Ikšķile

Ikšķile (Latvian pronunciation: [ˈikʃcile], pronunciation^ⓘ; German: Uexküll, or Üxküll; Swedish: Yxkull; Livonian: Ikškilā) is a town in Ogre Municipality, in the Vidzeme region of Latvia. It was the first capital of the Roman Catholic Bishopric of Livonia, known by the German name of Üxküll. Saint Meinhard was the first bishop of Üxküll. In 1197, Berthold of Hanover, a Cistercian abbot of Loccum, was made the second bishop of Üxküll. Those days the town was the center of the upcoming crusading activities in the Livonian area. Bishop Berthold moved the episcopal see to Riga, before being killed by the Livs in battle.

According to Urmas Sutrop's recent research into the toponym's origin, the name Ikšķile is from a Livonian term meaning "the ford or islet(s) (i.e. a place on the Daugava River where it was possible to cross the river) belonging to the son of the (local ruler) Ike”. (The personal name Ike has the honourable meaning ‘age, lifetime’; the Ike family had considerable power in Livonia, as they controlled the military and trade traffic across the Daugava at Ykescola/Ykescole.) The earlier idea that the placename Ikšķile translates from the Finnic Livonian words ikš-ķile (ikš = 'one', ķile = village) meaning "one village" or "the (one) village", is treated by Sutrop as a folk etymology.