The oldest known written mention of the name is a Western Ganga–era hero stone (veeragallu) found at the Nageshwara temple in Begur, in the south of today's city. It is dated to around 890 CE and records a battle fought at "Bengaluru". That makes the name more than six centuries older than the town Kempegowda founded.
The best-known story about the name is a legend. A Hoysala king, Veera Ballala II, gets lost while hunting and is fed benda kaalu (boiled beans) by an old woman, and in gratitude names the place Benda-Kaalu-Ooru, "town of boiled beans". It is a charming story, but the Begur stone predates Ballala II by about three hundred years, so historians treat it as folklore.
Other proposed origins include benga, the Kannada name of the Indian kino tree (Pterocarpus marsupium), which grew widely in the area, and bengal-ooru, "town of guards".
From Bangalore back to Bengaluru
Under British administration the anglicised spelling "Bangalore" became official. In 2006 the writer U. R. Ananthamurthy proposed restoring the Kannada name, and the change took effect on 1 November 2014, Karnataka Rajyotsava day, together with eleven other Karnataka cities.