Type Country, River & Region
Usage Romanian, Ukrainian, Bulgarian, Hungarian, English, Norwegian, Danish, Estonian, Finnish, Latvian, Georgian, Turkish, Azerbaijani, Maltese, Indonesian, Malay
Pronounced Pron. /mol.ˈdo.va/(Romanian) /ˈmol.do.vɒ/(Hungarian) /mɔl.ˈdoʊ.və/(English) /mɔl.dɔ.vɑ/(Georgian) [key·simplify]
Meaning & History
From the name of the Moldova River in eastern Romania, which is of uncertain origin. It could be from Romanian molid meaning "spruce", Old Slavic *moldŭ meaning "young", or Gothic mulda meaning "dust, dirt". This is the Romanian name (Moldavia in English) for a former principality that was located in Eastern Europe. The eastern part of this principality came under the control of the Russian Empire in 1812, eventually becoming the modern country of Moldova. The western part united with Wallachia in 1859 to become the Kingdom of Romania. Northeastern Romania is called Moldova Occidentală in Romanian.
Related Names
Other Languages & CulturesMoldavija(Bosnian) Moldavija(Croatian) Moldavsko(Czech) Moldavië(Dutch) Moldavie(French) Moldau, Moldawien(German) Moldavia(Italian) Moldavija(Lithuanian) Moldavija(Macedonian) Mołdawa, Mołdawia(Polish) Moldávia(Portuguese) Moldaviya(Russian) Moldavija(Serbian) Moldavsko(Slovak) Moldavija(Slovene) Moldavia(Spanish) Moldavien(Swedish)
Surname DescendantMoldovan(Romanian)
User SubmissionMoldóva
