John Dyneley Prince

“ The usual signs denoting Akkadū in the Semitic narrative inscriptions were read in the non-Semitic idiom uri-ki or ur-ki, “land of the city,” which simply meant that Akkadū was the land of the city par excellence, i.e. of the city of Agade of Sargon I., which remained for a long period the leading city of Babylonia. [3]
It is quite probable that the non-Semitic name Agade may mean “crown (aga) of fire (de) ” [4] in allusion to Ištar, “the brilliant goddess,” the tutelar deity of the morning and evening star and the goddess of war and love, whose cult was observed in very early times in Agade. ”

“ It is not likely, as many scholars have thought, that Akkad was ever used geographically as a distinctive appellation for northern Babylonia, or that the name Sumer (q.v.) denoted the southern part of the land, because kings who ruled only over Southern Babylonia used the double title “king of Sumer and Akkad,” which was also employed by northern rulers who never established their sway farther south than Nippur, notably the great Assyrian conqueror Tiglath-pileser III. (745–727 B.C.) . ”