Ainu place names (toponyms)

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About 80% of the place names (toponyms) in Hokkaido are derived from Ainu language. But like in many other cases of colonization, also the Japanese colonizers in Hokkaido changed the Ainu toponyms as they wished and the origin of the place names was blurred and distorted: Some of the Ainu names were translated into Japanese, some were changed to new Japanese names and some of the Ainu names were assigned to wrong places (eg. two mountains in Sapporo, Inkaruspe and Moywa, are known today in Japanese as Moiwayama and Maruyama respectively).

Here you can find the place names for major cities and towns in Hokkaido with their original Ainu names and explanation for the names. There is also a list of common elements that can be found in the Ainu place names.

The original Ainu names of cities and towns in Hokkaido

Here are the names of the capitals of Hokkaido's subprefectures in Ainu:

• Satporopet — Sapporo (札幌/さっぽろ) — from sat 'dry' poro 'big' pet 'river': dry big river. Refers to the Toyohira river flowing through Sapporo.

• Kucan — Kutchan (倶知安/くっちゃん) — from kut 'tube' san 'to go down' (i 'place') : a place where the river flows down through a tube-shaped place (there isn't, however, such a place to be seen) 

• Setanay — Setana (瀬棚/せたな) — from seta 'dog' nay 'river; creek; swamp'.

• Uskes — Hakodate (函館/はこだて) — from us 'inlet' kes 'tip; point'. There is also an explanation that the Japanese name comes from hakcasi (hak 'low; small' casi 'fortress'), which could explain the Japanese name better.

• Morueran — Muroran (室蘭/むろらん) — from mo 'small' ru 'path; road' eran 'to come down from': the place where a small road descends.

• Uraka — Urakawa (浦河/うらかわ) — from uraka 'intestines': there was a place where fishers would go and gut their catch resulting to a large pile of intestines. (Another, not so graphic explanation the Urakawa town likes to promote on it's webpage is that the name comes from urar 'fog' pet 'river')

• Operperkep — Obihiro (帯広/おびひろ) — from o 'crotch; genital area; buttocks' perperke 'to be cracked in several places; to have many torn places' p 'person; thing': one of the Ainu words meaning 'girl' is operkep 'the one who has slit down there'. The name of Operperkep is formed by reduplicating the verb perke into a perperke 'to be cracked in several places; to have many torn places'. The word p 'person; thing' refers in this case to the Obihiro river. So, it's the river that has a buttocks with many cracks, that is, the river Obihiro is divided into several smaller rivers at the mouth of the river. Ainu see rivers as things that climb up from the ocean to the mountains, so the place we call the mouth of the river, is the buttocks of the river for Ainu.

• Kusur — Kushiro (釧路/くしろ) — many explanations, possibly from kus 'to pass' ru 'path; road'; OR kut 'throat' caro 'mouth': a mouth (caro) where the lake water is flowing in (like into a kut 'throat').

• Nimuoro — Nemuro (根室/ねむろ) — many explanations, possibly from ni 'tree' mu 'to block' oro 'place': a place that is blocked with trees = a place where threes thrive; OR ni 'tree' moy 'bay': bay of trees.

• Cipasir — Abashiri (網走/あばしり) — many explanations, possibly from ci- 'we' pa 'to find' sir 'land formation': a place we found; OR apa 'to leak' siri 'land formation': leaking place (there is a cave and the water is dripping down from its ceiling)

• Cukpet — Asahikawa (旭川/あさひかわ) — from cuk 'autumn' pet 'river': autumn river. The Japanese word 'asahi' means 'morning sun' and 'kawa' means 'river'. The Ainu word for 'sun' is cup, not cuk 'autumn'. The unreleased consonants at the end of Ainu syllables are usually difficult for Japanese speakers to hear, to the name is probably based on mishearing the name of Cukpet.

• Namwakkanay — Wakkanai (稚内/わっかない) — from nam 'cold' wakka 'water' nay 'river; creek; swamp': a swamp with cold water.

• Rurmootpe — Rumoi (留萌/るもい) — from rur 'salty water' mo 'gently' ot 'to enter' pe 'thing (= river)': a river in which the salty water gently rises = The tide rises into the mouth of the river.

• Ikusunpet emko — Iwamizawa (岩見沢/いわみざわ) — from ikusun 'on the other side' pet 'river' emko 'upstream of': upstream of the river on the other side.

Cukpet/Asahikawa is an example of translating the Ainu name in Japanese. Some other examples are Tanneto/Naganuma, Poroto/Oonuma & Ponto/Onuma.

Uskes/Hakodate is an example of Japanese name replacing the original Ainu name. Some other place names that have replaced Ainu names are Shinhidaka, Kitami, and Matsumae

There are some cities that are not originally named by Ainu at all, because there wasn't anything significant before the settlers built the city. For example, the aforementioned Iwamizawa (岩見沢/いわみざわ) is a Japanese settlement and the name is not based on the Ainu language. However, when the trilingual weather forecast was made for Minapa plaza (Ainu themed plaza above Sapporo subway station), a name for the city was created based on traditional Ainu knowledge of the topological features of the place.

Other Ainu place names

Coming later... (Esashi, Otaru, Tomakomai, Niseko)

Common elements that can be found in Ainu place names

More coming later...

From the Japanese form → to Ainu

betsu → pet — river — Ex. Poropet (Horobetsu); Mopet (Monbetsu); (Ebetsu); Satporopet (Sapporo)

nai → nay — river; creek; swamp — Ex. Namwakkanay (Wakkanai), Iwanay (Iwanai)

mo/mu → mo — small; gentle — Ex. Morueran (Muroran); Moywa (Moiwa); Rurmootpe (Rumoi); Mopet (Monbetsu)

horo → poro — big; large — Ex. Satporopet (Sapporo); Poronay (Horonai); (Urahoro)

ushi → us(i) — (a place with) many; a lot of — Ex. 

ro/ru → ru — road; path — Ex. Morueran (Muroran)

mako → mak — in the depths of; deep inside— Ex. (Makomanai); (Tomakomanai)

to → to — lake; pond — Ex. Toya (Toya); Onneto (Onneto); 

ya → ya — shore — Ex. Toya (Toya)

moi → moy — inlet — Ex. Otamoy (Otamoi)

ota→ ota — sand; sandy beach — Ex. Otarunay (Otaru); Otamoy (Otamoi); Otanoski (Otanoske)

iwa → iwa — cliff — Ex. Moywa (Moiwa)

onne → onne — old; parent; large — Ex. 

fushiko → husko — old — Ex. 

 →  —  — Ex. 

https://www.nextftp.com/namadeko/ainu1.htm

Created on 2023/2/14, Latest update on 2024/8/28