Riga

Meanings

1. The capital city of Latvia.

1. A surname.

Etymology

From Latvian Rīga, of disputed origin: * Possibly a form of Riege, the German name for the Rīdzene, a tributary of the Daugava river. * Possibly from rija (“threshing barn”), the j becoming a g in German (note that English geographer Richard Hakluyt calls the city Rie in 1589, and that German historian Dionysius Fabricius confirms in 1610 the origin of Rīga from rija).