How did Mumbai get its name?

Answer 1

The name Mumbai is an eponym, etymologically derived from Mumba or Maha-Amba— the name of the Hindu goddess Mumbadevi, and Aai — mother in Marathi.[3] The English name Bombay has its origins in the 16th century when the Portuguese arrived in the area and called the place with various names, which would finally take on the written form Bombaim, still common in current Portuguese use. After the British gained possession in the 17th century, it was anglicised to Bombay, although it was known as Mumbai or Mambai to Marathi and Gujarati-speakers, and as Bambai in Hindi, Urdu, and Persian.[4] The name was officially changed to Mumbai in 1995, but the former name is still used by many of the city's inhabitants and famous institutions.

A widespread explanation of the origin of the traditional English name Bombay holds that it would be derived from a Portuguese name meaning good bay.[5] This is based on the fact that bom is Portuguese for good whereas the English word bay is similar to the Portuguese baía (bahia in old spelling). However, the normal Portuguese rendering of good bay would have been bahia boa rather than the grammatically incorrect bom bahia.

Other sources have a different origin for the Portuguese toponym Bombaim. José Pedro Machado's Dicionário Onomástico Etimológico da Língua Portuguesa ("Portuguese Dictionary of Onomastics and Etymology") mentions what is probably the first Portuguese reference to the place, dated from 1516, as Benamajambu or Tena-Maiambu,[6] pointing out that "maiambu"' seems to refer to Mumba-Devi, the Hindu goddess after which the place is named in Marathi (Mumbai). In that same century the spelling seems to have evolved to Mombayn (1525)[7] and then Mombaim (1563).[8] The final form Bombaim appears later in the 16th century, as recorded by Gaspar Correia in his Lendas da Índia ("Legends of India").[9] J.P. Machado seems to reject the "Bom Bahia" hypothesis, asserting that Portuguese records mentioning the presence of a bay at the place led the English to assume that the noun (bahia, "bay") was an integral part of the Portuguese toponym, hence the English version Bombay, adapted from Portuguese.[10]

Answer 2

Mumbai got its name from the Goddess Mumbadevi in South Bombay

Answer 3

From the deity MUMBA DEVI around whose temple the city developed.