Most Ukrainian regions are named after their regional centers: Kyiv from Kyiv, Lviv from Lviv, Poltava from Poltava. However, Volyn Oblast is an exception - its name has deep historical roots.
The name "Volyn" has been known for at least a thousand years. In the 11th century, the city of Velyn existed on the territory of the modern region, which gave its name to the entire land. Later, the city disappeared, but the name itself was preserved. Only in the 14th century did Lutsk become the political center of Volyn thanks to Prince Lubart Gedyminovych.
There is another version of the origin of the name Volyn - from the Volynka River. The word "vol" itself can mean "bull" or "red", and ancient legends mention red deer that lived in these lands.
As for the name Lutsk, historians offer at least six versions of its origin: from the names of the princes of Lutsek or Lutsk, from the words "luts" or "lyuts", which meant "marsh" or "pit", from the leader of the Dulibs, Luka or the Luchan tribe, from the word "luk", which was used by the defenders of the city, or from geography - the first name "Luchesk" could have come from the luk of the Styr River. The oldest Luchan settlement was located between Styr and Maly Hlushets, on the site of the modern Lutsk Castle.
The combination "Volyn Oblast - Lutsk" was formed gradually. In the 18th century, the Zaslav Governorate operated with its center in Zaslav, later the main cities of Volyn were Novohrad-Volynskyi and Zhytomyr. After the Treaty of Riga in 1920, Lutsk was part of Poland as part of the Volyn Voivodeship. Only in 1939, after Western Ukraine joined the Ukrainian SSR, Lutsk officially became the center of the Volyn Oblast, retaining the old name of the region.
Thus, the Volyn region received its name not from its administrative center, but from an ancient land with a centuries-old history. Lutsk only continued a tradition that goes back centuries.
