The River Herodotus Called “Borysthenes”: The Dnipro

The large river that runs east-west through the city of Kyiv is written by this outlet as the “Dnipro River.” Some Japanese dictionaries and encyclopedias still use “Doniepuru-gawa” as their headword. But those are not the river’s only two names. Ancient Greek historians called it “Borysthenes”; in the Roman era it was “Danapris”; and in Turkic languages it has been called “Ozi” and other names.

Here we trace, in chronological order, the names under which this one river has been recorded. At the end, we also look at how the spelling has changed in Japanese and in English.

Herodotus’s “Borysthenes”

According to the entry “Dnipro (river)” (revised 2021, written by Vyshnevskyi and Vortman) in the Encyclopedia of the History of Ukraine (hereafter, the Institute of History’s encyclopedia) published by the Institute of History of Ukraine, National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine, the earliest written record of this river is in the section of Herodotus’s account of Scythia dating to the fifth century BCE. The ancient Greek name is Borysthenes (Βορυσθένης).

Reading Book 4, chapter 53, of Herodotus’s Histories in the English translation (by A. D. Godley, 1920) hosted by Tufts University’s Perseus Digital Library, Borysthenes is named as the fourth of the Scythian rivers, the largest after the Istros (the Danube), and, except for Egypt’s Nile, the most bountiful river not only in Scythia but of all rivers. It has good pastures for livestock, remarkably abundant and good-tasting fish, and clear, easy-to-drink water. The river flows from the north, and while it is known for a 40-day journey upstream, beyond that its source is unknown, Herodotus writes, even to him and to other Greeks. In Japanese, it can be read in Matsudaira Chiaki’s translation of the Histories (Iwanami Bunko, three volumes, 1971–72).

The Institute of History’s encyclopedia’s entry “Borysthenes” (2003, written by Oleksii Yas) states that this name could also refer, besides the river, to the ancient town of Olbia or to a river god of the same name, and adds that some researchers link the names of the Berezyna River and Berezan Island to Borysthenes as well.

Danapris, Dněpr, Ozi

The form that leads to today’s name appears in records from the fourth century CE. The entry “Dnipro River” (first appearing in volume 1 of the print encyclopedia, 1984) in the Internet Encyclopedia of Ukraine (hereafter IEU), published by the Canadian Institute of Ukrainian Studies (CIUS) at the University of Alberta, adds to its headword “4th-century Latin Danapris.” The Institute of History’s encyclopedia likewise states that the name known from the 4th century appears as “Danapr” in late-antique sources, and as “Dněpr” (Дън’трь) in Kyivan Rus’ sources.

On the steppe side, different names have been used. According to the Institute of History’s encyclopedia, Turkic languages have used names such as Ozi and Özü from at least the 13th century up to the present day.

A List of One River’s Names

Several Theories on the Meaning of the Name

It is not clearly known what meaning the name carried. The 2004 edition of the Institute of History’s encyclopedia’s entry “Dnipro (river)” (written by Markova) offered the following explanations.

• Borysthenes is said to literally mean “that which flows from the north”
• Dnipro is thought to derive from “dana,” “dona,” or “don” (deep), meaning “deep river,” though another theory holds it means “river of the west”
• The poetic names Slavuta and Slavutych are said to come from “slavutyn,” a word the lexicographer Vladimir Dal recorded as meaning “beautiful, picturesque land”

The 2021 revision, while covering the shifts in the name, does not include this etymological explanation. What is given here is a theory introduced in an earlier edition of one encyclopedia, not an established, settled etymology.

The Poetic Name Slavutych

In Ukrainian, the Dnipro is also called “Slavuta” or “Slavutych” in poetry (the Institute of History’s encyclopedia, 2004 edition). IEU calls the river “Ukraine’s holy river,” writing that it has been deeply tied to the life of the Ukrainian people since the beginning of their history. The town built in the 1980s to house workers of the Chornobyl nuclear plant carries the same name, spelled Slavutych (see our article on Slavutych).

In Japanese, from “Doniepuru” to “Dnipro”

Japanese dictionaries have long used “Doniepuru-gawa,” based on the Russian reading of Днепр, as their headword. Looking at dictionaries collected on Kotobank, the Digital Daijisen (Shōgakukan) has “Doniepuru-gawa” as its headword with the note “Ukrainian name: Doniepuro-gawa,” and separately has its own entry for “Doniepuro-gawa.” The revised edition of the Encyclopedia of World History (Heibonsha) has an entry “Doniepuru [River]” stating “in Ukraine it is called the Doniepuro River, Dnipro,” and the Nihon Daihyakka Zensho (Shōgakukan) entry “Doniepuru-gawa” states that it is called Dnipro in Ukrainian and Bористhenes (“Borisutenesu”) in ancient Greek. Even for the same Greek name, the kana rendering differs between dictionaries.

The Japanese government’s usage changed in 2022. On March 31, 2022, Japan’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs announced it was changing the name of the capital from “Kiev,” based on the Russian reading, to “Kyiv,” based on the Ukrainian reading, and stated that “we will also change the names of places other than the capital to ones based on Ukrainian-language readings.” That announcement did not come with a list of how each individual place name should be written. The background to the change in the capital’s name is covered in our article on the day “Kiev” became “Kyiv.”

In English, from Dnieper to Dnipro

English has long used the spelling “Dnieper.” Ukraine’s Cabinet of Ministers, by Resolution No. 55 of January 27, 2010, set a table for transliterating the Ukrainian alphabet into Latin script; applying that table to Дніпро gives “Dnipro.” Ukraine’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs, in place-name spelling guidance posted December 19, 2019 (#CorrectUA), explains that Resolution X/9 of the Tenth United Nations Conference on the Standardization of Geographical Names (July 31–August 9, 2012, New York) recommends the Ukrainian transliteration system as the international standard for Ukrainian place names, and calls on other countries and international organizations to revise spellings based on Russian forms. IEU too uses “Dnipro River” as its headword, giving “Dnieper” in parentheses.

The River’s Name, and a Town’s Name

The river’s name has also become the name of towns along its course. The town of Dnipro, on the middle Dnipro, was renamed from Dnipropetrovsk to its current name by a Verkhovna Rada resolution of May 19, 2016. This is a case of the name itself changing, not just the spelling; the background is covered in our article on the two place-name laws. The oblast is still named Dnipropetrovsk Oblast.

The river itself has also changed greatly over the 20th century. The six dams and reservoirs from Kyiv to Kakhovka are covered in our article on the Dnipro’s six dams, and its basin’s size and length are covered in our article on Ukraine’s rivers, which flow toward three seas. More than 2,400 years after it was called Borysthenes, the name has changed again and again, but the same river still flows on, from north to south.