Name

The two Chinese characters "西安" in the name Xi'an literally mean "Western Peace". During the Zhou Dynasty, the area was called Fenghao, with the portion of the city on the west bank of the Feng River called Feng and the portion on the east called Hao. It was renamed Chang'an, meaning "Perpetual Peace", during the Han Dynasty (206 BCE - 220 CE). It changed in 581 CE to Daxing (大興) during the Sui Dynasty then again became Chang'an from 618 during the Tang Dynasty. During the Yuan Dynasty (1270-1368), the city was first given the name Fengyuan (奉元), followed by Anxi (安西) then Jingzhao (京兆). It finally became Xi'an in 1369 at the time of the Ming Dynasty. This name remained until 1928, then in 1930 it was renamed Xijing (西京), or "Western Capital". The city's name once again reverted to its Ming-era designation of Xi'an in 1943.

Xi'an is abbreviated in Chinese to either Hao (Chinese: 镐; pinyin: Hào) or Tang (Chinese: 唐; pinyin: Táng). The former abbreviation is derived from the name of Zhou Dynasty's capital Haojing (Chinese: 镐京; pinyin: Hàojīng), whilst the latter comes from the name of the Tang Dynasty.