Behind the Name: Submitted Place Names Starting with P

Submitted names are contributed by users of this website. The accuracy of these name definitions cannot be guaranteed.

PÁEZ (Other, Political Subdivision, Region & Settlement) Spanish (Latin American), Native Paezean
Páez (also Paez, Paes; the autonym Nasa Yuwe 'Nasa language' is becoming increasingly used) is a language isolate of Colombia spoken by the Páez people. Ethnologue estimates 71,400 to 83,300citation needed speakers, including 40,000 monolingual, out of an ethnic population of 140,000.... [more]

PAKISTAN (Country) English, Urdu, Persian, Sindhi
Derived from Urdu and Persian پاکستان (Pākistān) meaning "land of the pure"; a combination of Persian پاک (pâk) meaning "clean, pure, innocent" and the suffix ستان (-stân) meaning "land of"... [more]

PALO ALTO (Settlement) English
Name of a city in California, from Spanish palo "(tree) stick" + alto "tall".

PANAMA (Country) English
The name of the Country in Central America. Panama is a country on the isthmus linking Central and South America. The Panama Canal, a famous feat of human engineering, cuts through its center, linking the Atlantic and Pacific oceans to create an essential shipping route... [more]

PARAGUAY (Country) English
The name of the Country in South America. Paraguay is a landlocked country between Argentina, Brazil and Bolivia, home to large swaths of swampland, subtropical forest and chaco, wildernesses comprising savanna and scrubland... [more]

PARIAMAN (Settlement) Indonesian, English
Means "safe area" in Indonesian. Pariaman is a costal city on the island of Sumatra in Indonesia.

PASADENA (Settlement) English
Name of a city in California, from Ojibwe pa-sa-de-na, meaning "valley of the valley" "crown of the valley" "key of the valley" or "hill of the valley". Although the Ojibwe had no ties to Southern California, Dr... [more]

PAVLODAR (Settlement) Kazakh, Russian, English
Derived from the name of Pavel Alexandrovich, a former Grand Duke of Russia. The city was originally named Koryakovsky before Pavel's birth. Pavlodar is a northeastern city in Kazakhstan.

PAXSON (Settlement) English
This is the name of 3 places, two being in America and one being in Canada.... [more]

PENGE (Settlement) English
A suburb of London, England. Originally named Penceat, it appears to derive from Brythonic *penno, 'head, edge' and *ceid, 'forest, wood', so likely meant 'settlement on the forest's edge'.

PENNSYLVANIA (Political Subdivision) English (American)
Name of a state in the United States, literally "Penn's woods". Penn comes from Pennaeth, the welsh word for "head" "top" and Latin silvania (from Latin silvia) "wood, forrest".

PENRITH (Settlement) English
A town in Northern England. Its name derives from the Cumbric pen, 'hill, top, summit' (Welsh pen) and rith, 'ford, crossing', (Welsh ryd).

PENSHAW (Settlement) English
A village in Northern England. The first element seems to be Cumbric pen, which means 'summit, head'. The most obvious explanation for the second is Old English sceaga, meaning 'woods'... [more]

PEN-Y-GHENT (Mountain) English, Ancient Celtic
A mountain in Yorkshire, Northern England. In the Cumbric Language, the element pen, exactly as in Welsh, meant 'head, top, summit', and y, also as in Welsh, meant the definite article 'the'... [more]

PERSLEY (Settlement) Scottish
A small hamlet in North-East Scotland, now encompassed by the city of Aberdeen. There are several explanations as to the origin of the name of this small settlement:... [more]

PERTH (Settlement) Scottish
A city in central Scotland. The name is of Pictish origin and derived from *perth, meaning 'bush, copse' (Welsh perth, 'bush, hedge').

PERU (Country) English
The name of the country of Peru fame claims it got it name from the leader of a small region in northeastern or northweastern Peru where the Spaniard conquistadores arrived, the leader was called Biru but his name was deformed into Peru.

PETERBOROUGH (Settlement) English
This is the name of 2 cities, one in Cambridgeshire (UK) and Ontario (Canada), and 3 towns, one in New Hampshire (US), Victoria & South Australia (Australia).... [more]

PHNOM PENH (Settlement) Khmer, English
Means "Penh's hill" in Khmer, a combination of ភ្នំ (pnum) "hill, mountain" and ពេញ (bpeuñ) meaning "full", but referring to Lady Penh, a wealthy woman in Cambodian legend who built a new temple for the Buddha after a flood (today believed to be the temple of Wat Phnom)... [more]

PLOVDIV (Settlement) Bulgarian, English
"Plovdiv" is the British English form of the city's original Greek name: Philippopolis, which means "the city of Phillip". It is also the Bulgarian evolution of one of the city's names: Pulpudeva... [more]

POLAND (Country) English
Poland's name, Polska, is derived from the word Polanie or "people of the fields," the name of tribe that used to inhabit the area around Grodno and Poznań where the Polish state first arose. In time, this area and the surrounding region acquired the name Wielkopolska.

POLSKA (Country) Polish
This is the Polish form of Poland

POMPEII (Settlement) Ancient Roman
Possibly derived from the Oscan pompe "five", becoming the Latin second declension plural, pompeii. This may be because the community formerly consisted of five hamlets, or was perhaps settled by a family group (gens Pompeia).... [more]

PONTEFRACT (Settlement) English
From Latin ponte fracto, meaning 'broken bridge'.

PORTLAND (Settlement) American
In America, it is most likely used as a place name in reference to Portland, Oregon.

PRUSSIA (Country) History
Became a Duchy in 1660 and a kingdom in the following century. At its greatest extent it included the northern two-thirds of Germany and western Poland. Prussia, by World War II a federal unit of Germany, was fully disbanded at the end of World War II.

PUDSEY (Settlement) English
This name is of Anglo - Saxian origin.... [more]

PUERTO RICO (Other) Spanish
Puerto Rico is a Caribbean island and unincorporated U.S. territory with a landscape of mountains, waterfalls and the El Yunque tropical rainforest. In San Juan, the capital and largest city, the Isla Verde area is known for its hotel strip, beach bars and casinos... [more]

PUYOG (Other) Filipino

	Usage
	Initial letter
	Type
	Meaning	the meaning is anything from the name's write-up that is surrounded by "double quotes" separate search terms with spaces search for an exact phrase by surrounding it with double quotes example: "lord of the rings" will match names from the novel 'The Lord of the Rings' this field understands simple boolean logic force a term to be included by preceding it with a + sign force a term to be excluded by preceding it with a - sign example: +greek +(legend myth) -zeus will match Greek names of myths or legends not about Zeus
	Description	ignore name meanings the description is the meaning and history write-up for the name separate search terms with spaces search for an exact phrase by surrounding it with double quotes example: "lord of the rings" will match names from the novel 'The Lord of the Rings' this field understands simple boolean logic force a term to be included by preceding it with a + sign force a term to be excluded by preceding it with a - sign example: +greek +(legend myth) -zeus will match Greek names of myths or legends not about Zeus ignore name meanings: keywords from the name meanings are ignored
	Length
	Pattern	the pattern will be compared to the name * is a wildcard that will match zero or more letters example: oo will match names which contain oo _ is a wildcard that will match exactly one letter example: __z will match names which have two letters and then a z
	Namesake
	User list	enter a behindthename.com username to search that user's public personal name lists to limit your search to a specific list, put the name of the list in brackets after the username
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