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Capital Cities: Ports and Saints

List the national capitals whose names refer to a "port" or "saint".
Not necessarily in English
Quiz by scambigol
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Last updated: April 21, 2017
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First submittedAugust 5, 2014
Times taken30,962
Average score57.1%
Rating4.92
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Ports
Port Louis
Port Moresby
Port Vila
Port-au-Prince
Port-of-Spain
Porto-Novo
Saints
Saint George's
Saint John's
San José
San Marino
San Salvador
Santiago
Santo Domingo
São Tomé
53 Comments
+41
Level 70
Apr 21, 2017
Tried 10 different spellings of "Saint Petersburg". Palmface.
+2
Level 67
May 18, 2017
St.Petersburg is not a capital city.
+51
Level 66
May 18, 2017
That's why they facepalmed.
+54
Level 61
May 18, 2017
Or apparently palmfaced
+10
Level 61
May 16, 2021
p a l m f a c e
+2
Level 74
May 18, 2021
Whooooosh
+1
Level 44
May 18, 2017
Saint Petersburg, however spelled, is not a national capital.
+11
Level 66
May 18, 2017
How about adding Copenhagen? I know it's rather obscure, but the name derives from the originial designation Køpmannæhafn, which means “merchants' harbour”. Or is there a difference between harbour and port that I don't know?
+2
Level 69
May 18, 2017
Seconded
+1
Level 48
May 22, 2017
I missed Copenhagen too.
+4
Level 46
May 25, 2017
Indeed. The name in icelandic is Kaupmannahöfn, which means merchants port.
+9
Level 48
May 29, 2017
You don't have to go to the Icelandic language, in Danish it is København.
+11
Level 59
May 16, 2021
Well harbour is spelled h-a-r-b-o-u-r, while port is spelled p-o-r-t
+2
Level 61
Oct 16, 2023
I'm surprised nobody has said that it is actually spelled h-a-r-b-o-r.
+7
Level 71
May 18, 2017
Nice idea. Interestingly the 'Bandar' in 'Bandar Seri Begawan' also seems to derive from the Persian word for Port :-)
+13
Level 57
May 18, 2017
It does, however in Malay, which is spoken in Brunei, Bandar means "town" or "city", which may be why it is not included.
+6
Level 76
Sep 23, 2020
Try using a semicolon after "it does" instead of a comma
+2
Level 62
Sep 14, 2023
Thank you for the idea, I will make a similar quiz to this one but with capitals that include "town" or "city." For example, Mexico city or Kingston (Jamaica).
+3
Level 62
May 16, 2021
"Bandar" means monkey in Hindi.
+1
Level 43
May 16, 2021
Yes.. But bandargah means port.. Somewhat related
+1
Level 48
Jul 17, 2021
lmao
+6
Level 74
May 18, 2017
San Salvador (Holy Savior) refers to Jesus Christ, who is not considered a saint. He is above sainthood.
+11
Level 68
May 16, 2021
The wikipedia definition of "saint" is "the designation of a holy person". That's good enough for me. I'm sure there are fascinating etymological debates within the hardcore fandom, but I don't think regular people should be expected to have to get into them.
+2
Level 48
Jul 17, 2021
i will be calling christians which know a lot about the bible the hardcore fandom from here on, thank you.
+2
Level 59
May 16, 2021
San means saint... holy is santa or santo,
+1
Level 68
May 18, 2017
Fun quiz! Enjoyed that one.
+2
Level 70
May 19, 2017
Actually Santiago is named after an Apostle. It's the Spanish translation for James or Jacob, and it just happens to start with "San", but it doesn't refer to a Saint.
+11
Level 83
May 19, 2017
I don't see why an apostle is not supposed to be a saint.
+5
Level 75
Jul 25, 2017
Sorry, but that's not correct.
+6
Level 63
May 16, 2021
San Iago = St James

San Iago -> Santiago

+4
Level 68
May 16, 2021
Yes, it's named after the apostle San Tiago, Tiago being the Spanish version of James or Jacob, and "San" meaning, you know, Saint.
+4
Level 83
May 16, 2021
As far as I know it's "Iago", not "Tiago". The etymology is from "Santo" and "Iago" which have been ellided into a single word.
+1
Level 68
May 17, 2021
You're actually right! It's derived from Sant Iago, which is derived from Sancti Iacobi. I got confused, but I'm not the only one, since in Spanish and Portuguese, the name "Tiago" is, in turn, derived from Santiago!

Thanks for correcting me. I enjoy bettering my knowledge!

+2
Level 59
May 20, 2017
Bandar Seri Begawan, capital of Brunei; "Bandar" means port.

TMI: It is derived from Persian and passed through Indian languages

+1
Level 87
May 30, 2017
Sao Paulo?
+18
Level 75
Jun 15, 2017
Is the capital of...?
+23
Level 63
Jun 21, 2017
Saturn
+1
Level 56
Jul 3, 2019
Is Saint John's really a national capital? Newfoundland and Labrador is a province.
+18
Level 77
Jul 3, 2019
That's a different one: here it's Saint John's, capital of Antigua and Barbuda
+3
Level 59
Aug 5, 2020
I think São Tomé (the city) has accents.
+4
Level 72
Sep 28, 2020
If Sao and San are accepted for Saint, why isn't Havn accepted for Port. KøbenHavn...? Or are English, Spanish and Portuguese the only accepted languages?
+4
Level 81
Oct 6, 2020
No, French (Port-au-Prince and Port Louis) and Italian (San Marino) are also fine. So, only English and Latinate languages. Nice quiz, Scambigol, but you're always going to find anomalies with a quiz like this one.
+1
Level 81
Jul 5, 2022
Great point benjaminmarker. I should have said it back then. I was only making an observation, I didn't make the rules :)
+1
Level 57
Mar 20, 2021
Hi,

Like this quiz! Check also ”World Capitals: Saints, Ports, and Cities” & and tell how you like it..

+1
Level 67
May 16, 2021
why not bridgeport?
+5
Level 74
May 16, 2021
Are you thinking of the Barbadian Capital Bridgetown?
+5
Level 89
May 16, 2021
Probably because there is no world capital called Bridgeport.
+1
Level 53
Apr 6, 2022
When you say "Saint" yes I know san and sao are the same thing, but in the english language where this quiz is, they are spelled much different.
+1
Level 61
Oct 16, 2023
The caveat clearly says not necessarily in English.
+2
Level 49
May 26, 2023
I like the quiz, but could you add the counties to the capital city if you guess it correct? To memorize both together.
+1
Level 71
Jul 14, 2024
Several people mention Copenhagen here. I did not think of it myself, but it made me look up the difference between port and harbour. I could not get a clear difference (though I still feel there might be, but not sure it is enough to exclude them from the quiz.) And for instance in Dutch both port and harbour are translated as haven, there is no alternate translation.

And I guess most importantly, if I go to check what the translation for port is in Danish (because, havn meaning harbour could still be considered inconclusive) it says it can be translated by port of havn.

So I'd say there is a good case for including it.

+1
Level 66
Oct 1, 2024
add copenhagen
+1
Level 49
Oct 4, 2024
I guess A'a is not a a saint? Because I was looking for the last answer and somehow could only come up with Sana'a lol