Aachen

Meaning

1. (neuter, proper-noun) Aachen (a city in North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany)
2. (neuter, proper-noun) a special district (Kommunalverband besonderer Art) of North Rhine-Westphalia; full name Städteregion Aachen

Concepts

Aachen

Aix-la-Chapelle

Germany

Synonyms

Bad Aachen

Translations

Aix-la-Chapelle

Aken

Aquisgrán

Aquisgranum

Aquisgrana

Aquisgrà

Άαχεν

آخن

Aachen

Aachen

Aquae Grani

Aquisgran

Aquisgrano

Aquae

Pronounced as (IPA)

/ˈaːxən/

Etymology

Inherited from Middle High German: Āche

Inherited from Old High German: Āhha

Cognate with Old High German: aha

In summary

From Middle High German Āchen, from Old High German Āhha, from a Proto-West Germanic *Ākā (cf. Middle Dutch Âken), from Latin aqua (“water”), referring to the local thermal springs (which are known to have been exploited by the Romans, though their original name is not quite clear).
A derivation from cognate Old High German ah(h)a (“flowing water”), from Proto-Germanic *ahwō, as claimed by Manfred Niemeyer’s Deutsches Ortsnamenbuch, is impossible; firstly, because of the old-long /aː/, to which, besides the Standard German form itself, local Ripuarian Oche and Limburgish Aoke clearly attest, and secondly, because of the /k/ in Low Franconian. (On page 23, the Ortsnamenbuch indeed admits that the /x/ in Aachen is due to the High German consonant shift, thereby contradicting itself in a most obvious way.)