三亞

Traditionally interpreted as derived from the river 三亞河, which was named after the fork-shaped junction (三丫) where the rivers 水蛟溪 and 半嶺水 of the river join in the city. However, this is now considered improbable as the characters 丫 and 亞 have different initial consonants in the local Hainanese dialect, making their pronunciations quite different. (Fu (2015))

Wang (2014) suggests that 三亞 is borrowed from Hlai [Term?], with 三 (Hainanese /ta¹/) translated from Hlai dax (/ta²/, “field; farmland”) and 亞 likely from the Hlai generic term for birds that appear similar to crows, particularly herons. Thus, 三亞 may mean "field with crows or herons". Note that places with 三 as the first character in their names are common in southern Hainan where the Li people, speakers of Hlai, live.

三亞

1. Sanya