The Origins of Bern

-"Why is "rhinoceros" called so?" -"Because it looks like one!"

Hubris, Christianity, topography, socioeconomic realities, explorations and many other factors have resulted in a multitude of "rhinoceros cities" in the world. In 753 AD Prince Romulus found a town and called it after himself (likely, without thinking twice). Russian Petersburg and Egyptian Alexandria were born in a very similar way. German Karlsruhe ("Charles' rest") put a creative spin on this type of naming cities, as it referred not just to a ruler but to a particular dream that prompted that ruler to found a city... Christian saints were in no position to name cities but they did have plenty of followers, many of them quite influential. As a result, "saint cities" mushroomed all over the map, from San Sebastian in Spain to Santiago and San-Jose (with Santa Clara as its suburb) on the American continent. Throughout history, settlements were built next to waterways - to grow into towns and cities. The Frankish people built two such settlements close to fords - one on the Main River, the other on the Oder. When Germanic tribes took over the area, they slightly adjusted the names - so now there are both Frankfurt am Main and Frankfurt am Oder. Some other towns started their life as fortifications. When one of newly built castles eventually became a town, it retained its name of "Newcastle". Sailing into unknown turned out to be particularly fertile ground for town-naming, and it provided both vibrant, easy-to-remember names, and great stories. A sailor, overjoyed to spot land after many weeks on the ocean, cries out "I see a mountain!", and Uruguay's capital Montevideo appears on the map. Another explorer arrives at what he took for a mouth of a river on January 1, 1502 - and celebrates the end of his journey (and the New Year) by naming the place Rio-de-Janeiro ( "the River of January"). A group of seamen, impressed with the air quality at the place of their landing, turns "good air" (Buenos-Aires) into a name, providing for the future capital of Argentina. As most medieval explorers were devoted Christians, they found ways to promote Christianity through toponyms, even without directly referring to a saint. Paraguay's Asuncion, implying Virgin Mary's bodily ascension into Heaven, is one such example - and the list goes on and on... 

While there are plenty of cities with self-explanatory names, many other cases are much more obscure, sometimes even as mysterious as Gioconda's smile. Indigenous city names allowing for multiple interpretations (go figure that "Toronto" might mean "a meeting point" or "a place where trees grow"!), mythical rulers rather than historical ones (London is said to be named after King Lud that had likely never existed), animals sharing their species' names with towns... The latter case is, arguably, the most interesting one because of the scope of possibilities it offers. For instance, Wolfsburg in Germany could have been named after actual animals but is, in fact, referring to a noble whose coat of arms featured a heraldic wolf. The origins of Bern are even more unusual. Unsurprisingly, the word means "bear" in Old Germanic but this time the animal ended up on the ruler's (Duke Berthold's) coat of arms after it had lent its species' name to the town. The Duke was struggling to choose a name for his newly-founded town - so, he decided to name it after the very first animal he would spot during his hunting. In other words, the choice was completely incidental, and it determined not only the town's name but also its personality for centuries to come - from toponomy to attractions and public transport..