Capital of the Sardinian province of the same name, it has about thirty-seven thousand inhabitants. It rises near the confluences of the Locoe, the Sa Pruna and the Cedrino, on a granite ridge of Mount Ortobene, in the Barbagia nuorese (inland, north-central Sardinia).
The name comes from the medieval Nuor, derived from the older Nugor; it was argued by Spano (1872) that this in turn came from an unspecified “oriental voice” meaning “house” or “light” or “fire.” According to another interpretation, the toponym Nùoro comes from the Paleo-Sardinian root nur, hence the term nuraghe. “Nùoro” is the most etymologically correct pronunciation and is indicated by major linguistic sources and institutions. The etymologically less correct pronunciation “Nuòro,” indicated by other sources, is widespread among non-native Italophones of Sardinia and, in recent times, also among non-native Sardinians of Nuoro. The frequency among non-natives of the pronunciation with tonic “o” can be explained by the rarity in the Italian language of a sequence -ùo- as opposed to the far more common diphthong -uò-. The local pronunciation with the accent on the first vowel is considered the most appropriate since it is etymologically derived from the early medieval Sardinian Nùgor, later evolving over time into its present form. The Sardinian place name Nùgoro is coufficial.
