Agra was also known as Akbarabad in the Mughal era

The name Agra is explained by different derivations, all of which have low verifiability. The most accepted one is that it had its origin from the Hindi word agar meaning salt-pan, a name which was given to it because the soil in the region is brackish and salt used to be made here once by evaporation. Others derive it from Hindu History claiming that the Sanskrit word agra ( ) which means the first of the many groves and little forests where Krishna frolicked with the gopis of Vrindavan. The term Agravana hence means grove forest.