Why go
Thessaloniki was named for Thessalonike, a Macedonian royal woman whose name joins words associated with Thessaly and victory. Salonica in Western texts and Selanik in Turkish point to the city's long life across languages. These names are clues to context, not separate destinations on a map.
The full story
The name Thessaloniki comes from Thessalonike, a woman of the Macedonian royal family. Her name is traditionally explained through Greek words for Thessaly and victory, linking it to a Macedonian victory in Thessaly. The modern English city name keeps that ancient form close enough to recognise. Other names grew through everyday speech and through the many languages used by people who lived in, governed or wrote about the city. Salonica or Salonika appears often in Western-language accounts; Selanik is the Turkish form. Older Slavic and Ladino forms add further evidence of the city's long, multilingual history. A traveller reading an older account of Salonica is reading about this same place, although the name may signal the writer's language or period. When you encounter different forms in historical material, keep the setting and date in view rather than assuming that each name describes a different city.