Lagos is the largest city in Nigeria, and a huge port on the coast of West Africa. For many years it was the capital; though actually the capital moved to Abuja. Lagos is still the city many people think of first — the business heart, the crowded streets, the harbour. English speakers often say LAY-goss. The name came through Portuguese. Portuguese sailors called it Lagos, either from their word lagos, “lakes”, or after Lagos, a town in Portugal; it was also pulled toward an older Latin place-name, Lacobriga. So this name and the English word lakes are relatives of a kind, by different roads. It is a place-name, written with a capital L.