In 1961, Stalinabad, Tajikistan, was renamed Dushanbe, which comes from the Persian word for Monday, the city's historical bazaar day. Before the renaming, the Tajik capital was named for Joseph Stalin, as the country was then part of the U.S.S.R. That finally ended in 1991 with the union's dissolution, and Dushanbe became the capital of a newly independent nation.

Ethiopia's capital city of Addis Ababa means "New Flower" in the country's Amharic language. It was founded in 1887 by Ethiopian Emperor Menilek II and was named by his wife, Empress Taitu. Today, it is the largest city in the country and one of the top 10 largest cities in Africa. It is known for its vibrant fashion and arts culture and has been called "the political capital of Africa."

Paris was founded around 250 BCE, when the Parisii tribe, a group of Gallic people, settled on the island known today as the L’île de la Cité, in the Seine River. Julius Caesar and the Romans were in charge by 52 BCE, and named the settlement Lutetia. In 987 CE, the quickly growing city was re-named Paris and became the capital of France.

Bolivia has two capital cities. The constitutional capital and home of the Bolivian Supreme Court is Sucre, which is named for Antonio José de Sucre, a Latin American liberator and Bolivia's first president. The country's other capital is La Paz, which translates simply to “Peace.” La Paz houses the national government's executive and legislative branches.

The earliest inhabitants of Ottawa, Canada’s capital, were the Algonquin peoples. The name Ottawa itself comes from an Algonquin word meaning “to trade.” It’s a fitting name for the city, considering its strategic location on the banks of the Ottawa River, the principal tributary to the St. Lawrence River, which connects the Great Lakes to the Atlantic Ocean.

Bloemfontein, South Africa's judicial capital city, lies on a high plateau and features beautiful sprawling hills. The city is known for its natural and human-made landscapes, including the 300-acre King's Park and the Franklin Game Reserve. Its nickname is the "city of roses," and in Afrikaans its name means "fountain of flowers" because of the abundance of roses that grow in the area.

Reykjavik, Iceland, was founded in 874 CE by the Norse explorer Ingólfur Arnarson. The site was chosen, in part, for the geothermal pools which gave residents easy access to hot water for bathing and washing clothes. The natural hot springs of the area also gave the city its name, which refers to the steam from the magma-heated pools.

The Australian city of Darwin gets its name from its nearby harbor, which was discovered by John Stokes, surveyor aboard the HMS Beagle, in 1839. That ship was the same one Charles Darwin took on his journeys to South America and beyond while studying his theories of natural selection. In his honor, Stokes named the harbor Port Darwin, and the capital of Australia's Northern Territory followed suit.

As the story goes, the Spanish sailor who established the first port of Buenos Aires in the 16th century gave it its name because it was southern enough to avoid a strain of marshland mosquitoes. The mosquitoes carry malaria, whose name is derived from "mal aire" or "bad air.” Thus, without them, the city was blessed with "Good Air” or "Fair Winds” — or “Buenos Aires” in Spanish.

According to myth, both Poseidon and Athena wanted to become the patron of the would-be capital of Greece, so they had a contest. Poseidon, god of water and the sea, gave a spring of water, but the city's citizens found it too salty. Athena, the goddess of wisdom, planted the world's first olive tree, which the citizens loved for its many uses. So Athens was named in her honor.