near Chita. There is a word in the Uyghur language called chyt, which was used to describe the fortresses built by the Uyghurs.
In modern Uyghur language, chaata-chyt means “dwelling.”
The name of the city is associated with the name of the Penza River, on the steep bank of which the fortress was built. The river bore this name long before the settlement appeared. There are several hypotheses about the origin of the hydronym Penza. According to one, the name comes from Mordovian words with the meaning “edge, onets, border, end of the path”, or “swampy, swampy”. According to P. V. Zimin, the name comes from the Komi or Nenets word “drying up” and the proto-Mari “stream” "The name could also come from a personal male ancient Mordovian name
Pianza, Pyanza. There is a version of the origin from the Proto-Uralic language, for example, Pensas - in Karelian it means “bush”.
31.Kursk
Etymologically, Old Russian Kursk comes from the name of the Kur River. Kursk is located on two hills, on the right bank of the Tuskari River, at the confluence of the Kur River. The phrase: Kur-Tuskar (Kursk). The hydronym may be associated with the popular term Kurya - “a river bay, a narrow channel of a river, a backwater.” Although according to legend, it was the Kur that was once a deep, navigable river, and then became shallow. Folk etymology explains the name of the city from the partridge bird, tying the name to their abundance here in ancient times.
Folk etymology connects the name of the city with the events that occurred during its founding in 1566. At the behest of Tsar Ivan the Terrible, the construction of a fortified city began to protect the southern borders of the Russian state from attacks by the Crimean Tatars. When they began to cut down an oak tree that grew on the bank at the confluence of the two rivers Oka and Orlik, an eagle flew from the top of the tree. “And here is the owner,” said one of the men. Ivan Vasilyevich ordered to name the city after the bird.
According to the scientific version, the name may come from the hydronym of the Orel River (Orel) - the left tributary of the Oka, mentioned in the “Book of the Big Drawing” (1627), and from the 2nd half of the 19th century centuries like Orlik. And also two common
version. The Turkic-language version derives the name of the area at the confluence of two rivers from airyly “angular”, airy (aiyr) “to separate, bifurcate, fork.” The Baltic-language version compares the name, which could have been left by the Golyad tribe, with the lit. erlos “hay meadow”, “Eagle” " and arelis (Prussian) "Eagle".
Russia has a great variety of different cities. Some are well known to everyone, but not everyone knows about the existence of some. But here we will not discuss those cities that no one knows about. Here we will try to talk about the origin of the names of some cities in Russia.
1. Moscow- The capital of our Motherland. The name of the capital comes from the Moscow River, and not vice versa, as many people think. But why the river was named Moscow is still under debate. The most common opinion is that the word comes from the ancient Slavic root “mosk” - a wet or marshy place.
2. St. Petersburg — The city was named by Peter I in honor of the Holy Apostle Peter, and not in honor of himself, as many people think.
3. Yaroslavl— The city was named after its founder Yaroslav the Wise.
4. Khabarovsk— The city is named after Yerovei Khabarov, an explorer.
5. Ufa— translated from Bashkir means “Dark Water”.
6. Ekaterinburg — The city is named after Empress Catherine I.
7. Smolensk— there are several versions of the origin of this city. The most common one is from the name of the river Smolnya (Chernozem). The second version comes from the ethnic group - Smolyan.
8. Penza- just like Moscow was named after the river, respectively Penza. The word itself is translated as “Fire water”.
9. Omsk- the same. The name comes from the river Om.
10. Perm- comes from the Vespian word “Pera Maa”, which translates as “Far Land”.
11. Murmansk- a city on Murman. Initially, the Norwegians were called Murmans, and later they began to call the coast of the Barents Sea.
12. Kolomna— there are several versions of the origin of the names of this city. The first version is that the name comes from the Kolomenka River. This river was located near the market (at that time it was called menok), that is, it turned out to be “a river near menok.” The second version says that there was a quarry nearby, after which the city was named. From the Latin "columna", which means "Column", which is depicted on the city's coat of arms.
13. Yoshkar-Ola - Red City (from Mari).
14. Gelendzhik — translated from Arabic (Helenj) means “Polar”.
15. Vorkuta- translated from German as “Bear Country”.
16. Vologda- “river with white (clean) water” translated into Old Vespic.
17. Vladimir- everything is clear here. The city is named after the ruler Vladimir Monomakh.
18. Barnaul— There are two versions of the origin. According to the first version, the name came from a camp called “Aul Barna” (Barn is one of the nomads of the Khanate of Siberia). The second version says that the name comes from the “Barnaulka” river, which means “Wolf River” or “Muddy River”.
19. Arkhangelsk — the name of the city was given in honor of Archangel Michael.
20. Chelyabinsk - comes from the name of the fortress “Chelyaba”, which translates as “Depression” or “Deep Pit”.
21. Bryansk— the name of the city comes from the word D’bryansk, which in turn comes from the word D’br, which means cliff, ditch, slope.
22. Irkutsk— translated from Buryat means “Capricious”.
23. Kaliningrad - as you already understood, in honor of Mikhail Ivanovich Kalinin.
24. Kemerovo- from the Turkic “Kemer” - slope, cliff. (Essentially the same as Bryansk).
25. Kursk- the name comes from the popular term “Kurya”, which means “river bay” or “backwater”.
26. Lipetsk— like many old cities, this city was named after the river. In this case it was the Lipovka River.
27. Ryazan- here again there is no general and unified opinion. One opinion says that the name of the city is derived from the word “Ryasa” - swamp, or from the word “Duckweed” - river algae. Another opinion says that the name is derived from the word “Erzya” - the name of the Mordovian ethnic group.
28. Ulyanovsk - the city is named after Vladimir Ilyich Lenin (Ulyanov).
29. Krasnoyarsk — the city is named from the phrase “Red Yar”. Yar in the Kachin language meant a high bank or hill. That is, Krasnoyarsk can be translated as “Red Coast” or “Red Coast”.
30. Stavropol - the name is formed by the merger of two words - “Stavros”, which is translated as “Cross”, and “Polis”, which is translated as a city, that is, “City of the Cross”.
For today, this is all that concerns the origin of the names of Russian cities. In future posts we will look at the names of other cities.