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Etymology

The city received its contemporary name on 16 March 1919. Until then, it was mostly known in English as "Pressburg" (from its German name, Preßburg), since after 1526, it was dominated mostly by the Habsburg monarchy and the city had a relevant ethnic German population. That is the term from which the pre-1919 Slovak (Prešporok) and Czech (Prešpurk) names are derived.

The linguist Ján Stanislav believed the city's Hungarian name, Pozsony, to be attributed to the surname Božan, likely a prince who owned the castle before 950. Although the Latin name was also based on the same surname, according to research by the lexicologist Milan Majtán, the Hungarian version is not found in any official records from the time in which the prince would have lived. All three versions, however, were related to those found in Slovak, Czech and German: Vratislaburgum (905), Braslavespurch, and Preslavasburc (both 907).

The medieval settlement Brezalauspurc (literally, ' Braslav 's castle') is sometimes attributed to Bratislava, but the actual location of Brezalauspurc is under scholarly debate. The city's modern name is credited to Pavol Jozef Šafárik 's misinterpretation of Braslav as Bratislav in his analysis of medieval sources, which led him to invent the term Břetislaw, which later became Bratislav.

During the revolution of 1918–1919, the name 'Wilsonov' or 'Wilsonstadt' (after US President Woodrow Wilson) was proposed by American Slovaks, as he supported national self-determination. The name Bratislava, which had been used only by some Slovak patriots, became official in March 1919 with the aim that a Slavic name could support demands for the city to be part of Czechoslovakia.

Other alternative names of the city in the past include Greek: Ιστρόπολις, romanized: Istropolis (meaning ' Danube City', also used in Latin), Latin: Posonium, Romanian: Pojon, Croatian: Požun.

In older documents, confusion can be caused by the Latin forms Bratislavia, Wratislavia etc., which refer to Wrocław (Breslau), Poland, not Bratislava. The Polish city has a similar etymology despite spelling differences.