Vienna - Name

Name

The English name Vienna is borrowed from the Italian name Vienna. "Vienna" and the official German name Wien, and the names of the city in most languages, are thought to be derived from the Celtic word "windo-", meaning bright or fair – as in the Irish "fionn" and the Welsh "gwyn" – but opinions vary on the precise origin. Some claim that the name comes from Vedunia, meaning "forest stream," which subsequently became Venia, Wienne and Wien. Others claim that the name comes from the Roman settlement of Celtic name Vindobona (Celtic "windo-bona"), probably meaning "white base/bottom ," which became Vindovina, Vídeň (Czech) and Wien.

The name of the city in Hungarian (Bécs), Bosnian, Croatian and Serbian (Beč) and Ottoman Turkish (Beç) appears to have a different, Slavonic origin, and originally referred to an Avar fort in the area. In Slovene, the city is called Dunaj, which in other Slavic languages means the Danube River, on which it is located.