If you’re anything like me, you may have grown up knowing the capital of Ukraine as Kiev, and found it confusing when news sources began calling it Kyiv. There are actually several different spellings, including Kyïv, Kyjiv, and Kyyiv, as well as the outdated versions Kiou, Kiow, Kiovia, Kiowia, Kiew, Kief, and Kieff. This confusion arose due to the lack of standardization in transliterating Ukrainian names into English. The use of Kiev became prevalent in the 1920s during the Soviet era when Russian was the dominant language. However, with Ukraine gaining independence, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs initiated a campaign to replace these Russian influences. This led to the formal name changes of cities in the 1990s, such as Odessa instead of Odesa, Lvov instead of Lviv, and Kharkov instead of Kharkiv. Western media gradually adopted the updated spellings, especially as Ukraine gained more attention on the world stage post-Russian invasion of Crimea and the ongoing conflict. Now, Kyiv is widely accepted as the correct spelling. Historically, Kyiv has been believed to be named after its mythical founder Kiy, but this origin story is likely more legend than fact, similar to the Romulus-Rome narrative. The actual meaning of the name is uncertain, possibly derived from a local word meaning “stick” or “club.”
