Wembley (Settlement) EnglishMeans
"Wemba's clearing" in Old English. This was the name of a town that is now part of Greater London.
Westley (Settlement) EnglishFrom Old English
west "west" and
leah "woodland, clearing". This is the name of a few small English towns.
Whitney (Settlement) EnglishProbably from Old English
hwit "white" and
ieg "island". This is the name of a small town in Herefordshire.
Wickham (Settlement) EnglishFrom Old English
wic "village, town" (of Latin origin) and
ham "home, settlement". This is the name of a few towns in
England.
Wieren (Settlement) DutchMeans
"seaweed" in Dutch. This is the name of towns in Frisia and other parts of the
Netherlands.
Willey (Settlement) EnglishFrom Old English
welig "willow" or
weoh "idol, image" combined with
leah "woodland, clearing". This is the name of a few towns in
England.
Wilton (Settlement) EnglishFrom Old English
welig meaning "willow",
wille meaning "well, spring, water hole", or the name of the River
Wylye, combined with
tun "enclosure, yard, town". This is the name of various towns in
England.
Winchester (Settlement) EnglishDerived from
Venta, of Celtic origin, and Latin
castrum meaning "camp, fortress". This is the name of a city in southern
England.
Winslow (Settlement) EnglishMeans
"Wine's hill" in Old English. This is the name of a town in Buckinghamshire.
Winthrope 1 (Settlement) EnglishMeans
"Wine's village", from the given name
Wine and Old English
þrop "village". This is the name of a town in Lincolnshire.
Winthrope 2 (Settlement) EnglishMeans
"Wigmund's village", from the given name
Wigmund and Old English
þrop "village". This is the name of a town in Nottinghamshire.
Wiśniewo (Settlement) PolishDerived from Polish
wiśnia meaning
"sour cherry". This is the name of several towns in
Poland.
Wortham (Settlement) EnglishFrom Old English
worþ "enclosure" and
ham "home, settlement". This is the name of a town in Suffolk.
Wylye (River) EnglishPossibly from a Celtic word meaning
"tricky". This is the name of a river in southern
England.
Wymondham (Settlement) EnglishFrom the given name
Wigmund combined with Old English
ham "home, settlement". This is the name of a town in Norfolk.
Wyrzyki (Settlement) PolishMeaning uncertain, possibly from the Polish prefix
wy "away from" and
rzek "river". This is the name of a few small Polish towns.
Xanadu (Settlement) EnglishAnglicized form of Chinese
上都 (Shangdu), derived from
上 (shàng) meaning "above, upper" and
都 (dū) meaning "city". This was the summer capital of the 13th-century Mongol ruler Kublai Khan, located in Inner
Mongolia,
China. It became known to English speakers after it appeared in Samuel Taylor Coleridge's poem
Kubla Khan (1816), and it has been used figuratively to refer to a paradise since then.
Yahuda (Region & Political Subdivision) ArabicArabic form of
Judah (referring to the Roman province).
Yamato (Country) JapanesePossibly related to Japanese
山 (yama) meaning
"mountain". This was the old name for the area around the city of Nara, though it was later applied to the entire country of
Japan. Chinese scribes originally wrote this name using the character
倭 meaning "short". However, this was revised to the more favourable
和 meaning "harmony" in the 8th century. The prefixed character
大 means "great".
Yazhou (Region) ChineseFrom a short form of
Yaxiya combined with
洲 (zhōu) meaning "continent, island". This is the modern Chinese name for
Asia.
Yemen (Country) English, Danish, Italian, Spanish, Romanian, Russian, Ukrainian, Bulgarian, Turkish, Kazakh, Kyrgyz, Chinese, Korean, Thai, TagalogFrom Arabic
يمن (Yaman), probably derived from
يمين (yamīn) meaning
"right hand, south". This is the name of a country at the southern end of the Arabian Peninsula.
York (Settlement & Political Subdivision) EnglishFrom
Jórvík, the Norse form of Old English
Eoforwic, which was from the Brythonic name
Eburacon meaning
"yew". The Old English form
Eoforwic was altered based on
eofor "boar" and
wic "village".
... [more] Yoxall (Settlement) EnglishDerived from Old English
geoc "oxen yoke" and
halh "nook, recess". This is the name of a town in Staffordshire.
Zabala (Settlement) BasqueFrom Basque
zabal meaning
"large, wide". This is the name of a district within the city of Bilbao in
Spain.
Zaire (River & Country) Portuguese, EnglishOlder name of the
Congo River, said to be derived via Portuguese from Kikongo
nzadi o nzere meaning
"river swallowing rivers". This was also the former name of the Democratic Republic of the Congo.
Zambezi (River) Chewa, Bemba, Tonga, Shona, EnglishThe name of a river in the south of
Africa, of uncertain meaning. It could possibly be from the name of the Bisa people of Zambia. According to the explorer David Livingstone it meant "great river".
Zambia (Country) Chewa, Bemba, Tonga, English, Italian, Spanish, Dutch, Swedish, Norwegian, Danish, Polish, Slovak, Hungarian, RomanianFrom the name of the
Zambezi River. It was adopted as the name of the African country of Zambia, formerly called Northern
Rhodesia, when it became independent of the United Kingdom in 1964.
Zealand (Country) English, Danish, Norwegian, SwedishFrom Dutch
Zeeland, from Middle Dutch
Seelant, derived from
see "sea" and
lant "land". This is the name of a province in the western
Netherlands (now typically called
Zeeland in many languages). It is also borne by the country of New Zealand in the South Pacific, which was named by the Dutch in the 17th century.
Zhongguo (Country) ChineseMeans
"middle kingdom", from Chinese
中 (zhōng) meaning "middle" and
国 (guó) meaning "country, state". This is the Chinese name for
China. The name originally referred to China's central regions, as opposed to the territory on the fringes.
Zimbabve (Country) Russian, Ukrainian, Latvian, Croatian, Serbian, Bosnian, Slovene, Bulgarian, Macedonian, Turkish, Azerbaijani, Georgian, Armenian, Kazakh, Kyrgyz, Tajik, Uzbek, MongolianForm of
Zimbabwe in several languages.
Zimbabwe (Country & Settlement) Shona, Ndebele, English, French, Italian, Dutch, Swedish, Norwegian, Danish, Finnish, Estonian, Polish, Czech, Slovak, Hungarian, RomanianFrom the Shona language, possibly from
dzimba "houses" and
ibwe "stone". Great Zimbabwe was an ancient city, falling into ruin in the 15th century. It was located in the country of Zimbabwe, which was named after the ancient city in 1980 when it gained independence from the United Kingdom. It was formerly called Southern
Rhodesia by the British.