Ukraine
Most of Ukraine's oblasts take their names from their principal city; but Volyn Oblast, Zakarpattia Oblast, and the Crimean Autonomous Republic offer exceptions to this rule. See also subdivisions of Ukraine.
- Cherkasy Oblast: from the city Cherkasy, presumably the city's name derived from Circassians according to Giovanni da Pian del Carpine, Vasiliy Tatishchev, and Aleksandr Rigelman.
- Chernihiv Oblast: from the city Chernihiv
- Chernivtsi Oblast: from the city Chernivtsi
- Crimea: from the Crimean Tatar name: Qırım
- Dnipropetrovsk Oblast: from the city Dnipropetrovsk (renamed in 1926 after Dnipro (Dnieper river) and the Soviet Ukraine 's head of state, the Bolshevik Grigory Ivanovich Petrovsky)
- Donetsk Oblast: from the city Donetsk, after the Donets river. Donetsk forms a diminutive and tributary of the Don.
- Ivano-Frankivsk Oblast: from the city Ivano-Frankivsk, renamed (from Stanyslaviv) after the famous Ukrainian writer Ivan Franko (1856–1916) in 1962
- Kharkiv Oblast: from the city Kharkiv, legendarily named for the mythical Ukrainian folk-hero Kharko (died ca 1737)
- Kherson Oblast: from the city Kherson
- Khmelnytskyi Oblast: from the city Khmelnytskyi, named in 1954 on the 300th anniversary of the Treaty of Pereyaslav, after Cossack leader Bohdan Khmelnytsky
- City of Kiev: ancient name (Ukrainian: Kyiv). Myth/legend tells of a founder named Kyi
- Kiev Oblast: from the city Kiev
- Kirovohrad Oblast: from the city Kirovohrad ("Kirov City"), after Sergey Kirov (named Kirovo in 1934, Kirovograd in 1939)
- Luhansk Oblast: from the city Luhansk
- Lviv Oblast: from the city of Lviv, founded 1256 by King Danylo of Halych, and named after his son Lev Danylovich
- Mykolaiv Oblast: from the city Mykolaiv, after the day of Saint Nicholas (Ukrainian Mykolai, Russian Nikolai), 19 December 1788, commemorating the fall of the Turkish fortress of Ochakiv to the Russians
- Odessa Oblast: after the city Odessa in 1795; etymology unknown, but see Odessa: "History" for some possibilities
- Poltava Oblast: from Ltava, an ancient name of the city Poltava
- Rivne Oblast: from the city Rivne
- City of Sevastopol: (1783) Greek "highly respectable city, august city"; see Sevastopol: "Etymology"
- Sumy Oblast: from the city Sumy
- Ternopil Oblast: from the city Ternopil
- Vinnytsya Oblast: from the city Vinnytsia
- Volyn Oblast: ancient name of the region of Volyn
- Zakarpattia Oblast: "beyond the Carpathian Mountains", Transcarpathia
- Zaporizhia Oblast: from the city Zaporizhia, in turn after region "beyond the rapids" (seventeenth century), downstream of the rapids of the River Dnieper
- Zhytomyr Oblast: from the city Zhytomyr (988), after Zhytomyr, prince of the Drevlians
Read more about this topic: List Of Etymologies Of Country Subdivision Names