Dicle is the Kurdish and Turkish name of the Tigris river, which runs through the district and gave its name to it. The name derives from tighri- (arrow) from Avestan[7] and cognate with "tîj, tîr" (sharp, arrow) in Kurdish[8][9] and tigra- (sharp, pointed) in Old Persian. Some claim that it derives from through AkkadianIdiqlat from the original Sumerian name for the river, Idigna.