There is no doubt that Las Vegas is probably one of the most fascinating, spectacular, hyper, and quizzical cities in the world. “Las Vegas” actually means “The Meadows” or “Fertile Plains” in Spanish. The Meadows, today, is the largest city by population in the State of Nevada, and the 28th largest city in the United…
Category: TIA Urban Etymology
For the Love of Calgary
Let’s talk about Calgary for a few minutes! Calgary’s nickname is “Cowtown” because it has a history associated with the Canadian “Wild West” of the late 19th and early 20th centuries. The city’s official flag is a red field featuring the letter “C” adorned with a cowboy hat positioned within the opening of the initial….
Meet Me at the Muddy Confluence
Where the River Gombak meets the River Klang — that’s where you’ll find Kuala Lumpur (KL), which is Malay for, literally, “Muddy Confluence”. As an enthusiast of etymology — especially regarding the names of our world’s cities — I find the meaning of “Kuala Lumpur” to be one of the most fascinating. KL is a…
The City of a Saint & Good Herbs
Today, you might be familiar with this city by a few of its popular nicknames, including: San Fran Frisco City by the Bay SF Fog City Of course, we all call it “San Francisco“! Formerly known as Yerba Buena (Spanish for “Good Herb”), the City by the Bay — originally founded and established in Mexico…
The Skyline of Saint James
San Diego‘s skyline is very expansive. In the image above, this is only a small part of it captured from Harbor Island. The majority of the buildings are the same height, and not as tall as those seen in Los Angeles or San Francisco, whose urban cores developed more rapidly between the 1970s and 1990s….
Juneau, You Know?
According to my WordPress statistics, this will be my 50th article for this blog. To celebrate this achievement, I thought I would share some trivia about America’s 49th state, just to be quirky and offbeat. Alaska’s capital city is Juneau. With a population slightly above 32,000, the capital is more of a small town than…
Deciphering the Significance of “Singapore”
The City The name “Singapore” was adapted by the British from its original Malay name, “Singapura”, which means “Lion City”. I had often read books and magazines about the great Lion City, established on an island at the southern tip of the Malay Peninsula. I was fascinated by its history and how it transformed itself…
Our City of Shikaakwa Today
Established 184 years ago, the city named “Chicago” is derived from a French rendering of the Native American word shikaakwa, translated as “wild onion” or “wild garlic”, from the Miami-Illinois language. The first known reference to the site of the current city of Chicago as “Checagou” was by Robert de LaSalle around 1679 in a memoir…