Vacaville(Settlement)English (American) From the Spanish surname Vaca and the English suffix ville, meaning "city". The city in California is named for Juan Manuel Cabeza Vaca, an early settler in the land that would become the city.
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".
Vermont(Political Subdivision)English (American) Name of a state in the United States, literally "green mountain" from French verde "green" + mont "mountain".
Versen(Settlement)German Speculated to be from German Ferse meaning "heel", as it was founded on the figurative heel of the river Ems. First documented as fersne in 854.
Vest-Agder(Political Subdivision)Norwegian From the Norwegian word vest meaning "west" and the place name agder. It means "the western part of Agder."... [more]
Vestfold(Political Subdivision)Norwegian From the old name of the Olsofjord fold and the Norwegian word vest. The name means, "the region west of the fold."... [more]
Veszprém(Settlement)Hungarian Veszprém is one of the oldest urban areas in Hungary, and a city with county rights.
Vevey(Settlement)French Vevey is a town in Switzerland in the canton of Vaud, on the north shore of Lake Geneva, near Lausanne.
Veyatie(Body of Water)Scottish The name of a loch in north-west Scotland, from the Gaelic Mheathadaidh, which is of uncertain derivation. It appears to be a tri-thematic name composed of meatha-, a derivative of Old Norse mjó or mjór "narrow", combined with an uncertain second element (presumably the name of the river that led to the loch, which is lost) and the suffix -aidh, derived from Old Norse á "river".
Viangchan(Settlement)Khmer Khmer form of Vientiane via the Thai form เวียงจันทน์ (Wiangchan).
Viedma(Settlement)Spanish Possibly of Huarpe origin. This is the name of a city in Argentina which is the capital of Río Negro province in northern Patagonia. Together with the city of Carmen de Patagones across the river in Buenos Aires Province, Viedma is the oldest European settlement in Patagonia (founded 1779).
Viên(Settlement)Vietnamese Vietnamese form of Vienna via the French form Vienne.
Vientiane(Settlement)English, French French form of Lao ວຽງຈັນ (Wiangchan) meaning "city of sandalwood" or "city of the moon" from Lao ວຽງ (wiang) meaning "city, town" and ຈັນ (chan) meaning "sandalwood" or "moon"... [more]
Vieques(Settlement & Island)English (American), Spanish (Latin American) An island and town east of Puerto Rico. The name is derived from the Hispanicization of a Taíno word said to mean "small island, small land".
Villarreal(Settlement)Spanish Means "royal village" in Spanish, from villa "small town, settlement" and real "royal". Villarreal is a city in the province of Castelló, in the Valencian Community, Spain, named for being founded by King James I of Aragon.
Villaviciosa(Settlement)Spanish, Filipino Combination of villa meaning "small town" and viciosa meaning "vigorous; abundant" (usually "vicious, profligate").... [more]
Vilnius(Settlement)Lithuanian, English From the name of the Vilnia River, which is derived from Lithuanian vilnis meaning "wave, ripple". This is the name of the capital city of Lithuania.
Vinh(Settlement)Vietnamese Shortened form of any of the place's previous names, such as Kẻ Vinh, Vinh Giang, Vinh Doanh or Vinh Thi, most likely from European influence. The use of the Sino-Vietnamese character 永 (vĩnh) comes from the old practice of phonetic matching, with the character itself holding no significant meaning... [more]
Vĩnh Long(Political Subdivision)Vietnamese From Sino-Vietnamese 永 (vĩnh) meaning "forever" and 隆 (long) meaning "grand".
Vĩnh Phúc(Political Subdivision)Vietnamese From Sino-Vietnamese 永 (vĩnh) meaning "everlasting" and 福 (phúc) meaning "fortune".
Vĩnh Phúc(Political Subdivision)Vietnamese From Sino-Vietnamese 永 (vĩnh) meaning "forever, perpetual, eternal" and 福 (phúc) meaning "happiness, good fortune, blessing". This is the name of a province of Vietnam.
Vĩnh Yên(Settlement)Vietnamese From Sino-Vietnamese 永 (vĩnh) meaning "forever, perpetual, eternal" and 安 (yên) meaning "calm, peaceful". This is the name of a city in Vietnam.
Vinland(Region)Old Norse Old Norse name for a place in modern Canada, named by viking Leif Eriksson c. 1000 AD. The first element of the name is uncertain, but it could be from Old Norse vín "wine" or vin "meadow".
Virginia(Political Subdivision)English (American) Name of a state in the United States, "country of the Virgin", after Elizabeth I of England, who was known as the "Virgin Queen" because she never married.
Virginië(Political Subdivision)Dutch (Archaic), Afrikaans Archaic Dutch and modern Afrikaans form of Virginia. The modern Dutch form is written exactly the same as the English form.
Višakis(River)Lithuanian Meaning "all branches", from visas "all" and šaka "branch". It is the name of a river in southern Lithuania.
Visayas(Region & Body of Water)Filipino The Visayas, or the Visayan Islands, are one of the three principal geographical divisions of the Philippines, along with Luzon and Mindanao... [more]
Visby(Settlement)Swedish Visby is a city on the island of Gotland, Sweden. The area's been settled for a long time and was pre-13th century called just Vi "holy place, place of sacrifice, sanctuary"... [more]
Vistula(River)English, Amharic, Indonesian, Romanian, Swahili Borrowed from Latin, likely originating from the Indo-European root *weys- meaning "to flow". It is the longest river in Poland and has significant connections to Polish history and culture.
Víðbláinn(Other)Norse Mythology Derived from Old Norse víðr "wide, extensive" and blár "blue, dark, livid" (the colour used to describe corpses and bruises, e.g. hel-blár "black as death"; compare Bláinn)... [more]
Vladikavkaz(Settlement)Russian Means "ruler of the Caucasus" from Russian владеть (vladet) meaning "to own, to possess, to control" combined with Кавказ (Kavkaz) meaning "Caucasus"... [more]
Vladivostok(Political Subdivision)Russian literally 'Ruler of the East', 'Rule the East', 'Lord of the East', or 'Expansion to the East.' The name was first applied to the bay but, following an expedition by Alexey Shefner in 1860, was later applied to the new settlement.
Vladivostok(Settlement)Russian Means "ruler of the East" from Russian владеть (vladet') meaning "to possess, to control, to rule" and восток (vostok) meaning "the East". This is the name of a city in Russia.
Volga(River)English, Russian English and Russian name for the largest river in Europe. The Old Mari name of the river is Volgydo, which means "bright". The name volgydo is cognate to Finno-Ugric valkea meaning "white" or "bright"... [more]
Volodymyr(Settlement)Ukrainian, English, Czech, French, Italian, Slovak Transferred use of the Ukrainian given name Volodymyr. The city in Ukraine was named for Vladimir I Sviatoslavich, the Prince of Novgorod and Grand Prince of Kiev.