> Wind is "named" after where it comes from.

This is absolutely true, but has always infuriated me because it seems needlessly contrary as compared to the way we speak about anything else travelling in a direction as read from a compass. Does anybody know why it's the case?

Probably because it matters where the air was before. Stuff like: north wind is could, south wind is warm, west wind is humid, etc

Doesn't that very much depend on where you are though? E.g., with respect to the equator, major bodies of water and landmasses, mountain ranges, prevailing weather conditions. Also perhaps on seasons.

I can understand that it might be just an ancient tradition originating from a particular part of the world, that we've turned into a convention, but it loses meaning when you go elsewhere.

It rather depends on where you are, but so does language. The words we use were cast locally. If you speak English some words were cast in the Ukraine, some in Germany, some in Rome, some in France, some in Britain, but the people living in those places weren't obliged to make the words globally meaningful.

If you go to Cape Town, a "north wind" presumably doesn't mean cold, because the area north of the city isn't colder than the city itself. This didn't matter to the people who first said "north wind" and I don't think it means much nowadays either. Just another little thing to watch out for in intercultural communication.

Can you name anything else named after where it's going, not where it comes from? I can't think of anything named like that, but I guess there must be some.

Within a marine context, current is typically given as direction to while wind and waves are direction from.

Or when you're out walking you might say that you're "heading north". Granted if you wanted to report your rough position relative to someone else you might say something like, "I'm 500m north of you."