Etymology and Other Names
The name of the city originated from the Vilnia River. The name of the river derives from the Lithuanian language word vilnis ("a surge") or vilnyti ("to surge"). The city has also been known by many derivate spellings in various languages throughout its history. The most notable non-Lithuanian names for the city include: Polish: Wilno, Belarusian: Вiльнюс, Вiльня, German: Wilna, Latvian: Viļņa, Russian: Вильнюс, Yiddish: ווילנע (Vilne), Czech: Vilno. An older Russian name was Вильна / Вильно (Vilna/Vilno), although Вильнюс (Vilnius) is now used. The names Wilno, Wilna and Vilna have also been used in older English, German, French and Italian language publications when the city was part of Poland. The name Vilna is still used in Finnish, Portuguese, Spanish, and Hebrew. Wilna is still used in German, along with Vilnius.
The neighbourhoods of Vilnius have also names in other languages.
Read more about this topic: Wilno
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