If you type a specific word into Google, you'll find the search engine has an autocomplete function which suggests the most common searches associated with that word.

American magazine WIRED popularised the 'Autocomplete Interview', where celebrities answer questions that appear when their names are typed into Google, along with some other question prompts, such as 'why...?', 'how...?' or 'is...?'

Naturally, we decided to try this out for Cardiff - and the results might surprise (or enrage) you.

Read all our latest Cardiff stories here.

So, without further ado and in no particular order, here are 17 of the most burning questions on the internet about the capital city and our attempt to answer them...

1. Is Cardiff in England?

A nice easy question (though we're disappointed it made this list), and the answer is a resounding no! If you don't know much about Cardiff and you've stumbled across this article, Cardiff is the proud capital city of Wales.

2. How do you pronounce Cardiff?

Another one that we're surprised Google autocomplete suggested, but we might as well clear things up early on. If you pronounce it phonetically, you'll be good to go, but here are some sound bites from the Cambridge Dictionary to help you.

3. What is Cardiff in Welsh?

We'll let this one slide, too, as it's understandable you might not know if you don't know any Welsh or have never visited Wales. The Welsh word for Cardiff is Caerdydd. As a bonus answer, it's pronounced ka-y-rdeethe. Skip to question six for the origin of the word.

4. How many Cardiffs are there in the world?

We have to admit, this one piqued our interest. It's a bit difficult to find a definitive answer, however, and online sources are a bit unreliable: Wikipedia has 12 entries for different places called Cardiff, but this website insists there are 18 places around the world that bear the name.

Whatever the actual number, it turns out there are several places named Cardiff across Canada, Australia, New Zealand and the United States.

The majority of them are in the States - ten to be exact, in Alabama, Colorado, Idaho, Maryland, Illinois, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Tennessee, New York and Texas, according to this old BBC Wales History blog. As the blog explains, the phenomenon of several American towns and cities being named after original settlements in Wales - including Newport, Bangor and Swansea - is thanks to early Welsh settlers in the USA bringing a piece of the old world with them for a degree of familiarity.

One 'Cardiff' you might like to visit, though not included in the BBC's blog, is Cardiff-by-the-Sea in California. This beachside community of less than 12,000 people, which is part of the city of Encinitas in San Diego County, is located slap bang on the Pacific coast.

It was founded in 1911 by J. Frank Cullen, a painter and developer from Boston, whose wife was originally from Cardiff in Wales (which explains how the community got its name).

We've compiled a list of ten things you can do there should you decide to pay a visit.

5. Does Cardiff have an airport?

Yes, and it's appropriately called - you guessed it - Cardiff Airport. In November 2021, it was revealed that the airport's passenger levels fell as low as they were 70 years ago in 1950 due to the pandemic - falling from 1.6 million to 48,000 from 2021-2021.

You can read more about the plight of Cardiff Airport here.

6. Why is Cardiff called Cardiff?

Good question. According to this article on Wales.com by Dr Dylan Foster Evans, the head of the School of Welsh at Cardiff University, the name derives from the medieval Welsh 'Caerdyf', which also gives us the modern Welsh 'Caerdydd'.

"The first part of the name is the common Welsh noun caer, 'fort'. The second part is a form of the river name Taf (English Taff )," Dr Evans explains. "Linguists have shown that this name – 'the fort on the river Taff' – must have first been coined in the British language, back when the Romans occupied Cardiff some 2,000 years ago".

There you go!

7. Why is Cardiff the capital of Wales?

Another valid question. Unbelievably, Wales had no definite capital until 1955. Despite being registered as a city 50 years earlier in 1905, Cardiff had to fight off stiff competition to be awarded capital status.

To decide the matter, an official ballot was organised between the members of the Welsh local authorities. As the largest city, and home to the majority of national institutions and administrative offices, the strength of Cardiff's bid was powerful.

Cardiff had grown rapidly since it became a key port for exporting iron during the early 19th century, then quickly established itself as the world's greatest coal port, handling most of the coal from the south Wales Valleys.

The results, declared on July 2, 1954, showed that Cardiff won and its position was finally confirmed in a written statement to the House of Commons by the Minister for Welsh Affairs Gwilym Lloyd George, son of David Lloyd George, on Tuesday, December 20 1955.

Read more here.

8. Does Cardiff have a cathedral?

Yes - in fact, it has two. The first is Metropolitan Cathedral Church of St. David, which is located in the heart of the city centre. According to visitwales.com, it opened as Cardiff's main cathedral church in 1888 and secured cathedral status in 1916.

The second is Llandaff Cathedral, which is much older, the present building dating from the Norman period, around 1120, under Urban, the bishop of Llandaff from 1107 to 1134, according to the cathedral's website.

9. Does Cardiff have a beach?

With Cardiff's location on the coast, visitors might expect the city to be home to sandy beaches that residents frequent in the summertime.

This isn't the really case, unfortunately, and the closest you'll probably get is the desolate Splott Beach - though rubble-strewn, smelly, and showing signs of the city's industrial past, it's hardly the Copacabana.

Cardiff Bay, a waterfront development packed with restaurants, bars, hotels and tourist attractions, all overlooking a huge freshwater lake, is not officially a beach either, but probably your best bet for a pleasant coastal location in the city. Cardiff Bay did actually open a man-made urban 'beach' back in 2019, though this hasn't been run since.

But there are plenty of proper beaches near Cardiff, such as Penarth Beach, Barry Island and Porthcawl's Rest Bay.

10. Where can you park in Cardiff?

Parking in a major city can be difficult at the best of times, and Cardiff is no exception. Things can be made even more difficult when the spaces that are available come with a high price.

However, there are lots of car parks in Cardiff to choose from and, depending on how long you wish to stay, not all of them are expensive. There are also spaces just outside the city centre where you can pay less if you're willing to take a short walk.

We've put together a list of the cheapest places to park in the city centre and Cardiff Bay for your convenience.

11. Where can you eat in Cardiff?

Like everything else, a lot has changed in the Cardiff food scene since the start of the pandemic.

But despite seemingly never-ending lockdowns and long periods where restaurants were shut, the culinary clout of the capital remains as strong as ever. Many spots have redefined themselves and a handful of new spots have joined the capital over the last 18 months or so.

The cooking is beautifully diverse, with everything from handmade pizzas, small plates, vegan cuisine, modern British dishes, tiny little Italian venues in the suburbs and street food joints.

You can read our list (in no particular order) of the 50 best places to eat in Cardiff in 2021.

12. Where can you stay in Cardiff?

The Welsh capital also has an impressive range of hotels that cater to different travel styles and budgets.

You might fancy a stay in luxury hotels, like the Parkgate, which recently opened next to the Principality Stadium. You can read what we thought when we spent a night at the swanky new place here.

But if you're looking for a low-cost city break, Cardiff also has a host of budget spots, too, such as YHA hostel in the city centre.

Check out some of our top picks for a lush stay in the city here, whatever your reason for visiting.

13. Is Cardiff safe/rough?

Cardiff has its fair share of crime like any city - but it's probably worth taking some headlines that insist the city is unsafe with a pinch of salt. Last year, public relations company OnePoll asked 2,000 residents of the country’s 15 biggest cities how safe they felt where they live, including 133 people in Cardiff. The results were revealed in September and the Welsh capital was revealed as the UK's least safest city to live, with a staggering 38% of adults surveyed not feeling safe at all on Cardiff's streets at night, and another 31% worried about their safety even during the daytime.

The result prompted a fierce Cardiff Council debate on crime in October, but was branded "clickbait" by Labour councillors, who questioned the “incorrect” statistics and pointed to other surveys which suggested Cardiff has a relatively low crime rate and most people feel safe living in the city.

According to police data collected by the Office for National Statistics, Cardiff saw a smaller crime rate in 2020 than cities of similar size like Newcastle, Bristol, Leeds and Southampton. That includes fewer crimes per 1,000 population relating to possessing weapons, criminal damage and arson, and violence and sexual offences.

However, Cardiff did see the highest rate of drug crimes compared to those four cities, and more vehicle crime than Newcastle and Leeds, although less than Bristol and Southampton. This ONS data looks at the number of crimes recorded by the police, and not the public perception of crime and safety, so cannot be directly compared to the OnePoll survey.

14. How is Cardiff changing?

Cardiff's skyline is constantly changing. Back in 2016 a number of exciting projects were in the pipeline for the capital – from huge housing regeneration schemes to a new transport network – that would see the city completely transformed in the space of a decade.

Six years later, just over the halfway stage, the developments are well underway, with massive cranes towering above the city and new residential, leisure, and office spaces popping up around the city centre and beyond. While the coronavirus pandemic led to a number of projects slowing or being paused completely, the Cardiff of today still looks very different to how it looked just a few years ago with some areas of the city, such as Central Square, almost unrecognisable.

But we can still expect many more changes to come. Click here for more information about how Cardiff has changed in the last five years and what it may look like in 2026 - including the long-awaited bus station in Central Square (bus station), a waterfront development at the site of the former Brains Brewery, and a new world-class 15,000-capacity indoor arena in Cardiff Bay.

15. What is Cardiff like?

We may be biased, but we think Cardiff is wonderful as cities go, offering a cornucopia of pleasures for both visitors and residents alike.

With many green spaces, libraries, historical sites (like Cardiff Castle ), a vibrant shopping scene, a great nightlife, beautiful buildings, street art, an exciting sporting scene (both professional and amateur), a thriving student community, and a host of music and arts venues (such as the Wales Millennium Centre ), it's hard to capture in just a few words what Cardiff is really like for someone who's never visited.

If you don't believe us, in 2019 it ranked eighth in the top 20 large UK cities for a short break - beating off competition from larger cities like London, Birmingham and Manchester - in a survey of readers of consumer guide Which?, who were asked to rate the food, accommodation, sights and attractions and value for money at destinations across the UK.

You can also click here for 38 pictures which give you a flavour of the best aspects of the city.

16. Why is Cardiff so wet?

If you've spent some time in Cardiff, you've probably also had to reach for your umbrella or coat at some point. In fact, in 2014, the capital got the accolade nowhere else wanted - that is, the UK's rainiest city, according to the Met Office.

Analysis of Met Office climate records going back to 1981 showed the Welsh capital had racked up an average 115cm of rain every year. That compared to 112cm in Glasgow, the second wettest place, and 86.7cm in Manchester, which calls itself ‘the Rainy City’.

In 2019, we spoke to top meteorologists at the Met Office to find out the reasons why it rains so much in Wales (with only a few places in the UK being wetter than Wales, according to the experts).

According to a Met Office spokesman, the ocean is the reason the west coast is so wet.

He said: "One thing Wales and western Scotland have in common is that these places they are hilly and in the west. It is in the west we find a great big ocean and where we get most of our weather.

"Wales is in the mid-latitude, the meeting point between cold air to the north and warm air to the south. Where the cold air collides with the warm air we find the jet stream.

"The jet stream is a fast flowing current of air high in the sky that acts as an atmospheric conveyor belt. This circles the mid latitude picking up and deepening areas of low pressure.

"When rain bearing clouds arrive from the west they are shoved up over the Welsh mountains. This rising air cools and condenses and even more moisture is wrung from the clouds."

17. What is Cardiff famous/known for?

This answer could be pages long, but we'll try to keep it short - starting off with who Cardiff is famous for. It boasts itself as the birthplace of many world-renowned celebrities, young, old, dead and alive, who have catapulted the city's name beyond its borders. They include football stars Gareth Bale and Craig Bellamy, singers Dame Shirley Bassey, Charlotte Church and Shakin' Stevens, author Roald Dahl, Paralympian Tanni Grey-Thompson, Olympian Colin Jackson, and cyclist Geraint Thomas.

It is also home to a lesser-known - though just as important - famous face: Betty Campbell, Wales' first black headteacher, who was born in Cardiff in 1934 and was known for paving the way to equality and diversity in the capital and beyond. She brought prominence to the city, not only as the country's first black headteacher, but also later in her life when she joined the Home Office’s race advisory committee and the Commission for Racial Equality. In September last year, a statue of her was revealed in Central Square - making Cardiff the location of the first statue of a real, named Welsh woman in Wales.

Cardiff is also famous as political hub of Wales, with the base of the Senedd (the Welsh Parliament), located in Cardiff Bay. In fact, the Senedd building is one of many landmark buildings and attractions in Cardiff which bring in tourists and visitors - some others being the Pierhead Building, the National Museum, St Fagans Museum of History, Cardiff Castle, the Millennium Stadium, the Wales Millennium Centre, St David's Hall, the Motorpoint Arena.

The city is also a popular filming location - with huge shows such as Doctor Who, Sherlock and His Dark Materials also using Cardiff's streets as a backdrop.

And, of course, how could we forget possibly its most famous feature of all: Caroline Street, also known as Chippy Lane, the most famous street in Wales for late-night grub, where revellers in the city have picked up a takeaway for around 150 years.

What burning questions do you have about Cardiff? Let us know in the comments below.