Does the name of city you live in mean something in your language?
Posted by ConnectionCrafty4043@reddit | AskBalkans | View on Reddit | 80 comments
Thessaloniki was the half sister of Alexander the Great and literally means "the victory over Thessalians" from a battle that Phillip II won.
casual_philosopher02@reddit
Patras was named by kind Patreas of Lacedaemonia that founded the city
Lord_Gobbledygook@reddit
Also known as Peletidisgrad
casual_philosopher02@reddit
Why you remind me of him????
Kitsooos@reddit
Compaired to the majority of majors in the rest of Greece, he is a God.
i_cry_daily@reddit
Everyone saying that doesn't live here
casual_philosopher02@reddit
he fucked our city center up 100%. Patra NEVER had traffic but who would have thought a bike lane in paraliaki and turning one of the mainest roads to a pavewalk could create a traffic problem.... Both are main roads that get you in the city center from the Rion side...
pohanii_isus@reddit
Zagreb- Iza brijega (meaning behind the hill) Similar thing is with Podgorica.
LibertyChecked28@reddit
More than 90% of the city names mean something in Bulgarian.
Great Thorned City
Gate
Crow
Trading city
Sight
Place of Swifts
Cow skinning town
Spicy ford
White city
Harvest
Quarry
Goat valley
Median border
Place of hornbeam trees
Loud place
Vineyard
Confluence
Motive
Ect.
WorldlinessRadiant77@reddit
You forgot Assvile and Evil Dog Town.
Pretty-In-Scarlet@reddit
As a Bulgarian myself I had a good laugh with some of these. Thank you. Others however left me puzzled to find some match
Minskdhaka@reddit
*Etc. Et caetera.
thepassingyby-er@reddit
'Just a pine tree'
ConnectionCrafty4043@reddit (OP)
Which city?
WorldlinessRadiant77@reddit
I would guess Bor.
Glittery_Marshmallow@reddit
Hahahhaah. I always saw it as self fight for preservation. It's way funnier as a lone pine tree.
Routine-Algae-443@reddit
Ploieşti - ploaie (rain) + -eşti (common suffix for cities' or villages' names. There's also a legend regarding Moș Ploaie (an old man whose last name was literally 'Rain') who gave the city its name.
krisvelde@reddit
White city baby, precisely black side of white city :D
PsychologicalCat7716@reddit
haha what? Crni Cerak? 😂
PsychologicalCat7716@reddit
White city
Comfortable_Cress194@reddit
It means market.
ConnectionCrafty4043@reddit (OP)
which city?
Comfortable_Cress194@reddit
Targovisthe
DriveByAtanCivciv@reddit
Not in Turkish but it comes from the og word for anchor in many European languages, Ankara.
Exact_Map3366@reddit
In Finnish it means strict/stern
Kitsooos@reddit
The myth goes, that when Greeks lived there, they put an ancor in the middle of the city, in order to remind them of the sea. Dunno how historicaly accurate it is though.
AntiKouk@reddit
Which is so odd for a city so far from the sea
Entire-Let9739@reddit
The stream that is called "Çöloba River" in Turkish today was called "Ankuwas" in the Hittite language and it meant "The Ankle". "Ancyra" is its Greek pronunciation.
AntiKouk@reddit
Huh, super interesting common ancestry of anchor and ankle to Proto-Indo-European. Easy to imagine it must have meant something like Bendy river
Longjumping-Bug7327@reddit
🇷🇴
Baia Mare - The Big Bath
Câmpulung - The Long Field
Satu Mare - The Big Village
Slatina - The Salty Place
and some others
Ciocănești - The Hammerers
Flămânzi - The Hungry Ones
Săpunari - Soap Makers
Izvoru Rece - The Cold Spring
Vânători - Hunters
Tufeni - Bushes
Bălăceana - The Splashy/Wet One
Fundu Moldovei - Bottom of Moldova
Fundu Văii - Bottom of the Valley
Blegești - The Weak Ones
harvestt77@reddit
I have always questioned the origins of Gura Humorului, but Cacacioasa, Fututa or Cioara de Sus are self-explanatory 😉
Longjumping-Bug7327@reddit
😂
Vojvoda__@reddit
Slatina and Izvor are of Slavic origin, those are both common Slavic words.
User20242024@reddit
Of biggest 5 Serbian cities, 4 have meaning in Serbian: Belgrade (White City), Novi Sad (New Plantation), Subotica (Little Saturday) and Kragujevac (Kraguj's Place), while city Niš is named after ancient Naissus, however, word "Niš" can houmorosly mean "Nothing" in Serbian.
Businessphone1337@reddit
Niš (Serbian)>Naissus (Latin)>City of Nymphs (Vilin grad). We have a theater named Vilin grad as well.
zseblodongo@reddit
Work in a town called Hatvan.
It means 60. The town is 60kms from the capital by car. But the name of the town comes from the ottoman word chatwan.
Realistic_Actuary_50@reddit
Spata, near the Athens international airport, is an arvanite settlement, named after Gjin Bua "Spata". For those who don't know, eastern Attica has many arvanite settlements.
Ok-Letter3775@reddit
His surname also means sword
Kohonis@reddit
A Greek wor for a kind of sword is σπάθη (spathi)
Salt_Young_4494@reddit
Before field
determine96@reddit
No, most likely it comes from Greek for "stone", "rock".
Wild_cmpt6406@reddit
Of course. But the root word is so archaic that the coined name is less "familiar" to modern Serbian, than the latin Hungarian one. Its funny stuff, because the town itself was never part of Hungary or AH.
DifficultWill4@reddit
Slovenske Konjice - Slovene horse place
Ljubljana, or as Slovenes call it Lublana- it doesn’t have any actual meaning beside “the loved one”, but the origin on that is debatable
Maribor - the name was actually made up to make it sound more Slovene. The original name was Marburg or Marpurk in Slovene, which means “March castle”
Sad_Suspect_9649@reddit
Podgorica - Underhill
floare_salbatica@reddit
It always makes me think of the Romanian podgorie, which means (hilly) area covered with vineyards. Ofc that after checking it, I realised that it's actually of Slavonic origin. 😅
Andreuw5@reddit
I am from Burgas, Bulgaria. Do you think it means something?
Minskdhaka@reddit
Wiktionary says it's from the Greek "púrgos" (fortress), the Latin "burgos" (fortress), or the Gothic "baurgs" (walled village).
Andreuw5@reddit
You need to do the lottery. Do you know that not only I am from Burgas, but also live on street named Pirgos.
Tudmat1313@reddit
Bucharest, in Romanian București. The name comes from Bucur a sheep hearder that is the legendary "founder" of the city.
Ok-Letter3775@reddit
Just a fun coincidence: Bucarest is Bukuresht in Albanian and it literally means Beautiful (Bukur) is (esht).
Can approve after visiting 👍🏻
albardha@reddit
It’s not -esht as in është, but the Romanian equivalent of -ishtë suffix in Albanian:
ah (beech) > ahishtë (beech forest)
zall (pebble in the river bank) > zallishtë (river bank)
vjel (harvest) > *vjelishtë > vjeshtë (autumn, fall)
Istar10n@reddit
It's not exactly a coincidence, that's where his name comes from. Romanian has some ancient words in common with Albanian.
"ești" is a coincidence though, it does mean "is" too (or more specifically "you are") but in this case it's the plural of "escu" and it comes from Latin.
Minskdhaka@reddit
*herder
Saintpuppet@reddit
My town is named "Chimneys" (srb.Odžaci)
Entire-Let9739@reddit
Erdemids,my place of origin. Named after a medieval Turcoman tribal confederation who settled in the area after 15th century.
jaunmilijej@reddit
Athens was named after the goddess Athena…obviously
Lothronion@reddit
False. The opposite is the truth; that Athena was named after Athens. In the Linear B tablets there is a deity named "Atana Potinija", which name is later "Potnia Athena", with "Potnia" meaning "Mistress" or "Lady". It was a common name for female protective deities, for example there is a "Potnia Mukena", for Mycenae. So basically "Our Lady of Athens" became a goddess named "Athens". Originally "Athens" means something closer to "Coast-land", out of an Indo-European word "Anth-" and related to Anthium and Athos, which makes sense due to how it is a triangular peninsula with long coasts.
Stverghame@reddit
Interesting, never knew this
jaunmilijej@reddit
Oh my bad, looked it up again and you’re right
Stverghame@reddit
Kragujevac - Kraguj's place
Kraguj is a bird that live(d) in this area. It was used for hunting during middle ages (it was tamed).
The thing is - we aren't exactly sire which bird is it. Is it extinct? Is it a hawk (jastreb)? Or is it a falcon (soko)? Is it a vulture? Idk.
City's flag does have alleged kraguj on the flag and seal, but there it is eagle-like due to Serbia's general symbolism of eagles.
Unable-Stay-6478@reddit
Belgrade - white city, in all Slavic languages
Hethsegew@reddit
Szeged either means corner/angle or blonde.
Glittery_Marshmallow@reddit
Do you usually put your blond babies in the corner?
WorldlinessRadiant77@reddit
Sofia means just that. Well I guess it’s Knowledge in Greek.
Sredets, or Middle, fell out of use in the Middle Ages. Triaditsa, an alternative name, means Trinity.
Both Sofia and Triaditsa come from the names of the city’s churches.
casual_philosopher02@reddit
It means wisdom!!
Adorable-Ad-1180@reddit
White City
bruhmanbruuh@reddit
Minas Tirith?
Minskdhaka@reddit
Beograd / Belgrade. But I love the reference.
star_relevant@reddit
We wish
domets@reddit
No, but it means in Romenian
Tudmat1313@reddit
Are you by any chance an inhabitant of Pula, Croatia?
domets@reddit
how did you know?
Tudmat1313@reddit
I mean, the name of your city is a pretty big "meme" in our country, so yeah. For those wondering, Pula in romanian means Dick. And I stress that it means dick, not penis:)))
domets@reddit
Adorable-Ad-1180@reddit
Left can have my Pula if she loves it so much
Tudmat1313@reddit
Such a versatile word as well, depending on the intonation.
domets@reddit
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_tw7Gd9j7l4
Tudmat1313@reddit
:))) absolute gold
Prize_Management9936@reddit
Timișoara means city on the river Timiş. Due to changing river beds and regulation now the city is not on Timiş river anymore but only with the name.
Vojvoda__@reddit
Yes, it means the town of Saint Archangel.
Early-Show2886@reddit
Edirne means "City of Hadrian" or "Adrianople," originating from the Roman Emperor Hadrian, who rebuilt the city in the 2nd century AD and named it Hadrianopolis. The modern Turkish name "Edirne" is an adaptation of this historical Greek name.