Vâlcea

Etymology
. There is a Romanian word, however, its stress is on the last syllable, unlike Vâlcea, which has its stress on the first syllable, making it unlikely to be derived from it.

An alternative is a derivation from a Slavic word, as the 1247 Diploma of the Joannites of king Béla IV of Hungary mentions in the area a knez named , which could just be a translation of the name of the knez's name into Hungarian.