Editing Ufa (section)

== Etymology ==
The name ''Ufa'' comes from the [[Ufa River]] on which the city lies, but the origin of the river's name is disputed. The Russian linguist [[Aleksandr Matveyev (linguist)|Aleksandr Matveyev]] proposes that the name is of [[Iranian languages|Iranian]] origin, from "ap", meaning water.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Matveyev |first=Aleksandr |date=2008 |title=Географические названия Урала: Топонимический словарь. — Екатеринбург |journal=Socrates |pages=294–296}}</ref>

In a paper published in 2014, researchers Karimov and Khabibov from Bashkir State Pedagogical University present and argue for a hypothesis according to which before the construction of the foundational Russian fortress in 1574, which has since grown to become the current city of Ufa, there had  already been an ancient settlement called Ufa on a hilltop near the mouth of the Ufa River. According to them, this settlement was founded by Turkic-speaking tribes to perform rituals and sacrifices to the sky god Tengri, and they called this place Upe or Ufe because, they argue, in ancient Turkic languages a place of ritual sacrifice used to be called an "opo" or an "ope." They further hypothesize that the inhabitants of the settlement themselves also came to be called the Upe or Ufe tribe and subsequently, the river along which they flourished and expanded their settlement towards its source also came to be called Ufa. Karimov and Khabibov claim that the Russian fortress builders were probably aware of this ancient name and consequently named their new settlement Ufa.<ref>{{Citation |title=To the question of origin of the city name Ufa |author1=S. G. Karimov |author2=L. G. Khabibov |journal=Bulletin of Bashkir University |year=2014 |volume=19 |issue=2 |pages=577–581 |url=http://bulletin-bsu.com/arch/files/2014/2/38_4476_Karimov-577.pdf |language=Russian}}</ref> 

It is colloquially called the City of Three Screws, due to the unusual nature of city's name in Bashkir.<ref>{{Cite web |url=https://dzen.ru/a/XcL8K3gSXgCt0cvs |access-date=2025-02-23 |website=sso.passport.yandex.ru |title=Yandex }}</ref>