Everything is in the name, Mr. Shakespeare.

“Maybe you are searching at the branches for what appears at the roots” -Rumi.

The name of a place is the index of its chapters in history. As we delve deeper into the name of a place , It opens a Pandora’s Box of secrets of years gone by.
Many stories, lore and hearsay are woven around the origins of Names of Places.
Why is Kochi called so.
Kochi was primarily a fishing village before the spice markets took over.
Kochi comes from the word “Kochu-azhi” meaning a small estuary.
It could also be from the word “Kaci” which means harbour in Tamil.
Old Hindu texts refer to the land as “BalaPuri” in Sanskrit, probably translated from Kochu Desam (Little Place)
The Portuguese annals refer to Kochi as “Coccym”.
Jews called it “Kogin“.
Cochin was the anglicized version adopted since the colonial powers took over Kochi.
In 1996, We came back after a full circle to Kochi.
I would like to add.All that is Kochi is not Kochi..

Kochi is also a Japanese town in the city of Shidoku and in Bengali would mean an endearing term for a little brother!