Lamskoe vel Penschinskoe more on the map Generalis Totius Imperii Russorum of 1715: that is to say, here is the Sea of Okhotsk, which has other names too

Lamskoe vel Penschinskoe more on the map Generalis Totius Imperii Russorum of 1715: that is to say, here is the Sea of Okhotsk, which has other names too. Namely: Akiyan, Lamskoe, Kamchatskoe, Lalayskoe, Penzhinskoe, or simply Lama, the oldest of those known.

Lama was what the local people, the Tungus, called this sea, and the Russian explorers heard of the existence of the distant eastern sea route of Lama. For that reason the first name of this sea on Russian maps and plans was simply Lama, or the river Okhvota or Lama; in time it turned into the Lalayskoe Sea.

Pushkin, meanwhile, writes: “The discovery of the route across the Penzhinskoe Sea had an important consequence for Kamchatka. Ships with Cossacks arrived every year, expeditions followed one after another.” The name Penzhinskoe comes from the river Penzhina and dates back to the seventeenth century.

The modern name was given to the Sea of Okhotsk some 170 years ago