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Cities and other places, and what their names originally described.

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• A
• Amsterdam
  dam on the Amstel
• Athens
  named in honor of Athena
• Atlanta
  named after a 19th-century railroad line reference
• B
• Bangkok
  possibly 'village of the wild plum trees'
• Barcelona
  possibly 'city of the Barca family' (disputed)
• Beijing
  northern capital
• Beirut
  the wells
• Berlin
  uncertain, one theory points to the marshy terrain of the original settlement
• Bogota
  uncertain, named for the earlier Muisca settlement
• Boston
  Botolph's town
• Budapest
  Buda and Pest combined
• C
• Cairo
  the victorious city
• Canberra
  meeting place (commonly cited, disputed)
• Casablanca
  white house
• Chicago
  place of the wild onion
• Copenhagen
  merchants' harbor
• Cusco
  possibly 'navel of the world'
• D
• Delhi
  uncertain
• Denver
  named in honor of James W. Denver
• Dublin
  black pool
• E
• Edinburgh
  fortress of Eidyn
• F
• Florence
  flourishing, blooming
• G
• Geneva
  possibly 'mouth of the river' (disputed)
• H
• Hanoi
  between the rivers
• Havana
  possibly named after an Indigenous Caribbean leader
• Honolulu
  sheltered bay
• I
• Istanbul
  to the city (a colloquial phrase, not a formal name)
• J
• Jakarta
  complete victory
• Jerusalem
  uncertain; a traditional reading connects it to 'foundation' and 'peace'
• K
• Kathmandu
  wooden temple/pavilion (traditional account)
• Kyiv
  Kyi's city
• Kyoto
  capital city
• L
• Lagos
  lakes
• Lima
  uncertain, named for the Limaq valley and river
• Lisbon
  possibly 'safe harbor' (disputed ancient origin)
• London
  uncertain
• Los Angeles
  the angels
• M
• Madrid
  water-channel place (traditional reading)
• Manila
  place where the nilad plant grows
• Marrakech
  possibly 'land of God'
• Melbourne
  named in honor of Lord Melbourne
• Montreal
  royal mountain
• Moscow
  uncertain; several competing theories exist for the river's original meaning
• Mumbai
  mother Mumba
• N
• Nairobi
  place of cool waters
• Nashville
  named in honor of Francis Nash
• O
• Oslo
  meadow beneath the ridge (disputed)
• P
• Paris
  land of the Parisii
• Phoenix
  the phoenix
• Prague
  uncertain, one leading theory ties it to a rocky ford or threshold across the Vltava river
• Q
• Quito
  named for the Quitu people
• R
• Reykjavik
  smoky bay
• Rio de Janeiro
  January river
• Rome
  uncertain
• S
• San Francisco
  Saint Francis
• Santiago
  Saint James
• Seoul
  capital city
• Singapore
  lion city
• Stockholm
  log islet
• Sydney
  named in honor of a British colonial administrator
• T
• Taipei
  northern Taiwan
• Tokyo
  eastern capital
• Toronto
  where there are trees standing in the water
• U
• Ulaanbaatar
  red hero
• V
• Venice
  uncertain, named for the Veneti whose own name's meaning is not firmly established
• Vienna
  uncertain, possibly 'forest stream' or a related watercourse name
• W
• Warsaw
  uncertain; a well-known legend credits a fisherman and a mermaid, though linguists favor a personal-name origin
• Washington
  named in honor of George Washington
• Wellington
  named in honor of the Duke of Wellington
• X
• Xi'an
  western peace
• Y
• Yangon
  end of strife
• Z
• Zanzibar
  coast of the Zanj
• Zurich
  uncertain; the exact origin is still debated among linguists