etymology: named for the Kabul River, but the river's name is of unknown origin

etymology: "Episkopi" means "episcopal" in Greek and stems from the fact that the site previously served as the bishop's seat of an Orthodox diocese

etymology: the name Tirana first appears in a 1418 Venetian document; the origin of the name is unclear, but may derive from Tirkan fortress, whose ruins survive on the slopes of Dajti mountain and which overlooks the city

etymology: name derives from the Arabic "al-Jazair" meaning "the islands" and refers to the four islands formerly off the coast but joined to the mainland since 1525

note: pronounced "pahn-go pahn-go"

etymology: translates as "Andorra the Old" in Catalan

etymology: originally named "Sao Paulo da Assuncao de Loanda" (Saint Paul of the Assumption of Loanda), which over time was shortened and corrupted to just Luanda

etymology: name derives from the capital's location between several hills

etymology: the name translates as "fair winds" in Spanish and derives from the original designation of the settlement that would become the present-day city, "Santa Maria del Buen Aire" (Saint Mary of the Fair Winds)

etymology: name likely derives from the ancient Urartian fortress of Erebuni established on the current site of Yerevan in 782 B.C. and whose impresive ruins still survive

etymology: translates as "orange town" in Dutch; the city is named after William I (1533-1584), Prince of Orange, the first ruler of the Netherlands

etymolgy: the name is claimed to derive from either Kambera or Camberry, which are names corrupted from the original native designation for the area "Nganbra" or "Nganbira"

note: Australia has four time zones, including Lord Howe Island (UTC+10:30)

etymology: the origin of the name is disputed but may derive from earlier settlements of the area; a Celtic town of Vedunia, established about 500 B.C., came under Roman dominance around 15 B.C. and became known as Vindobona; archeological remains of the latter survive at many sites in the center of Vienna

etymology: the name derives from the Persian designation of the city "bad-kube" meaning "wind-pounded city" and refers to the harsh winds and severe snow storms that can hit the city

note: at approximately 28 m below sea level, Baku's elevation makes it the lowest capital city in the world

etymology: named after William III (1650-1702), king of England, Scotland, and Ireland, who was a member of the House of Nassau

etymology: name derives from the Arabic "al-manama" meaning "place of rest" or "place of dreams"

etymology: the origins of the name are unclear, but some sources state that the city's site was originally called "dhakka," meaning "watchtower," and that the area served as a watch-station for Bengal rulers

etymology: named after a bridge constructed over the swampy area (known as the Careenage) around the Constitution River that flows through the center of Bridgetown

etymology: the origin of the name is disputed; Minsk may originally have been located 16 km to the southwest, on the banks of Menka River; remnants of a 10th-century settlement on the banks of the Menka have been found 

etymology: may derive from the Old Dutch "bruoc/broek," meaning "marsh" and "sella/zele/sel" signifying "home" to express the meaning "home in the marsh"

etymology: the decision to move the capital of the country inland to higher and more stable land was made in the 1960s; the name chosen for the new city was formed from the union of two words: "Belize," the name of the longest river in the country, and "Mopan," one of the rivers in the area of the new capital that empties into the Belize River

etymology: the name Porto-Novo is Portuguese for "new port"; Cotonou means "by the river of death" in the native Fon language

etymology: named after Henry HAMILTON (ca. 1734-1796) who served as governor of Bermuda from 1788-1794

etymology: La Paz is a shortening of the original name of the city, Nuestra Senora de La Paz (Our Lady of Peace); Sucre is named after Antonio Jose de Sucre (1795-1830), military hero in the independence struggle from Spain and the second president of Bolivia

note: at approximately 3,630 m above sea level, La Paz's elevation makes it the highest capital city in the world

etymology: the name derives from the Turkish noun "saray," meaning "palace" or "mansion," and the term "ova," signifying "plain(s)," to give a meaning of "palace plains" or "the plains about the palace"

etymology: named after Gaborone (ca. 1825-1931), a revered kgosi (chief) of the Tlokwa tribe, part of the larger Tswana ethnic group

note: Brazil has four time zones, including one for the Fernando de Noronha Islands

etymology: name bestowed on the new capital of Brazil upon its inauguration in 1960; previous Brazilian capitals had been Salvador from 1549 to 1763 and Rio de Janeiro from 1763 to 1960

etymology: name refers to the nautical term "roadstead" or "roads," a body of water less sheltered than a harbor but where where ships can lie reasonably safely at anchor sheltered from rip currents, spring tides, or ocean swells

etymology: named in 1970 after Sultan Omar Ali SAIFUDDIEN III (1914-1986; "The Father of Independence") who adopted the title of "Seri Begawan" (approximate meaning "honored lord") upon his abdication in 1967; "bandar" in Malay means "town" or "city"; the capital had previously been called Bandar Brunei (Brunei Town)

etymology: named after the Saint Sofia Church in the city, parts of which date back to the 4th century A.D.

etymology: Ouagadougou is a Francophone spelling of the native name "Wogodogo," meaning "where people get honor and respect"

etymology: Rangoon (Yangon) is a compound of "yan" signifying "enemies" and "koun" meaning "to run out of" and so denoting "End of Strife"; Nay Pyi Taw translates as: "Great City of the Sun" or "Abode of Kings"

etymology: the naming origins for both Gitega and Bujumbura are obscure; Bujumbura's name prior to independence in 1962 was Usumbura

etymology: the earlier Portuguese name was Villa de Praia ("Village of the Beach"); it became just Praia in 1974 (prior to full independence in 1975)

etymology: Phnom Penh translates as "Penh's Hill" in Khmer; the city takes its name from the present Wat Phnom (Hill Temple), the tallest religious structure in the city, whose establishment, according to legend, was inspired in the 14th century by a pious nun, Daun PENH

etymology: founded as a German colonial settlement of Jaunde in 1888 and named after the local Yaunde (Ewondo) people

etymology: the city lies on the south bank of the Ottawa River, from which it derives its name; the river name comes from the Algonquin word "adawe" meaning "to trade" and refers to the indigenous peoples who used the river as a trade highway

note: Canada has six time zones

etymology: named after English King George III (1760-1820)

etymology: established as a French settlement in 1889 and named after its location on the northern bank of the Ubangi River; the Ubangi itself was named from the native word for the "rapids" located beside the outpost, which marked the end of navigable water north from from Brazzaville

etymology: name taken from the Arab name of a nearby village, Nijamina, meaning "place of rest" 

etymology: Santiago is named after the biblical figure Saint James (ca. A.D. 3-44), patron saint of Spain, but especially revered in Galicia; "Santiago" derives from the local Galician evolution of the Vulgar Latin "Sanctu Iacobu"; Valparaiso derives from the Spanish "Valle Paraiso" meaning "Paradise Valley"

note: Chile has three time zones: the continental portion at UTC-3; the southern Magallanes region, which does not use daylight savings time and remains at UTC-3 for the summer months; and Easter Island at UTC-5

note: China is the largest country (in terms of area) with just one time zone; before 1949 it was divided into five

etymology: the Chinese meaning is "Northern Capital"

etymology: self-descriptive name for the main locus of population

etymology: originally referred to as "Bacata," meaning "enclosure outside of the farm fields," by the indigenous Muisca

etymology: Moroni derives from "mroni," which means "at the river" in Shingazidja, the Comorian language spoken on Grande Comore (N'gazidja)

etymology: founded as a trading post in 1881 and named Leopoldville in honor of King Leopold II of the Belgians, who controlled the Congo Free State, the vast central African territory that became the Democratic Republic of the Congo in 1960; in 1966, Leopoldville was renamed Kinshasa, after a village of that name that once stood near the site

note: the DRC has two time zones

etymology: named after the Italian-born French explorer and humanitarian, Pierre Savorgnan de BRAZZA (1852-1905), who promoted French colonial interests in central Africa and worked against slavery and the abuse of African laborers

etymology: translates as "two harbors" in Maori

etymology: named in honor of Saint Joseph

etymology: Yamoussoukro is named after Queen Yamoussou, who ruled in the village of N'Gokro in 1929 at the time of French colonization; the village was renamed Yamoussoukro, the suffix "-kro" meaning "town" in the native Baoule language; Abidjan's name supposedly comes from a misunderstanding; tradition states that an old man carrying branches met a European explorer who asked for the name of the nearest village; the man, not understanding and terrified by this unexpected encounter, fled  shouting "min-chan m’bidjan," which in the Ebrie language means: "I return from cutting leaves"; the explorer, thinking that his question had been answered, recorded the name of the locale as Abidjan; a different version has the first colonists asking native women the name of the place and getting a similar response

etymology: the name seems to be related to "digging"; archeologists suggest that the original settlement was established beyond a water-filled hole or "graba" and that the name derives from this; "za" in Slavic means "beyond"; the overall meaning may be "beyond the trench (fault, channel, ditch)"

etymology: the sites of Spanish colonial cities often retained their original Taino names; Habana, the Spanish name for the city, may be based on the name of a local Taino chief, Habaguanex

etymology - named after Prince William II of Orange (1626-1650), who served as stadtholder (Dutch head of state) from 1647 to 1650, shortly after the the Dutch captured Curacao from the Spanish in 1634

etymology: a mispronunciation of the city's Greek name Lefkosia and its Turkish name Lefkosa, both of which mean "White City"; the Greek name may derive from the Greek phrase "leuke ousia" ("white estate")

etymology: the name likely derives from an old Slavic root "praga" or "prah", meaning "ford", and refers to the city's origin at a crossing point of the Vltava (Moldau) River

etymology: name derives from the city's Danish appellation Kobenhavn, meaning "Merchant's Harbor"

etymology: "Episkopi" means "episcopal" in Greek and stems from the fact that the site previously served as the bishop's seat of an Orthodox diocese

etymology: the name is French for "reed"; the first settlement was named after the river reeds that grew in the area

etymology: named after Saint Dominic de Guzman (1170-1221), founder of the Dominican Order

etymology: named after the Quitus, a Pre-Columbian indigenous people credited with founding the city

note: Ecuador has two time zones, including the Galapagos Islands (UTC-6)

etymology: from the Arabic "al-Qahira," meaning "the victorious"

etymology: Spanish for "Holy Saviour" (referring to Jesus Christ)

etymology: named after Malabo Lopelo Melaka (1837–1937), the last king of the Bubi, the ethnic group indigenous to the island of Bioko

etymology: the name means "they [women] made them unite," which according to Tigrinya oral tradition refers to the women of the four clans in the Asmara area who persuaded their menfolk to unite and defeat their common enemy; the name has also been translated as "live in peace"

etymology: the Estonian name is generally believed to be derived from "Taani-linn" (originally meaning "Danish castle", now "Danish town") after a stronghold built in the area by the Danes; it could also have come from "tali-linn" ("winter castle" or "winter town") or "talu-linn" ("home castle" or "home town")

etymology: named after a Swati chief, Mbabane Kunene, who lived in the area at the onset of British settlement

etymology: the name in Amharic means "new flower" and was bestowed on the city in 1889, three years after its founding

note: the 28 European Union countries spread across three time zones; a proposal has been put forward to do away with daylight savings time in all EU countries

etymology: named after Edward Smith-Stanley (1799-1869), the 14th Earl of Derby, a British statesman and three-time prime minister of the UK who never visited the islands

etymology: the name may derive from the Swedish "helsing," an archaic name for "neck" ("hals"), and which may refer to a narrowing of the Vantaa River that flows into the Gulf of Finland at Helsinki; "fors" refers to "rapids," so "helsing fors" meaning becomes "the narrows' rapids"

note: applies to metropolitan France only; for its overseas regions the time difference is UTC-4 for Guadeloupe and Martinique, UTC-3 for French Guiana, UTC+3 for Mayotte, and UTC+4 for Reunion

etymology: name derives from the Parisii, a Celtic tribe that inhabited the area from the 3rd century B.C., but who were conquered by the Romans in the 1st century B.C.; the Celtic settlement became the Roman town of Lutetia Parisiorum (Lutetia of the Parisii); over subsequent centuries it became Parisium and then just Paris

etymology: the name means "water basket" and refers to the fact that the islanders originally used calabashes enclosed in baskets to fetch water at a spring in the area

etymology: original site settled by freed slaves and the name means "free town" in French; named in imitation of Freetown, the capital of Sierra Leone

etymology: Banjul is located on Saint Mary's Island at the mouth of the Gambia River; the Mandinka used to gather fibrous plants on the island for the manufacture of ropes; "bang julo" is Mandinka for "rope fiber"; mispronunciation over time caused the term became the word Banjul

etymology: the name in Georgian means "warm place," referring to the numerous sulfuric hot springs in the area

etymology: the origin of the name is unclear but may be related to the old West Slavic (Polabian) word "berl" or "birl," meaning "swamp"

etymology: the name derives from the Akan word "nkran" meaning "ants," and refers to the numerous anthills in the area around the capital

etymology: from the Spanish derivation of the Arabic "Jabal Tariq," which means "Mountain of Tariq" and which refers to the Rock of Gibraltar

etymology: according to tradition, the city is named after Athena, the Greek goddess of wisdom; in actuality, the appellation probably derives from a lost name in a pre-Hellenic language

note: Greenland has four time zones

etymology: "nuuk" is the Inuit word for "cape" and refers to the city's position at the end of the Nuup Kangerlua fjord

etymology: the 1763 Treaty of Paris transferred possession of Grenada from France to Great Britain; the new administration renamed Ville de Fort Royal (Fort Royal Town) to Saint George's Town, after the patron saint of England; eventually the name became simply Saint George's

etymology: the name is derived from the Chamoru word "haga," meaning "blood", and may refer to the bloodlines of the various families that established the original settlement

etymology: the Spanish conquistadors used many native Americans as allies in their conquest of Guatemala; the site of their first capital (established in 1524), a former Maya settlement, was called "Quauhtemallan" by their Nahuatl-speaking Mexican allies, a name that means "land of trees" or "forested land", but which the Spanish pronounced "Guatemala"; the Spanish applied that name to a re founded capital city three years later and eventually it became the name of the country

etymology: Saint Peter Port is the name of the town and its surrounding parish; the "port" distinguishes this parish from that of Saint Peter on the other side of the island

etymology: when the British took possession of the town from the Dutch in 1812, they renamed it Georgetown in honor of King George III

etymology: according to tradition, in 1706, a Captain de Saint-Andre named the bay and its surrounding area after his ship Le Prince; the name of the town that grew there means, "the Port of The Prince"

 

etymology: the Hungarian capital city was formed in 1873 from the merger of three cities on opposite banks of the Danube: Buda and Obuda (Old Buda) on the western shore and Pest on the eastern; the origins of the original names are obscure, but according to the second century A.D. geographer, Ptolemy, the settlement that would become Pest was called "Pession" in ancient times; "Buda" may derive from either a Slavic or Turkic personal name

etymology: the name means "smoky bay" in Icelandic and refers to the steamy, smoke-like vapors discharged by hot springs in the area

etymology: the city's name is associated with various myths and legends; the original name for the city may have been Dhilli or Dhillika; alternatively, the name could be a corruption of the Hindustani words "dehleez" or "dehali" - both terms meaning "threshold" or "gateway" - and indicative of the city as a gateway to the Gangetic Plain; after the British decided to move the capital of their Indian Empire from Calcutta to Delhi in 1911, they created a new governmental district south of the latter designated as New Delhi; the new capital was not formally inaugurated until 1931

note: Indonesia has three time zones

etymology: "Jakarta" derives from the Sanscrit "Jayakarta" meaning "victorious city" and refers to a successful defeat and expulsion of the Portuguese in 1527; previously the port had been named "Sunda Kelapa"

although the origin of the name is disputed, it likely has compound Persian roots with "bagh" and "dad" meaning "god" and "given" respectively to create the meaning of "bestowed by God"

etymology: derived from Irish "dubh" and "lind" meaning respectively "black, dark" and "pool" and which referred to the dark tidal pool where the River Poddle entered the River Liffey; today the area is the site of the castle gardens behind Dublin Castle

etymology: name derives from the Dhoo and Glass Rivers, which flow through the valley in which the town is located and which in Manx mean the "dark" and the "light" rivers respectively

etymology: Jerusalem's settlement may date back to 2800 B.C.; it is named Urushalim in Egyptian texts of the 14th century B.C.; "uru-shalim" likely means "foundation of [by] the god Shalim", and derives from Hebrew/Semitic "yry", "to found or lay a cornerstone", and Shalim, the Canaanite god of dusk and the nether world; Shalim was associated with sunset and peace and the name is based on the same S-L-M root from which Semitic words for "peace" are derived (Salam or Shalom in modern Arabic and Hebrew); this confluence has thus led to naming interpretations such as "The City of Peace" or "The Abode of Peace"

etymology: by tradition, named after Romulus, one of the legendary founders of the city and its first king

etymology: the name is a blending of the words "king's" and "town"; the English king at the time of the city's founding in 1692 was William III

etymology: originally known as Edo, meaning "estuary" in Japanese, the name was changed to Tokyo, meaning "eastern capital," in 1868

etymology: named after Saint Helier, the patron saint of Jersey, who was reputedly martyred on the island in A.D. 555

etymology: in the 13th century B.C., the Ammonites named their main city "Rabbath Ammon"; "rabbath" designated "capital" so the name meant "The Capital of [the] Ammon[ites]"; over time, the "Rabbath" came to be dropped and the city became known simply as "Ammon" and then "Amman"

note 1: Kazakhstan has two time zones

note 2: on 20 March 2019, Kazakhstan changed the name of its capital city from Astana to Nur-Sultan in honor of its long-serving, recently retired president, Nursultan NAZARBAYEV; this was not the first time the city had its name changed; founded in 1830 as Akmoly, it became Akmolinsk in 1832, Tselinograd in 1961, Akmola (Aqmola) in 1992, and Astana in 1998

etymology: the name derives from the Maasai expression meaning "cool waters" and refers to a cold water stream that flowed through the area in the late 19th century

note: Kiribati has three time zones: the Gilbert Islands group at UTC+12, the Phoenix Islands at UTC+13, and the Line Islands at UTC+14

etymology: in Kiribati creation mythology, "tarawa" was what the spider Nareau named the land to distinguish it from "karawa" (the sky) and "marawa" (the ocean)

note: on 5 May 2018, North Korea reverted to UTC+9, the same time zone as South Korea

etymology: the name translates as "flat land" in Korean

etymology: the name originates from the Korean word meaning "capital city" and which is believed to be derived from Seorabeol, the name of the capital of the ancient Korean Kingdom of Silla

etymology: the name may derive from a Proto-Slavic word reconstructed as "pryshchina," meaning "spring (of water)"

etymology: the name derives from Arabic "al-Kuwayt" a diminutive of "kut" meaning "fortress," possibly a reference to a small castle built on the current location of Kuwait City by the Beni Khaled tribe in the 17th century

etymology: founded in 1868 as a Russian settlement on the site of a previously destroyed fortress named "Pishpek"; the name was retained and overtime became "Bishkek"

etymology: the meaning in Pali, a Buddhist liturgical language, is "city of sandalwood"

etymology: of the several theories explaining the name's origin, the one relating to the city's role in Baltic and North Sea commerce is the most probable; the name is likely related to the Latvian word "rija," meaning "warehouse," where the 'j' became a 'g' under the heavy German influence in the city from the late Middle Ages to the early 20th century

etymology: derived from the Canaanite or Phoenician word "ber'ot," meaning "the wells" or "fountain," which referred to the site's accessible water table

etymology: in the Sesotho language the name means "[place of] red sandstones"

etymology: named after James Monroe (1758-1831), the fifth president of the United States and supporter of the colonization of Liberia by freed slaves; one of two national capitals named for a US president, the other is Washington, D.C.

etymology: originally founded by the Phoenicians as Oea in the 7th century B.C., the city changed rulers many times over the successive centuries; by the beginning of the 3rd century A.D. the region around the city was referred to as Regio Tripolitana by the Romans, meaning "region of the three cities" - namely Oea (i.e., modern Tripoli), Sabratha (to the west), and Leptis Magna (to the east); over time, the shortened name of "Tripoli" came to refer to just Oea, which derives from the Greek words "tria" and "polis" meaning "three cities"

etymology: may be a conflation from the Latin "vallis" (valley) and the High German "diutisk" (meaning "German") to produce "Valdutsch" (German valley), which over time simplified and came to refer specifically to Vaduz, the town

etymology: named after the Vilnia River, which flows into the Neris River at Vilnius; the river name derives from the Lithuanian word "vilnis" meaning "a surge"

etymology: the name derives from the Celtic "lucilem" (little) and the German "burg" (castle or fortress) to produce the meaning of the "little castle"; the name is actually ironic, since for centuries the Fortress of Luxembourg was one of Europe's most formidable fortifications; the name passed to the city that grew around the fortress

etymology: the name, which means "City of the Thousand," was bestowed by 17th century King Adrianjakaking to honor the soldiers assigned to guard the city

etymology: named after the Lilongwe River that flows through the city

etymology: the Malay word for "river junction or estuary" is "kuala" and "lumpur" means "mud"; together the words render the meaning of "muddy confluence"

etymology: derived from the Sanskrit word "mahaalay" meaning "big house"

etymology: the name in the Bambara language can mean either "crocodile tail" or "crocodile river" and three crocodiles appear on the city seal

etymology: named in honor of Jean de Valette, the Grand Master of the Order of Saint John (crusader knights), who successfully led a defense of the island from an Ottoman invasion in 1565

etymology: may derive from the Berber "nawakshut" meaning "place of the winds"

etymology: named after Louis XV, who was king of France in 1736 when the port became the administrative center of Mauritius and a major reprovisioning stop for French ships traveling between Europe and Asia

note: Mexico has four time zones

etymology: named after the Mexica, the largest and most powerful branch of the Aztecs; the meaning of the name is uncertain

note: Micronesia has two time zones

note: pronounced KEE-shee-now (KIH-shi-nyov)

etymology: origin unclear but may derive from the archaic Romanian word "chisla" ("spring" or "water source") and "noua" ("new") because the original settlement was built at the site of a small spring

note: Mongolia has two time zones - Ulaanbaatar Time (8 hours in advance of UTC) and Hovd Time (7 hours in advance of UTC)

etymology: the name means "red hero" in Mongolian and honors national hero Damdin Sukhbaatar, leader of the partisan army that with Soviet Red Army help, liberated Mongolia from Chinese occupation in the early 1920s

etymology: the name translates as "beneath Gorica"; the meaning of Gorica is "hillock"; the reference is to the small hill named Gorica that the city is built around

etymology and note: now entirely deserted because of volcanic activity, the city was originally named after Plymouth, England; de jure, Plymouth remains the capital city of Montserrat; it is therefore the only ghost town that serves as the capital of a political entity

etymology: name derives from the Arabic title "Ribat el-Fath," meaning "stronghold of victory," applied to the newly constructed citadel in 1170

etymology: reputedly named after the Maputo River, which drains into Maputo Bay south of the city

etymology: may derive from the Afrikaans word "wind-hoek" meaning "windy corner"

etymology: name derives from the Kasthamandap temple that stood in Durbar Square; in Sanskrit, "kastha" means "wood" and "mandapa" means "pavilion"; the three-story structure was made entirely of wood, without iron nails or supports, and dated to the late 16th century; it collapsed during a 2015 earthquake

note: time descriptions apply to the continental Netherlands only, for the constituent countries in the Caribbean, the time difference is UTC-4

etymology: the original Dutch name, Amstellerdam, meaning "a dam on the Amstel River," dates to the 13th century; over time the name simplified to Amsterdam

note: New Zealand has two time zones: New Zealand standard time (UTC+12) and Chatham Islands time (45 minutes in advance of New Zealand standard time; UTC+12:45)

etymology: named in 1840 after Arthur Wellesley, the first Duke of Wellington and victorious general at the Battle of Waterloo

etymology: may derive from the indigenous Nahuatl term "mana-ahuac," which translates as "adjacent to the water" or a site "surrounded by water"; the city is situated on the southwestern shore of Lake Managua

etymology: Abuja is a planned capital city, it replaced Lagos in 1991; situated in the center of the country, Abuja takes its name from a nearby town, now renamed Suleja

etymology: the name is a blending of the words "king's" and "town"; the British king at the time of the town's settlement in the late 18th century was George III

etymology: Skopje derives from its ancient name Scupi, the Latin designation of a classical era Greco-Roman frontier fortress town; the name may go back even further to a pre-Greek, Illyrian name

etymology: the medieval name was spelt "Aslo"; the "as" component refered either to the Ekeberg ridge southeast of the town ("as" in modern Norwegian), or to the Aesir (Norse gods); "lo" refered to "meadow," so the most likely interpretations would have been either "the meadow beneath the ridge" or "the meadow of the gods"; both explanations are considered equally plausible

etymology: the name, whose meaning is uncertain, traces back almost two millennia; two 2nd century A.D. scholars, the geographer Ptolemy and the historian Arrian, both mention an Arabian Sea coastal town of Moscha, which most likely referred to Muscat

etymology: derived from two words: "Islam," an Urdu word referring to the religion of Islam, and "-abad," a Persian suffix indicating an "inhabited place" or "city," to render the meaning "City of Islam"

etymology: the Palauan meaning is "place of fermented 'mud'" ('mud' being the native name for the keyhole angelfish); the site of the new capitol (established in 2006) had been a large hill overlooking the ocean, Ngerulmud, on which women would communally gather to offer fermented angelfish to the gods

etymology: according to tradition, the name derives from a former fishing area near the present capital - an indigenous village and its adjacent beach - that were called "Panama" meaning "an abundance of fish"

note: Papua New Guinea has two time zones, including Bougainville (UTC+11)

etymology: named in 1873 by Captain John Moresby (1830-1922) in honor of his father, British Admiral Sir Fairfax Moresby (1786-1877)

etymology: the name means "assumption" and derives from the original name given to the city at its founding in 1537, Nuestra Senora Santa Maria de la Asuncion (Our Lady Saint Mary of the Assumption)

etymology: the word "Lima" derives from the Spanish pronunciation of "Limaq," the native name for the valley in which the city was founded in 1535; "limaq" means "talker" in coastal Quechua and referred to an oracle that was situated in the valley but which was eventually destroyed by the Spanish and replaced with a church

etymology: derives from the Tagalog "may-nila" meaning "where there is indigo" and refers to the presence of indigo-yielding plants growing in the area surrounding the original settlement

etymology: named after John Adams (1767–1829), the last survivor of the Bounty mutineers who settled on Pitcairn Island in January 1790

etymology: the origin of the name is unknown; the Polish designation "Warszawa" was the name of a fishing village and several legends/traditions link the city's founding to a man named Wars or Warsz

note: Portugal has two time zones, including the Azores (UTC-1)

etymology: Lisbon is one of Europe's oldest cities (the second oldest capital city after Athens) and the origin of the name is lost in time; it may have been founded as an ancient Celtic settlement that subsequently maintained close commercial relations with the Phoenicians (beginning about 1200 B.C.); the name of the settlement may have been derived from the pre-Roman appellation for the Tagus River that runs through the city, Lisso or Lucio; the Romans named the city "Olisippo" when they took it from the Carthaginians in 205 B.C.; under the Visigoths the city name became "Ulixbona," under the Arabs it was "al-Ushbuna"; the medieval version of "Lissabona" became today's Lisboa

etymology: the name dates to 1521 and the founding of the city under the name "Ciudad de San Juan Bautista de Puerto Rico" (City of Saint John the Baptist of Puerto Rico)

etymology: derives from the Arabic term "dohat," meaning "roundness," and refers to the small rounded bays along the area's coastline

etymology: related to the Romanian word "bucura" that is believed to be of Dacian origin and whose meaning is "to be glad (happy)"; Bucharest's meaning is thus akin to "city of joy"

note: Russia has 11 time zones, the largest number of contiguous time zones of any country in the world; in 2014, two time zones were added and DST dropped

etymology: named after the Moskva River; the origin of the river's name is obscure but may derive from the appellation "Mustajoki" given to the river by the Finno-Ugric people who originally inhabited the area and whose meaning may have been "dark" or "turbid"

etymology: the city takes its name from nearby Mount Kigali; the name "Kigali" is composed of the Bantu prefix "ki" and the Rwandan "gali" meaning "broad" and likely refers to the broad, sprawling hill that has been dignified with the title of "mount"

etymology: named in honor of King Gustav III (1746-1792) of Sweden during whose reign the island was obtained from France in 1784; the name was retained when in 1878 the island was sold back to France

etymology: founded in 1659 and named after James, Duke of York, who would become King James II of England (r. 1785-1788)

etymology: the French name translates as "low land" in English; the reference is to the city's low-lying location within a valley, as well as to the fact that the city is on the leeward (downwind) part of the island, and is thus a safe anchorage

etymology: in 1785, the village of Carenage was renamed Castries, after Charles Eugene Gabriel de La Croix de Castries (1727-1801), who was then the French Minister of the Navy and Colonies

etymology: named after Saint Peter, the patron saint of fisherman

etymology: name derives from the native village around which the capital was constructed in the 1850s; the village still exists within the larger modern capital

etymology: named after Saint MARINUS, who in A.D. 301 founded a monastic settlement around which the city and later the state of San Marino coalesced

etymology: named after Saint Thomas the Apostle

etymology: the name derives from the Arabic word "riyadh," meaning "gardens," and refers to various oasis towns in the area that merged to form the city

etymology: the Atlantic coast trading settlement of Ndakaaru came to be called "Dakar" by French colonialists

etymology: the Serbian "Beograd" means "white fortress" or "white city" and dates back to the 9th century; the name derives from the white fortress wall that once enclosed the city

etymology: founded as L'etablissement in 1778 by French colonists, the town was renamed in 1841 by the British after Queen Victoria (1819-1901); "victoria" is the Latin word for "victory"

etymology: name derived from the fact that the original settlement served as a haven for free-born and freed African Americans, as well as for liberated Africans rescued from slave ships

etymology: name derives from the Sanskrit words "simha" (lion) and "pura" (city), thus creating the city's epithet "lion city"

etymology: founded and named in 1763 by John PHILIPS, a Scottish captain in the Dutch navy

etymology: "slava" means glory, so the city's name literally means "Braslav's glory"; Braslav was a ninth century Slavic duke

etymology: by tradition, the name is related to the Slovene word "ljubljena" meaning "beloved"

etymology: the name derives from "nagho ni ara," which in one of the Guadalcanal languages roughly translates as "facing the eastern wind"

etymology: several theories attempt to explain the city's name; one of the more plausible is that it derives from "maq'ad-i-shah" meaning "the seat of the shah," reflecting the city's links with Persia

etymology: Pretoria is named in honor of Andries PRETORIUS, the father of voortrekker (pioneer) leader Marthinus PRETORIUS; Cape Town reflects its location on the Cape of Good Hope; Bloemfontein is a combination of the Dutch words "bloem" (flower) and "fontein" (fountain) meaning "fountain of flowers"

etymology: the name derives from Djouba, another name for the Bari people of South Sudan

note: Spain has two time zones, including the Canary Islands (UTC 0)

etymology: the Romans named the original settlement "Matrice" after the river that ran through it; under Arab rule it became "Majerit," meaning "source of water"; in medieval Romance dialects (Mozarabic) it became "Matrit," which over time changed to "Madrid"

etymology: Colombo may derive from the Sinhala "kolon thota," meaning "port on the river" (referring to the Kelani River that empties into the Indian Ocean at Colombo); alternatively, the name may derive from the Sinhala "kola amba thota" meaning "harbor with mango trees"; it is also possible that the Portuguese named the city after Christopher COLUMBUS, who lived in Portugal for many years (as Cristovao COLOMBO) before discovering the Americas for the Spanish crown in 1492 - not long before the Portuguese made their way to Sri Lanka in 1505; Sri Jayewardenepura Kotte translates as "Resplendent City of Growing Victory" in Sinhala

etymology: several explanations of the name exist; two of the more plausible are that it is derived from Arabic "al-jartum" meaning "elephant's trunk" or "hose," and likely referring to the narrow strip of land extending between the Blue and White Niles; alternatively, the name could derive from the Dinka words "khar-tuom," indicating a "place where rivers meet"

etymology: the name may be the corruption of a Carib (Kalina) village or tribe named Parmirbo

etymology: the name in Norwegian means Longyear Town; the site was established by and named after John LONGYEAR, whose Arctic Coal Company began mining operations there in 1906

etymology: "stock" and "holm" literally mean "log" and "islet" in Swedish, but there is no consensus as to what the words refer to

etymology: origin of the name is uncertain, but may derive from a 2nd century B.C. Celtic place name, possibly "berna" meaning "cleft," that was subsequently adopted by a Roman settlement  

etymology: Damascus is a very old city; its earliest name, Temeseq, first appears in an Egyptian geographical list of the 15th century B.C., but the meaning is uncertain

etymology: the Chinese meaning is "Northern Taiwan," reflecting the city's position in the far north of the island

etymology: today's city was originally at the crossroads where a large bazaar occurred on Mondays, hence the name Dushanbe, which in Persian means Monday, i.e., the second day (du) after Saturday (shambe)

etymology: Dar es Salaam was the name given by Majid bin Said, the first sultan of Zanzibar, to the new city he founded on the Indian Ocean coast; the Arabic name is commonly translated as "abode/home of peace"; Dodoma, in the native Gogo language, means "it has sunk"; supposedly, one day during the rainy season, an elephant drowned in the area; the villagers in that place were so struck by what had occurred, that ever since the locale has been referred to as the place where "it (the elephant) sunk"

etymology: Bangkok was likely originally a colloquial name, but one that was widely adopted by foreign visitors; the name may derive from "bang ko," where "bang" is the Thai word for "village on a stream" and "ko" means "island," both referencing the area's landscape, which was carved by rivers and canals; alternatively, the name may come from "bang makok," where "makok" is the name of the Java plum, a plant bearing olive-like fruit; this possibility is supported by the former name of Wat Arun, a historic temple in the area, that used to be called Wat Makok;

Krung Thep, the city's Thai name, means "City of the Deity" and is a shortening of the full ceremonial name: Krungthepmahanakhon Amonrattanakosin Mahintharayutthaya Mahadilokphop Noppharatratchathaniburirom Udomratchaniwetmahasathan Amonphimanawatansathit Sakkathattiyawitsanukamprasit; translated the meaning is: City of angels, great city of immortals, magnificent city of the nine gems, seat of the king, city of royal palaces, home of gods incarnate, erected by Vishvakarman at Indra's behest; it holds the world's record as the longest place name (168 letters)

etymology: Lome comes from "alotime" which in the native Ewe language means "among the alo plants"; alo trees dominated the city's original founding site

etymology: composed of the words "nuku," meaning "residence or abode," and "alofa," meaning "love," to signify "abode of love"

etymology: the name dates to the period of Spanish colonial rule (16th to late 18th centuries) when the city was referred to as "Puerto de Espana"; the name was anglicized following the British capture of Trinidad in 1797

etymology: three possibilities exist for the derivation of the name; originally a Berber settlement (earliest reference 4th century B.C.), the strategic site fell to the Carthaginians (Phoenicians) and the city could be named after the Punic goddess Tanit, since many ancient cities were named after patron deities; alternatively, the Berber root word "ens," which means "to lie down" or "to pass the night," may indicate that the site was originally a camp or rest stop; finally, the name may be the same as the city of Tynes, mentioned in the writings of some ancient authors

etymology: Ankara has been linked with a second millennium B.C. Hittite cult center of Ankuwash, although this connection is uncertain; in classical and medieval times, the city was known as Ankyra (meaning "anchor" in Greek and reflecting the city's position as a junction for multiple trade and military routes); by about the 13th century the city began to be referred to as Angora; following the establishment of the Republic of Turkey in 1923, the city's name became Ankara

etymology: derived from the Persian words "eshq" meaning "love" and "abad" meaning "inhabited place" or "city," and so loosely translates as "the city of love" 

note: pronounced KAY-yiv

etymology: the name is associated with that of Kyi, who along with his brothers Shchek and Khoryv, and their sister Lybid, are the legendary founders of the medieval city of Kyiv; Kyi being the eldest brother, the city was named after him

note: applies to the United Kingdom proper, not to its crown dependencies or overseas territories

note: the 50 United States cover six time zones

etymology: named after George Washington (1732-1799), the first president of the United States

note 1: in some instances, the time zones pertain to portions of a country that lie overseas

note 2: in 1851, the British set their prime meridian (0° longitude) through the Royal Observatory at Greenwich, England; this meridian became the international standard in 1884 and thus the basis for the standard time zones of the world; today, GMT is officially known as Coordinated Universal Time (UTC) and is also referred to as "Zulu time"; UTC is the basis for all civil time, with the world divided into time zones expressed as positive or negative differences from UTC

note 3: each time zone is based on 15° starting from the prime meridian; in theory, there are 24 time zones based on the solar day, but there are now upward of 40 because of fractional hour offsets that adjust for various political and physical geographic realities; see the Standard Time Zones of the World map included with the Reference Maps