The story
- zle-ort · derived fromХа́рьковъ
- Ukrainian · borrowed fromХа́рків
- English todayKharkiv
From Ukrainian Ха́рків (Xárkiv), from Old Ruthenian Ха́рьковъ (Xárʹkov) (compare Russian Ха́рьков (Xárʹkov), whence English Kharkov). The city is named after the Kharkiv River. A folk etymology says the city and river are named after a Cossack called Харко́ (Xarkó), from Харько́ (Xarʹkó), from Greek Χαρίτων (Charíton), but there is no hard evidence supporting this.
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.