Name Theories

In Plato’s allegory of the cave, the principal theme is the futility of convincing others of existence of the path to enlightenment and...

In my previous post, I had cited some Russian hydronyms (river names) that seem to have a Sanskrit origin. This time, I have a more intrigui...

The Arkaim archaelogical site in Russia has provided the world evidence of the presence of an ancient civilizaton of Indo-Aryan origins. No...

Wikipedia says that the word Mississippi comes from Messipi, the French rendering of the Anishinaabe (Ojibwe or Algonquin) name for the rive...

Anglia, Hochelaga, Norland, Superior and Victorialand were some of the names considered before some wise men chose Canada as their country...

Saskatchewan is Canada's fifth largest province. It takes its name from the Saskatchewan river . Legend has it that Saskatchewan means ...

Ottawa is the capital of Canada. Originally christened Bytown, it was renamed as Ottawa in 1855. Ottawa gets its name from the Ottawa river ...

Wikipedia says, "The term glass developed in the late Roman Empire. It was in the Roman glassmaking center at Trier, now in modern Ger...

Conventional Theory: The etymology of the word Denmark, and especially the relationship between Danes and Denmark and the unifying of Denmar...

Conventional Theory: "It is generally accepted that the historic Native American tribes who hunted in what is now Kentucky referred to...

Traditional Theory : "The country was named Moçambique by the Portuguese after the Island of Mozambique, derived from Musa Al Big or Mo...

The conventional theory goes like this : "Kathmandu, the capital of Nepal is situated at about 1400M altitude in a bowl shaped valley s...

There are at least 4 theories floating around to explain how Kazhakstan got its name: a) It comes from the Turkish verb qaz (to wander), ...

Most of the theories on Brazil's etymology are fairly muddled. Wikipedia says, "Traditionally, the word "Brazil" comes fr...

Brian is of Celtic origin. Behindthename suggests that it is possibly related to the old Celtic element bre meaning hill . Now the Celts ha...

Wikipedia has offered a rather contrived origin for Reykjavik. It goes like this: "The first permanent settlement in Iceland by Norseme...

Wikipedia says: "The name Eindhoven derives from the contraction of the regional words eind (meaning last or end) and hove (or hoeve; a...

Conventional wisdom says Tanganyika is derived from Swahili for 'sail'. I have another theory. Tanganyika has a very Tamil sound. An...

Egypt's third largest city is said to be have been derived from the Egyptian word 'Swen' which means 'the market'. Someh...

It is a recorded fact that Tamils and the ancient Hebrew people were in touch for trade. So it's highly possible for Tamil words to have...

Iran is often cited to be a derivation of Aryan (noble one or the first one) which happens to be a sanskrit word. The 'cradle of the civ...

Harappa is located near the Ravi river. Since it was a river-civilization, it's highly possible that the place was designated so by the ...

The name Dennis is a derivative of Dionysus which in turn may be a derivative of Daya-nisi (sanskrit/tamil for day & night or compassion...