List of toponyms

In linguistics and grammar, a toponym is a name derived from a place or a region.

This is a list of toponyms, followed by the name of the place it is derived from.

General

• Acapulco
• Angora
• Armageddon
• Auschwitz
• Babel
• Balkanization, a geopolitical term for the fragmentation of a region — the Balkans, region in southeastern Europe
• Bantustan, a disparaging term used by critics of the Apartheid-era government's "homelands" — territories designated as tribal "homelands" for black South Africans during the Apartheid era
• Bay Street, a synonym for Canada's financial industry (similar to Wall Street) — Hudson's Bay Company in Canada
• Beltway, name for the highway surrounding Washington, D.C.
• Berlin Wall, synonymous of the Cold War — Berlin Wall, separating East Berlin from West Berlin
• Bible, bibliography — Byblos, city on the Mediterranean coast of Lebanon
• Bikini, two-piece bathing suit for women — Bikini Atoll, a Micronesian Island in the Pacific Ocean
• the Blarney and Blarney Stone — Blarney Castle
• Boetian
• Bohemianism, term referring to artists, writers, and disenchanted people who wished to live a non-traditional lifestyle — Bohemia, a region occupying the western and middle thirds of the Czech Republic
• Bombay duck, a kind of fish — Bombay, old name for Mumbai, coastal city in western India
• Brazilianization
• Broadway, street in New York City synonymous with Musical Theater
• Bronx Cheer, a noise made by the mouth to signify derision — The Bronx, a borough of New York City
• Brummagem, goods of shoddy quality — Birmingham, city in England
• Bungalow
• Byzantine
• Canary
• Carthaginian (peace)
• Caucasian, a white person – Caucasus Mountains
• Chautauqua
• China, pottery
• Chinese Wall
• Coach — the village Kocs in Hungary where this vehicle was first made
• Sent to Coventry
• Denim, from de Nîmes – Nimes, France
• Detroit, often used as shorthand for the American automobile industry
• Dijon
• Dixieland music — Dixie or "Dixies land", a nickname for the American South.
• Dollar
• Donnybrook
• Doolally
• Duffel, heavy woollen cloth — Duffel, a town in Belgium
• Eden (place of dubious existence)
• El Dorado
• Essex, 'common' or 'nouveau riche' sensibility — Essex, a county near London
• Fez, (also called tarboosh), a hat — Fez, a city in Morocco
• Finlandization
• Fleet Street
• Foggy Bottom, United States Department of State — Foggy Bottom neighborhood of Washington, D.C.
• Georgia, a font — Georgia (U.S. state)
• Gibraltar
• Greek, a language usage ("all Greek to me") — Greek language of Greece
• Gypsies, nomadic peoples in Europe and United States — Egypt
• Havana, cigar – from capital of Cuba
• Hell, usage in language — Hell, mythical place
• Hicksville
• Holland, cotton or linen fabric — Holland
• Hollywood, shorthand for the American film industry – Hollywood, district of Los Angeles, California
• Iliad (see Troy)
• Indian
• Java, slang for coffee – from island in Indonesia
• Jersey cattle (also tomato, milk, cream, jumper) — Jersey, one of the Channel Islands
• K Street, lobbying industry
• Labyrinth
• Left Bank, style of life, fashion, or "look" — "Left Bank", bank of the Seine which is to the left, near Paris
• Lesbian, homosexual — Lesbos, island in Greece
• Lilliputian, meaning very small sized — Lilliput, fictional island in the book Gulliver's Travels
• Madison Avenue, a metaphor for advertising — Madison Avenue, a street in New York
• Magenta, colour — Magenta, town in northern Italy
• Marathon, long race — Marathon, Greece, town
• Madras, lightweight cotton fabic — Madras, old name for Chennai, coastal city in southeastern India
• Main Street, name for a generic American community
• Manchester (as in textiles)
• Manila envelopes, Manila fiber — Manila, city in Philippines
• Marseillaise, national anthem of France — Marseille, city in France
• Masada
• Mausoleum, a large and impressive tomb — Mausoleum of Maussollos in Turkey
• Mecca, ultimate destination or activity center — Mecca, holy city in Saudi Arabia
• Mongoloid race — Mongolia, country in northern Asia
• Motown, R & B music – Detroit, Michigan (called the Motor City)
• Maus
• Neanderthal man, known by his fossils — Neanderthal, Germany, valley where the fossils were found
• Nuremberg Trials — Nuremberg, German city where the trials were held
• Olympics, worldwide games — Mount Olympus, tallest mountain in Greece
• Paisley (design), used in shawls — Paisley, Scotland
• Palookaville
• Peoria – symbolic of small-town America
• Peyton Place
• Quai d'Orsay, French Ministry of External Affairs
• the Rubicon, the point of no return — Rubicon (or Rubico), Latin name for a small river in northern Italy
• Rugby football — Rugby School, in Rugby, central England
• Seltzer (commercial name)
• Shambala
• Shanghai woman, English expression for a prostitute — Shanghai, China's largest city
• Shangri-La, a mythical utopia, a language usage — Shangri-La, fictional place in the novel Lost Horizon
• Siamese twins, conjoined twins — Siam, old name for Thailand
• Siberia, a remote undesirable location — Siberia, in eastern Russia
• Skid Row, originally Skid Road of Seattle, now the rundown area of a U.S. city
• Sodomy, forbidden sexual acts — Sodom, Biblical town on the plain of the Jordan River
• Solecism, incorrect or ungrammatical usage of language — Soli, ancient city on the island of Cyprus, where a dialect regarded as substandard was spoken
• Spa, place having water with health-giving properties — Spa, a municipality in Belgium
• Stalingrad
• Surrey, horse-drawn carriage — Surrey, southern England
• Timbuktu, metaphor for an exotic, distant land — Timbuktu, city on the Niger River in Mali, West Africa
• Tin Pan Alley
• Trojan horse, malicious computer virus — Trojan Horse, of Troy, from the Iliad
• Trojaned, as above.
• Utopia, term for organized society — Utopia, fictional republic from the book of the same name
• Wall Street, financial market — Wall Street, a narrow thoroughfare in lower Manhattan running east from Broadway downhill to the East River.
• Watergate, American political scandal and constitutional crisis of the 1970s — Watergate Office Building in Washington, D.C.
• Woodstock Festival, music and art festival held in August, 1969 — venue of the festival Woodstock, New York
• Xanadu, a symbol of opulence — Xanadu (or Shangdu), summer capital of Kublai Khan's empire
• Zion

Events/Agreements

• Beijing (China) - the Fourth World Conference on Women of 1994
• Cairo (Egypt) - the Cairo International Conference on Population and Development of 1994
• Copenhagen (Denmark) - the World Summit for Social Development of 1995
• Durban (South Africa) - the World Conference against Racism of 2001
• Geneva (Switzerland) - the Geneva Conventions, and the unofficial Geneva Accord negotiations of 2003
• Hiroshima (Japan) - the atomic bombing of Hiroshima in 1945
• Kyoto (Japan) - the Kyoto Protocol of 1997
• Maastricht (The Netherlands) - the Maastricht treaty of 1992
• Munich (Germany) - the Munich Agreement of 1938 and the Munich Massacre at the 1972 Summer Olympics
• My Lai (Vietnam) - the My Lai Massacre of 1968
• Oslo (Norway) - the Oslo Accords of 1993
• Potsdam (Germany) - the Potsdam Conference in 1945
• Rio de Janeiro (Brazil) - site of the Earth Summit, officially the United Nations Conference on Environment and Development (UNCED) of 1992
• Schengen (Luxembourg) - the Schengen treaty of 1985
• Seattle (Washington) - the WTO Meeting of 1999 in Seattle
• Yalta (Ukraine) - the Yalta Conference of 1945
• Warsaw (Poland) - the Warsaw Pact (1955 - 1991)
• Waterloo (Belgium) - the Battle of Waterloo in 1815

Food and Drink

• Bordeaux
• Brussels sprout
• Burgundy
• Cantaloupe (also called rockmelon), a variety of melon — Cantalupo, the Pope's summer residence
• Champagne
• Cognac
• Cuban, sub sandwich in Florida — Cuba, country in the Caribbean
• Danish, a sweet pastry — (in Denmark it is called wienerbrød, which means "bread from Vienna").
• Dunkirk spirit
• Frankfurter (or Wiener — from Vienna)
• Hamburger — Hamburg, Germany
• Hollandaise sauce — Holland
• Madeira wine, a fortified wine and Plum in madeira, a dessert — Madeira islands of Portugal
• Manhattan cocktail — Manhattan Club in New York City
• Mocha coffee, ice cream — Mocha, Yemen, place where the coffee is grown
• Peking Duck, a Chinese dish made of duck — Peking, old name for Beijing, China
• Port wine (or Porto), sweet fortified wine — Oporto, in northern Portugal
• Salisbury Steak — Salisbury, England
• Sardine, types of small fish — Sardinia, island in the Mediterranean near Italy
• Sherry wine, a mispronunciation of Jerez — Jerez de la Frontera, a city in southern Spain

Cheese

• American
• Aveyron(nais)
• Caerphilly
• Cheddar
• Cheshire
• Colby
• Derby
• Gloucester
• Gorgonzola
• Gouda
• Gruyere
• Lancashire
• Leicester
• Limburg(er)
• Monterey (Jacks)
• Munster
• Parme(san)
• Roma(no)
• Roquefort
• Stilton
• Swiss
• Tilsit
• Wensleydale

Elements

See: Chemical elements named after places

See also

• Lists of etymologies
• List of eponyms, names derived from people's names
• demonym