There doesn’t seem to be any explanation as to why the stable hand called NYC the Big Apple, but from my guess, it’s because New York’s race tracks were considered the “big time” tracks in the States. Horses love apples, so these big races would be the “big apple” to them, though this is only my hypothesis.
ROME
The city of Rome is perhaps one of the most important cities still standing on the face of the planet because it was the home of the Roman Empire! The name of this city actually has roots in an ancient legend with the story of Romulus and Remus.
The story of these twin brothers goes that, as babies, they were abandoned by their parents and placed in a basket to float upon the River Tiber. The twins were eventually found and cared for by the mythical she-wolf. The image of the she-wolf feeding the twins can still be seen across the city of Rome to this day in artwork and sculptures.
When they grew older, the brothers decided to found a city for the she-wolf that looked after them. The brothers argued over where the city should be founded, leading to Romulus killing his brother! Yup, that escalated quickly. Without Remus, Romulus was able to be sole founder and first king of the city he founded, which he named after himself: Roma, or as we call it in English, Rome.
While this is just a legend, Rome was really founded due to the growth of settlements on the city’s seven hills. It was close to the Tiber which helped the civilization thrive. Yet while we now know the more realistic reason as to how the city was founded, Rome’s etymology still lives in the world of myths!
TOKYO AND KYOTO
Yep. Here we have a two-in-one because the names and histories of these two cities are so linked. Tokyo is the capital city of Japan, but this was not always the case. Japan is a country that is characterized by two overall qualities: one is this technologically advanced, fast moving, anime-and-video-game-loving power house, which is best represented in the city of Tokyo. The other is linked with an image of tranquility, rising suns, samurais, and ancient wooden buildings with sliding paper doors, which can be best seen in the city of Kyoto. It was this latter city of Kyoto that was once the country’s capital.
The name Kyoto in Japanese is this 京都 which simply means capital city, with the first character in English being kyo, meaning “capital” and the second character meaning “city.” Historically, Kyoto was the capital of Japan as it’s where the royal family of Japan lived. At the same time, however, we have the city of Tokyo. Tokyo back then was called Edo, meaning estuary, a wide part of a river which joins the sea, referencing Tokyo’s position. Edo was flourishing, being the key point of trade between Japan and the west, leaving Kyoto somewhat behind the times. This came to a head around 1868 when the young Emperor Meiji and his oligarchs wished to move the royal family from Kyoto to Edo as that is where the power of trade and access to the west was situated.
With this change of city for the royal family came a change of name for Edo. The city was renamed Tokyo, in Kanji looking like this: 東京. The name Tokyo means “east capital” as it is to the east of the country’s old capital of Kyoto. This is why the “kyo” part of the names meaning “capital” is at the start of Kyoto’s name (Capital City) while it is at the end of Tokyo’s names (East Capital).
CHICAGO
Chicago is often called “the Windy City.” It might need some of that wind to blow away it’s rather smelly etymology, as Chicago is thought to be named after onions.
The most popular theory pinpoints the naming to onions anyway, but there are other theories about how the city got its name. All these ideas suggest various Native American words. One is that the city was named after a Native Chief named Chicagou, who drowned in the river, now also called the Chicago River, while others believe that the name comes from the Native word shecaugo, meaning “playful waters” or even chocago, meaning “destitute.”
As I mentioned earlier, the most popular theory (and the one I like best) comes from those vegetables that make you cry—onions. The Natives had this wonderful way of naming places after what grew there. This was for practicality too, so they could remember where their food grew. There was a stream in Chicago and along its banks grew leeks, or as they were thought to be at the time “smelly onions.”
This led to the city being called by the Natives shikaakwa meaning “smelly onions” and when the French explored the land and heard this name, they changed it in their own tongue to Chicago. With French explorer Robert de la Salle being credited as the first person to write this name, however, he wrote it as “Checagou,” but the name we all know it as today evolved from that.
LIVERPOOL
Liverpool is the birthplace of four of the most famous names in history: John, Paul, George, and Ringo. Some would argue that it was the Fab Four that put Liverpool’s name on the map, but where did that name come from to begin with?
Though not directly named after it, Liverpool’s name comes from the River Mersey that runs through it, with the pool part meaning simply that, a pool of water. So, what does the liver part mean? Luckily, the name doesn’t mean a pool of livers. That would honestly be a horrid thing to not only see, but to name a city after.
The liver in Liverpool comes from one of two Old English words. The name was originally recorded as Liuerpul meaning “Pool with Muddy Water,” as the Mersey can get less than pleasant at times. The former part of this name comes from the Old English lifer meaning “thick, clotted water,” which actually isn’t much more pleasant than the idea of a pool of organs.
The second idea for the origin of the city’s name comes from the name elverpool meaning “Pool of Eels,” referencing the large amount of eels that are found in the Mersey. The name of the city inspired the name of the city’s avian symbol, the Liver Bird (pronounced lie-ver in this case, however) which can be seen throughout the city, on its football team’s emblem, and atop of one of the cities famous landmarks, the Liver Building.
The legend goes that if the Liver Birds atop the Liver Building were to fly away, then the city would cease to exist. Luckily, however, they’re made of copper and are secured to the building, so I don’t think they’ll be flying away anytime soon.
SYDNEY
When I look at Sydney’s name, I immediately think to myself “Did someone forget how to spell Sidney?” But of course, there is far more to it than that. The city is named after someone, even though they weren’t even called Sydney!
Thomas Townshend was the British Secretary of State in 1783, and he was the one who recommended that the British establish a colony in Australia. The city was founded in 1788 when the first ship from England carrying over 700 people came to the land. It was Thomas Townshend that Sydney was named after as his full title was: Thomas Townshend, 1st Viscount Sydney. How Thomas got that title is where the confusion kicks in.
Thomas Townshend was a member of British Parliament for twenty-nine years, and upon retiring, was entered into the House of Lords, earning himself the title of baron. He chose to be Thomas Townshend, Baron of Sidney. While he may have been Baron of Sydney, this wasn’t referring to anywhere called Sydney. Thomas just liked the name and it was also the surname of a distant family member, Algernon Sidney. He was, however, worried that the original Sidney family may have wanted to use the name in the future, so he changed the I to a Y and became Baron of Sydney, later working his way up the British peerage system to become Viscount of Sydney. This brings us back to his being Viscount of Sydney when he decided to settle in Australia, which went rather well, as we can see today!
The really silly thing about all this, however, is that they named the settlement of Sydney after someone who LITERALLY has the word town in their name! They wanted to name a town after someone called TOWNshend, but instead chose to use his title and a name that wasn’t even his. Very silly indeed.
BUDAPEST
While it may