Toponymy
The name Almaty has its roots in medieval settlement Almatu, that existed near the present-day city.
However there is also a common misconception that the city derives its name from the Kazakh word for 'apple' (алма), and thus is often translated as "full of apples;" alma is also 'apple' in other Turkic languages, as well as in Hungarian and Mongolian. The older Soviet-era Russian version of its name - Alma-Ata. Which was often mistakenly perceived by non-native Kazakh speakers as a combination of two Kazakh words, literally Apple-Father, or more loosely Father of Apples.
There is great genetic diversity among the wild apples in the region surrounding Almaty; the region is thought to be the ancestral home of the apple, and the wild Malus sieversii is considered a likely candidate for the ancestor of the modern domestic apple, which explains the "Alma Ata" name. The area is often visited by researchers and scientists from around the world in order to learn more about the complex system of genetics, and also to discover the true origin of the domestic apple.
Read more about this topic: Almaty