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How cities got their names

Words Unravelled

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Enjoy exploring these city name origins 🌎 And learn languages for 7-days FREE at Lingopie! https://learn.lingopie.com/words-unra...

Rob and Jess are touring the US and the UK in search of the most interesting city name origin stories.

💨 Does 'Chicago' have anything to do with wind?
🗽 Is New York actually named after York?
🚇 Does anyone know what 'London' means?
🏹 And what was Nottingham's hilarious old name?

Find out as we climb aboard the etymological city-hopper in another wordy, nerdy Words Unravelled.

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==LINKS==
Rob's YouTube channel: robwords
Jess' Useless Etymology blog: https://uselessetymology.com/
Rob on X: x.com/robwordsyt
Jess on TikTok: tiktok.com/@jesszafarris

#etymology #wordfacts #English

20 Comments

@WordsUnravelled Creator 8 months ago Pinned

Hit us with your place name origins! 🌎And learn languages for 7-days FREE at Lingopie! https://learn.lingopie.com/words-unravelled

@leannamt406 8 months ago

14:13 "Actually, it's pronounced mill-e-wah-que, which is Algonquin for "The Good Land"' - Alice Cooper, Wayne's World 😂

@dancarter9183 8 months ago

The quote, "If Niagara Falls were in England it would be called 'Niffels'," is attributed to Frank Crowninshield (1872–1947), an American journalist, art critic, and the long-time editor of Vanity Fair

@prince_julius 8 months ago

Fun fact: the Pennsylvania Dutch are descendants from Germans. Dutch refers to "Deutsch" (German for German) in this case.

@jonathonlee6254 8 months ago

Ref Nottingham / Snottingham. An episode of I'm Sorry I haven't a Clue (BBC radio programme) many years ago was broadcast from Nottingham, the chairman, Humphry Littleton (Humph) mentioned the dropping of the S. He went on to say that the people of Scunthorpe were eternally grateful it didn't happen to them.

@Boognish69 8 months ago

Fun fact : Gotham in the UK (Nottinghamshire) is only 6 miles from Wollaton Hall, used as Wayne Manor in The Dark Knight!😊

@alzo7891 8 months ago

1:57 Re Greek plural form, a friend was once looking to buy an economy car and said “I’m thinking about one of those Ford Focuses.” I replied “The plural of ‘focus’ is ‘focii.’” To which he said, “No, it’s foc-yoooo.”

@Heldlaris_618 8 months ago

5:17 In Italian (especially in 19th-century texts), “York” was often written as Eboraco, which comes from the Latin Eburacum... So Eboraco is essentially the historical Italian name for the city, although it’s no longer in common use. Today, everyone simply says “York,” and outside of books, no one uses Eboraco in daily life.

By the way, in theory, “New York” could be rendered as something like Nuova Eboraco or Eboraconuova, but that’s just a hypothetical Italianization, no one actually uses it.

@MichaelYoder-e8g 8 months ago (edited)

Canadian here. Our country is mis-named. When the English/French (?) came to the land they asked the Indigenous people what the place was called and the original people thought they were talking about Kanata "village" (later changed to Canada). So, we in Canada, are in a very large village. And Rob - if you can understand Glasweigian, you're a brave soul. I was there and did not understand a word of it, lol.

@mirandarensberger6919 8 months ago

The full name of Santa Fe is La Villa Real de la Santa Fe de San Francisco de Asis, which translates to "The Royal City of the Holy Faith of Saint Francis of Assisi".

@joostadorf9037 7 months ago (edited)

I could spend hours with you talking about fun language facts. You are so much fun and nice and a relief from the negative chaos in the world. Thank you!

@bigbadthesailor5173 8 months ago

Dallas is a town in Moray, north east Scotland. An amazing number of village names from Scotland became surnames, and I suspect the Dallas that Dallas is named after was himself named after Dallas.

@rwlynch3468 8 months ago

Place names are what first got me interested in etymology. I was a telephone operator, and started seeing hundreds of place names in UK on my screen, ending in burgh, borough, ford, wick, wich, etc. Started looking up what all these places meant, and discovered general etymology books for common words after that.

@jald910 8 months ago

Seattle is an English version of his name but not the only one. He was also called Sealth. It says Sealth on his grave in
Squamish WA. His actual name is difficult to spell or pronounce. The linked recording was made by one of the last fully native speakers of Lushootseed in the 60’s at the University of Washington. https://youtu.be/JxfFUhk1puQ?si=PWnijkTv4pRMOMcL

@kevblower 8 months ago

I'm in Wolverhampton.... There's a statue of the Saxon Lady, there's a shopping centre called the Wulfrun centre and we're still called Wulfrunians. It is a cool name . Great show

@ChrisBode 8 months ago

My favorite Welsh placename is Carmarthen, not for it's actual likely etymology of Caer + Moridunum (literally "fort sea fort") but for the folk/parallel etymology of Caer Myrddin, or "Merlin's Fort." Just outside of town you'll find Bryn Myrddin, which is alleged to be alternatively Merlin's birthplace, his place of power, or the hill in which he was imprisoned.

@richardwhite9682 8 months ago

I love that quick shout out to the educational potential of etymology. When I was in elementary school, many years ago, teachers stressed word origins whenever new vocabulary was being introduced. Cultivation of that skill allows people to deduce the meanings of terms they have never seen or heard based on their knowledge of word roots. As a science teacher, I made use of that same approach to help students apply the Latin and Greek origins behind so much scientific vocabulary.

@johnlumsden9102 8 months ago

14:25 there a town nearby named Osceola. One of thirteen (I think) towns in the US that changed its name in solidarity with the Seminole people in Florida after their chief Osceola was killed.