Although the town itself has only been in existence for just over a century, the origins of the name Anadyr are much older. The name initially derives from the Yukaghir word ""any-an"" meaning ""river"". When Semyon Dezhnev met Yukaghir people in the area, the indigenous name was corrupted to form ""Onandyr"", later Anadyrsk, the name of the "ostrog" (fort) upstream of the present-day settlement, from which the current name is derived. The "ostrog" was the only Russian settlement east of the Kolyma River on the Chukotka Peninsula for most of the 18th century, though this original settlement was situated further up the Anadyr River, nearer to Markovo than the site of the current town.