Ulan-Ude(Settlement)Russian From Buryat Улаан-Үдэ (Ulaan-Ude) meaning "red Uda", derived from Buryat улаан (ulaan) meaning "red" and Үдэ (Ude) referring to the Uda River. The name was originally given to reflect the Soviet Union's communist ideology... [more]
Uleåborg(Settlement)Finland Swedish Combination of Ule, the name of a river whose name derives from the Finnish dialectal word oulu "floodwater", Swedish å "river, stream", and borg "castle, fortification"... [more]
Ulkebøl(Settlement)Danish Village on the Danish island of Als. The name is derived from the Frisian given name Ulke (in modern Danish: Ole) and the old Danish word bøl (meaning an outlying farm) and as such means "Ole's outlying farm".... [more]
Ulsan(Settlement)Korean Combination of 蔚 (울, ul, of uncertain meaning) and 山 (산, san, "mountain"), thus "kind river". This is the name of a city in South Korea.
Ulster(Region)Northern Irish, Irish From the name of a group of tribes that once lived in the area, the Ulaidh, and either Irish tír or Old Norse staðr, both meaning “land”, “place” or “territory”.... [more]
Uluğ-Hem(Body of Water & River)Tuvan The Tuvan word for mother river.
Uluru(Other)Pitjantjatjara This is the traditional name of Ayers Rock as well as part of the traditional name of the park its in. The Anangu (arn-ung-oo) Aboriginal Australians viewed the Uluru monolith as sacred. They gained control of the site in 1985... [more]
Umeå(Settlement)Swedish From the name of the Ume River. Possibly derived from Old Norse úma "roaring" and the place name element -eå denoting the city's location near the river. Another theory is that the name is derived from Finnish uoma "riverbed".
Unaka(Region & Mountain)Cherokee From the Cherokee unega meaning “white”, said to be in reference to the long white chestnut blossoms that bloomed in the mountains during spring. This is the name of a subrange of the Appalachian mountain range, on the border of North Carolina and Tennessee.
Underwood(Region & Other)English (British) Underwood is an unincorporated community in Monroe Township, Clark County, Indiana, United States. The community took its name from the local Underwood family.... [more]
Uppland(Region)Swedish Uppland is a Swedish historical province. The name is a combination of Swedish upp "up" and land "land". The name is believed to refer to its location north of Lake Mälaren.
Uppsala(Settlement)Swedish Means "upstream from Sala", from Old Norse upp "up" and salir "halls, rooms". Sala was a village located downstream from Uppsala (it is nowadays a neighbourhood known as Sala backe)... [more]
Urewera(Region)Māori Composed of the Māori words ure meaning "penis" and wera meaning "burnt". The name of Te Urewera in Aotearoa New Zealand: the ancestral homeland of the Tūhoe people.... [more]
Ürümqi(Settlement)English From Uyghur ئۈرۈمچى (ürümchi), which may have been derived from Mongolian ᠦᠯᠡᠮᠵᠢ (ülemji) meaning "great", a short form of the phrase ᠦᠯᠡᠮᠵᠢ ᠶᠢᠨ ᠰᠠᠶ᠋ᠢᠬᠠᠨ ᠪᠡᠯᠴᠢᠭᠡᠷ (ülemji-yin say᠋iqan belchiger) meaning "great pasture" or "beautiful pasture"... [more]
Usuri(Region, Body of Water & River)Manchu The naming source of Ussuri.
Utah(Political Subdivision)English (American) Name of a state in the United States, from Spanish yuta, name of the indigenous Uto-Aztecan people of the Great Basin perhaps from Western Apache (Athabaskan) yudah "high" (in reference to living in the mountains).
Utara(Other)Indonesian, Minangkabau, Malay The Malay, Indonesian and Minangkabau definition of the Sanskrit word Uttara, which means “Northward”.
Uthai Thani(Political Subdivision & Settlement)Thai From Thai อุทัย (uthai) meaning "sunrise, dawn, emergence, rise" and ธานี (thani) meaning "city". This is the name of a province of, as well as a district and city in, Thailand.
Utqiagvik(Settlement)Iñupiaq, Indigenous American Means "place to gather roots" in Iñupiaq. This is the name of the northernmost town in the US, located in the state of Alaska on the Arctic Ocean coast... [more]
Utsunomiya(Settlement)Japanese This is the name of a city which is the capital and most populous city of Tochigi Prefecture, located in central Japan. The kanji used are 宇 (u) meaning "eaves, heaven, house, roof", 都 (tsu, to, miyako) meaning "capital, metropolis" and 宮 (kyuu, ku, kuu, guu, miya) meaning "constellations, palace, princess, Shinto shrine."... [more]
Uttaradit(Political Subdivision & Settlement)Thai, Northern Thai From Thai อุตร (uttara) meaning "north, northern" and ดิตถ์ (dit) meaning "port, landing", referring to the region's historical status as a trading port along the Nan River... [more]
Uttar Pradesh(Political Subdivision)Hindi, Bhojpuri, Urdu, English Means "north province", derived from Sanskrit उत्तर (uttara) meaning "north" and प्रदेश (pradesha) meaning "province". This is the name of a state in northern India, taken from a calque of its former English name, Northern Provinces.
Uummannaq(Other)Greenlandic Means "heart-shaped" in Greenlandic, ultimately derived from uummat "heart". Uummannaq is the name of several places in Greenland, including a mountain, a town, an island, and a fjord.
Uzbeketi(Country)Georgian From Georgian უზბეკური (uzbekuri) referring to the Uzbek people and the suffix -ეთი (-eti) used to indicate location. This is the Georgian name for Uzbekistan.
Uzbekija(Country)Lithuanian Lithuanian form of Uzbekistan via its Latin name Uzbecia. This is the standard Lithuanian name for the country, but sometimes the form Uzbekistanas is also used.
Uzhhorod(Political Subdivision & Other)Ukrainian From the River Uzh (Уж) and dialectal Ukrainian город (horod) "city". Uzhhorod is a city and oblast' (region) in western Ukraine.
Vadstena(Settlement)Swedish Probably a combination of Old Swedish *vazt "place to fish" and sten "stone". Vadstena is a city in Sweden that had an important role in Sweden's early Christian history. Saint Bridget (Heliga Birgitta) founded the Bridgettine Order here at the Vadstena Abbey in the 14th centry.
Valdosta(Settlement)English The name of a city in southern Georgia, United States, taken from that of George Troup (1780-1856)'s plantation; Troup, the 32nd Governor of Georgia, named Valdosta after Piedmontese Val d'Osta meaning "Aosta Valley", a place in the Italian Alps... [more]
Valenzuela(Settlement)Filipino Valenzuela, officially the City of Valenzuela, is a 1st class highly urbanized city in the National Capital Region of the Philippines. According to the 2020 census, it has a population of 714,918 people... [more]
Välimeri(Body of Water)Finnish Combination of Finnish väli "gap, space" and meri "sea". This is the Finnish name for the Mediterranean Sea.
Valinor(Region)Literature A region in JRR Tolkien's 'Lord of the Rings' series. From the fictional Quenya language, a compound of vala, a fictional quasi-divine species, and the suffix ndor meaning "land".
Vallejo(Settlement)Spanish, English The name of a city in the San Francisco Bay Area of California, which was founded by Mariano Guadalupe Vallejo (1807-1890), a Californio military leader and landowner... [more]
Valletta(Settlement)Maltese, English From the name of 16th century French nobleman Jean de Valette. This is the name of the capital city of Malta.
Vänern(Body of Water)Swedish Meaning uncertain. One theory is that the name is derived from Old Swedish vænir and therefore related to Archaic Swedish words vån "hope, prospect" and vän "beautiful, fair"... [more]
Vasouvi(Settlement)Khmer Khmer form of Warszawa (see Warsaw) via the French form Varsovie.
Västerås(Settlement)Swedish Derived from Westra Aros meaning "west river mouth". Västerås is the 5th largest city in Sweden.
Västerbotten(Political Subdivision)Swedish Swedish county (län) and historical province (landskap) in Northern Sweden. The name refers to its geographical location west of the Bothnian Bay and Bothnian Sea... [more]
Vatican City(Country)English Vatican City (/ˈvætɪkən/), officially the Vatican City State (Italian: Stato della Città del Vaticano; Latin: Status Civitatis Vaticanae), is the Holy See's independent city state, an enclave within Rome, Italy... [more]
Vättern(Body of Water)Swedish Meaning uncertain, but possibly derived from Swedish vatten "water". Vättern is the second largest lake in Sweden and the sixth largest lake in Europe.
Vatykan(Country)Ukrainian Ukrainian form of Vatican, which is one of the names commonly used to refer to Vatican City.
Vavylon(Settlement)Ukrainian, Greek Ukrainian form of Babylon as well as the modern Greek transcription of the name. However, in modern Greece, Vavylona is typically the form used to refer to the capital city of ancient Babylonia.
Velikorossiya(Country & Region)Russian Means "Great Russia" (великий/velikiy + россия/rossiya). It is a historical name of what is now mostly the Russian Federation.
Venäjä(Country)Finnish From Finnish venät meaning "Russian" (a rare word), ultimately from Germanic winidaz meaning "Wend, Slav". This is the Finnish name of Russia.
Verenigd Koninkrijk(Country)Dutch Dutch form of United Kingdom. It is literally a direct translation of the country's name, since it consists of the Dutch adjective verenigd meaning "united" combined with the Dutch noun koninkrijk meaning "kingdom".