Riga is the capital city of Latvia, a country in northern Europe on the Baltic Sea. It is a port city; ships have used it for a very long time, and the old town is known for its buildings. In English the name is said like REE-gah, not like “rye.” The name comes from Latvian Rīga. Scholars still argue about the rest: it may come from an old German name for a small river that ran through the city, or from a Latvian word for a threshing barn, the building where farmers once beat the grain. You do not have to choose; even historians have not settled it. What you need is the place: Latvia’s capital on the Baltic coast.