what is the history of this name. I cant find any descrption for this. Does whiterun means "Snow runs everythere"? lol Yet I didnt saw snow in this city. It is kinda clean.

Why not?

I believe its supposed to be anologous with running water, ie snow that melted ~ runs; Therfor; Snow = White / Water = Run ~> Whiterun.

Brilliant~ I like this explanation.

I think it's racist.

I that what you're looking for OP!?

"Theres a city where they say the wine flows like water" -Sam Guevine, that drunkard who is actually someone/something else( i wont spoil it)

At least that's why I think it's called Whiterun

Whiterun is probably named for it's proximity to the White River.

I can't believe how often this question is asked. Why is Solitude called Solitude, when it's in close proximity to Morthal, Dawnstar, Jehanna and Farrun and is supposedly the busiest port in the province?

Well. Solitude is separated by the waterways and the mountains from the rest of the province.. bu I think a stronger argument is: Don't they say that Solitude is probably the oldest city in all of Skyrim? In which it makes it the only Nordic settlement across the sea of ghosts. So the name makes perfect sense in that regard

I don't think anyone says that. Saarthal was the first, and they say that Windhelm is the oldest remaining Nord city IIRC, but Solitude's never stated to be that old. It looks like it was built by Imperials, in fact, given the architecture of the walls and castle, which would make it relatively young.

Yup you're right, they say that about Windhelm a lot. Not Solitude.

I found a book in game - it was originally built by ancient Nords.

They would have been sued calling it Rohan

I played arena a bit, and even back then there was a "whiterun".

Whiterun, since there is a horse as symbol for the city, probably has something to do with horses.

The river White runs near the city.
Cities are often founded near major waterways for trading purposes.
These cities often get named after the river, in real life as well.
Take for instance Amsterdam, which is at the river Amstel.

Although they can't really trade along the White River, unless their boats can sail up and down waterfalls.

I think this is a case where the game world and lore world conflict, as is bound to happen.
Solitude in 'reality' is not a place with less than 30 people living there, it will likely have tens of thousands.
Only that is not possible in the game, so we get a condensed version.

Similarly the game world is there primarily for us. To guide us a certain way, to provide nice things to look at.
I have no doubt that lore-wise the river White would be the reason Whiterun exists, providing opportunities for trade, travel and fishery.

Possibly theyll have built sluices to deal with differences in height and waterfalls and the like, this is what many (real life) nations do to make a waterway more accessible.

I agree on the Rohan thing, I almost hear the music from the Two Towers everytime I look at Whiterun, even the surroundings are similar.

They named it Whiterun so that the German translation would be even more horrible. God I am so glad I bought the English version. Weisslauf sounds terrible.