In Europe and North America, Ulaanbaatar continued to be generally known as Urga or Khure until 1924, and afterward as Ulan Bator (a spelling derived from , ''Ulan-Bator''). The Russian spelling ("Улан-Батор") is the Russian phonetic equivalent of the Mongolian name, according to Russian spelling conventions. This form was defined two decades before the Mongolian name got its current Cyrillic script spelling and "Ulaanbaatar" transliteration (1941–1950); however, the name of the city was spelled ''Ulaanbaatar koto'' during the decade in which Mongolia used the Latin alphabet. Today, English speakers sometimes refer to the city as UB.