Hohhot

Origin

From Mongolian Хөх хот (Xöx xot), modern form of ᠬᠥᠬᠡᠬᠣᠲᠠ (kökeqota), from ᠬᠥᠬᠡ (köke, “dark blue; (hist.) green, grue”) + ᠬᠣᠲᠠ (qota, “town, city”), given to the settlement by Altan Khan in the 1580s. His previous palace and monastery established outside modern Baotou in 1572 bore the same name, although it is now frequently connected to the nearby Daqing Mountains instead, whose name is similarly ambiguous between blue and green.