Abuja(Settlement)Western African, Hausa, Igbo, Yoruba, English From Abu-Ja, a nickname of 19th-century monarch Abubakar Jatau (sometimes referred to as "Abu"), who founded what is now the city of Abuja in 1828. By some accounts, he was described as having fair skin, which possibly earned him the nickname Ja meaning "red" in Hausa... [more]
Lagos(Political Subdivision & Settlement)Western African, Hausa, Igbo, English From Portuguese lagos meaning "lakes". This is the name of a city in Nigeria as well as a state of the same name.
Yaoundé(Settlement)English, Catalan, Danish, Dutch, Estonian, Finnish, French, German, Hungarian, Italian, Welsh, Yoruba From the outpost of Jaundo, founded between 1887 and 1889 by German explorers Lt. Richard Kund and Hans Tappenbeck and named so after the local Ewondo people, also known as Yaunde. The name could also have been a German rendition of the Ewondo expression mia wondo ("peanut farmers")... [more]