Etymology

Havana

Ha·va·na
H4A1V4A1N1A1

Today it means: A type of large cigar produced in Cuba. Full definition →

Spanish La Habana ← Taíno Habaguanex ← Latin illa
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The story

  1. Proto-Indo-European*h₂el-
  2. Proto-Italic*olnos
  3. Old Latinolle
  4. Latinille
  5. Latinilla
  6. Spanishla
  7. Taínosabana
  8. TaínoHabaguanex
  9. SpanishLa Habana
  10. English todayHavana

From Spanish La Habana, from Habaguanex, the native American chief (cacique) who controlled the area, the name derived from Taíno sabana (“savannah”). The letter h may be an anthroponymic inflection.

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.