The town became part of the Principality of Moldavia in 1359. The fortress was enlarged and rebuilt in 1407 under Alexander the Good and in 1440 under Stephen II of Moldavia. It fell to Ottoman conquest on August 5, 1487. The city was known in Romanian as Cetatea Albă with other languages using the Turkish name, Akkerman, or variations of the Turkish name. Since 1944 the city has been known as "Bilhorod-Dnistrovskyi" (Білгород-Дністровський), while on the Soviet geography maps often translated into its Russian equivalent of "Belgorod-Dnestrovskiy" (Бе́лгород-Днестро́вский), literally "white city on the Dniester".
