List of meanings of countries' names

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ə	This article contains nonstandard pronunciation information which should be rewritten using the International Phonetic Alphabet. Please see Wikipedia:Manual of Style (pronunciation) for help.

This is a list of original meanings of the names used by countries, and additionally the original meaning of their names in English (where different).

Several countries names may be interpreted in more than one way; several other countries have a name in more than one official language.

Michel Augustus 00:36, 8 December 2006 (UTC)==America (United States of)== America : Land of Amerigo

Amerigo Vespucci was an explorer and cartographer who traveled in the Americas. He is also credited by some with drawing the first maps of North and South America.

For an in-depth explanation see: Americas#Naming of America

The term "United States" is self-explanatory; it was possibly in part inspired by the common use of the term "United Kingdom" to describe the Kingdom of Great Britain (1701-1800). Bearing in mind the presence of Dutch colonial heritage (e.g. New Amsterdam), "United States" may also have been inspired by the common use of the term United Provinces to describe the Republic of the Seven United Low Countries (1581-1795). However some believe the name United States was an obvious name and is in no way related to the use of "united" in the names of countries from which the Americans were descended.

Contents 1 Argentina 2 Angola 3 Bolivia 4 Brazil 5 Canada 6 Chile 7 Colombia 8 Congo 9 Costa Rica 10 Cote d'Ivoire 11 Ecuador 12 England 13 France 14 Germany 15 India 16 Indonesia 17 Ireland 18 Japan 19 Namibia 20 Rwanda 21 Scotland 22 Singapore 23 Switzerland 24 Venezuela 25 Việt Nam 26 Wales 27 Zambia

[edit] Argentina

Argentina : Land of silver

The name is a reference to the River Plate, in Spanish Río de la Plata, which means River of Silver. The river was believed to have much silver upstream, but these hopes proved to be largely unfounded.

For an in-depth explanation see: Origin and history of the name of Argentina

[edit] Angola

Angola: Land of Rulers

The name is a reference to the title ngola, used by the rulers of Ndongo Kingdom, in northern region of the present Angola territory.

[edit] Bolivia

Bolivia: Land of Bolivar

[edit] Brazil

The most probable hypothesis stands that the name came from the Portuguese word for a native tree, the pau-brasil. In Tupi it is called ibirapitanga, which means literally red wood. The wood of the tree was used to color clothes and fabrics. Brasil is a Portuguese word related to brasa, which means ember.

Other theory stands that the name of the country is related to the Irish myth of Hy-Brazil: a phantom island similar to St. Brendan's Island, situated Southwest of Ireland. The legend was so strong that during the 15th century many expeditions tried to find it, the most important of John Cabot. As the Brazilian lands were reached by Pedro Álvares Cabral at 1500 a.D., the Irish myth would have influenced the late name given to the country (after Island of Real Cross and Land of Holly Cross). The proof that the legend was popular among Iberic people may be verified by the name of the Azorean Terceira Island, registered around 1436 on the Venetian map of Andrea Bianco.

[edit] Canada

The name Canada comes from an indigenous word, kanata, meaning "village" or "settlement". In 1535, inhabitants of the area near present-day Quebec City used the word kanata, to tell Jacques Cartier the way to the village of Stadacona.[1] Cartier used the word 'Canada' to refer to not only that village, but the entire area subject to Donnacona, Chief at Stadacona; by 1547, maps began referring to this and the surrounding area as Canada.[2]

[edit] Chile

Chile: Meaning unknown:

• Possibly Mapuche origin meaning Land at the end of the world,
• or an Inca name meaning Land of Tili, Tili being an Araucanian chief,
• or an Aymara name meaning Land of snow.

One theory says the Incas of Peru, who had failed to conquer the Araucanians, called the valley of the Aconcagua "Chili" by corruption of the name of a tribal chief called Tili, who ruled the area at the time. Another theory says Chile may derive its name from the indigenous Mapuche word chilli, which may mean "where the land ends" or maybe "the deepest point of the Earth." Another theory says the name is from the Aymara tchili meaning "snow".

[edit] Colombia

Colombia: Land of Colombus

Ultimately the same etymology as the province of British Columbia and the U.S. District of Columbia. The former is named after a river which was named after Colombus.

[edit] Congo

In both cases, the country is named after the Congo River. (The Congo may refer to either the Republic of the Congo or the Democratic Republic of the Congo.)

[edit] Costa Rica

Costa Rica: Rich Coast

[edit] Cote d'Ivoire

Cote d'Ivoire: Ivory Coast

[edit] Ecuador

Ecuador: Equator

[edit] England

England : Land of the Angles (or 'Englas').

The Angles (genitive case, 'Engla/Englas') were the most numerous of the four Germanic peoples who emigrated to Britain in the 5th and 6th centuries, initially at the invitation of Welsh chiefs who needed help fending off the Picts after the Roman legions withdrew in 410 CE. They are believed to have originated in Angeln, at the pinacle of the boomerang-shaped area of modern Schleswig-Holstein in northern Germany, which is at the base of the Jutland Peninsula of Denmark.

The Angles combined with the Saxons and Jutes in England, as well as native celts, to form the Anglo-Saxon ethnic group.

Of the four Germanic peoples, the Saxons or "Seaxonas" settled in the south of Britain, from the Thames estuary westward, establishing kingdoms that bore the Saxon name: Essex (East Saxon), Sussex (South Saxon), Middlesex (Middle Saxon) and, of course, Wessex (West Saxon). The Angles or "Englas" settled along the North Sea coast, between the Thames and the Firth of Forth, inland to North Wales (modern Wales) and Strathclyde Wales (modernly the west coast and inland of Britain from Liverpool to Glasgow). The principal Anglian kingdoms were East Anglia (Suffolk and Norfolk), Northumberland (old Yorkshire to modern Edinburgh) and the massive central kingdom of Mercia. Jutes, whose origin is uncertain settled mostly in East Anglia, while Frisians (from Friesland in the north of the modern Netherlands and the adjacent far-northwestern Germany) settled along the south coast from Kent to Hampshire, and the lower east coast from Kent to East Anglia.

Kent, originally 'Cant' (thus, 'Canterbury' meaning "Cantish-" or "Kentish-Town"), was the first of the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms, and the only one in which all four Germanic ethnic groups were represented. The native Britons, however, came to be called 'Wealasc' (Welsh, in Modern English), meaning "foreigners" and were pushed westward into Cornwall (West Wales), Wales (North Wales) and Strathclyde Wales (now divided between Scotland and England), while some were pushed off the island entirely and ended up giving their name - Breizh - to the northwesternmost peninsula in France, as "Bretagne" (compare 'Grand Bretagne,' meaning "Great Britain") or "Britany."

When England was confederated in 802, it was under the Saxon King Egbert of Wessex. The capital was Winchester and the official language was the Late West Saxon dialect of Old English. The confederacy was otherwise dominated by Angles (pronounced "AHNg-less" in all dialects of Old English), however, so it bore the name 'Engla Land.' With the Norman Conquest of 1066, the capital was moved to London and the official language changed to Norman French for the next 300 years.

The culture and language of pre-Norman England are called "Old English" or "Anglo-Saxon" - the latter term reflecting the numerical dominance of the Angles and the political dominance of the Saxons during that period. Certain distinctions between Anglian and Saxon speech are still visible in Modern English, by dialectal preservation of "Englisc" (Anglian) and "Seaxonsic" (Saxon) words unchanged (or nearly so) since the Old English period:

Saxon: one, once, two, stomp, farther, long, (eld)/elder/eldest (Late West Saxon: ield/ieldra, etc.)

Anglian: a/an/ane, ance/aince, twa, stamp, further, lang, old/older/oldest (Anglian: ald/alder/aldest; survives in Scots as 'auld/aulder/auldest,' viz. Auld Lang Syne; and in Modern English words like 'alderman,' which means "older person").

[edit] France

Main article: Name of France.

France: Land of the Franks

The name France originates from the Franks, a Germanic tribe that occupied the region after the fall of the Western Roman Empire.

This tribe had changed their name to "Franks" in 11 BC^{[citation needed]}, following their defeat and relocation by Drusus, under the leadership of a certain chieftain called Franko. The ethnonym has also been traced to *frankon "javelin, lance" (Old English franca).

[edit] Germany

Germany : Land of the Neighbours, Relatives Deutschland : Land of the Human Beings (Better Land of german speaking people)

Germany comes from Old Irish ghéarmáin (read "YARE-mahn"), meaning "neighbours" or "relatives" via Latin "Germania" (hence, Spanish 'hermano/hermana', "brother/sister," from 'germano/germana'). Germania thus means "Land of the Neighbours" or "Land of the Relatives" (i.e., related peoples).

Deutsch refers to the language. In the Frankish Empire the upper classes spoke Latin, while the poorer classes spoke Germanic dialects. Charlemagne called the dialects Deutsch, from the Latin diot (people), meaning "peoples' language." So Deutschland means "land where the people speak Deutsch (German)."

[edit] India

India is known officially as "India" or "Bhārat"; Bhārata and Hindustan are other widely used terms in India.

India: Land of the River Indus (This river is now in Pakistan.)

Bhārat (also Bhārata, Bhāratavarsha, or Bharatvarsha) : Meaning unknown:

• Possibly derived from one of the two ancient Hindu kings named Bharata
• or from the king Bharata, son of Dushyanta, credited with bringing India under his rule and securing the title of an emperor, the country then being named after him in his honor.
• or from another tribe called Bhārat, which was the proper name of several other people in the Early and Later-Vedic Ages. The Bharatas are a tribe mentioned in the Rigveda, defeated in the Battle of the Ten Kings.

In all these cases, the names of kings called Bharata or tribes named Bharat derive from "Bhārata" as an alternative name for "Agni", the Vedic demigod of fire. The epithet may originally mean "the Bearer" or "the Sustainer".

Hindustan (also spelt Hindoostan or Hindoustan) : Land of the River Indus

(Essentially same origin as India; "-stan" means "land", "country", in several Asian languages)

For an in-depth explanation of all these names, and others, see: Etymology of India

[edit] Indonesia

Indonesia: "Islands of India" or "of the Indes", "Archipelago of India" or "of the Indes"

"Indo-" is a prefix refering to India (i.e. is a reference to the Indian Ocean; and to the area known as the (East) Indies, of which Indonesia is a major part.)

"-nesia" comes from the Greek nesos, meaning islands.

[edit] Ireland

Ireland : Land of Éire

Éire is the indigenous Irish name for the island (cognate with Latin "Hibernia").

[edit] Japan

Japan: Origin of the Sun

Japan, with its geographical location east of the Asian continent sees the sun rise and set before every other nation in East Asia.

[edit] Namibia

Namibia: Land of the Namib Desert

The name of the Namib desert itself is of disputed origin; It may be related to the word Nama (an ethnic identifier) or may designate a "vast space".

[edit] Rwanda

Rwanda: Greater Expansion

Rwanda is the name that was given by Tutsi kings of Rwanda. They believed that the country had to undergo into a series of wars fighting and conquering the neighboring Bantu countries in order to expand while forming the invincible Hamite Kingdom just in the middle of Bantu World. The kingdom had to expand in order to survive. Expanding the country was the duty of every Tutsi male (intore or soldiers) at the time and it would originate from heart. Rwanda means Greater Expansion and her capital city, Kigali, means Wide.

[edit] Scotland

Scotland: Land of the Scots (literally, "Land of the Raiders")

The Latin word Scottis means "raiders" and original applied to the Irish, before the colonised Scotland. The Roman name for the island of Ireland was Hibernia but Scotia referred to Ireland as the "Land of the Raiders." The Roman name for Scotland, in the days when it bordered the province of "Britannia," was Caledonia.

The Irish began to colonise western Caledonia at the end of the Roman period in Britain, with the result that Scotia came to be applied the Irish areas of Caledonia, and it was that Latin name (instead of Caledonia) that the early English learned as they colonised Great Britain - thus, they called the country 'Scot Land' while Old Irish Eriu became "Ira Land." Eventually, the label 'Scotia' applied exclusively to Scotland.

Scottish kings adopted the Latin title Basileus Scottorum or Rex Scottorum (meaning "King of the Scots Lands"), and Rex Scotiae (King of Scots) sometime in the 11th century. This was likely influenced by the style Imperator Scottorum ("Emperor of Scots Lands"), used by Brian Boru of Ireland from 1005, who claimed overlordship over all the Gaels of Ireland, Man and Scotland, but died (1014) before he could extend his rule over the other two realms.

[edit] Singapore

Singapore: City of the Lions

The name Singapore is derived from the Malay words singa (lion) and pura (city), which were themselves derived from the Sanskrit words सिंह siṃha and पुर pura.

[edit] Switzerland

Confoederatio Helvetica (Helvetic Confederation): Confederation of the land of the Helvetii

This is the official latin title, which is theoretically the foremost official title of Switzerland (being considered a neutral language). Helvetic means of the Helvetii tribe, the name of the people in Switzerland in Roman times. The simple latin name for Switzerland is Helvetia, "land of the Helvetii". The name "Helvetii" is that used by the Romans but it origins are unknown.

Schweiz (German); Suisse (French); Svizzera (Italian); Svizra (Romansh); Switzerland (English) : No exact meaning but derived from Schwyz.

The name in German, French, Italian and Romansh, as well as the English name, all derive from the name of Canton Schwyz, one of the original three cantons of Switzerland. Schwyz and the other original cantons are located in a small area of east-central modern Switzerland, known as proto-Switzerland (UrSchweiz).

[edit] Venezuela

Venezuela: Little Venice

This was the name of the first European settlement in what became Venezuela, a marsh settlement (slightly reminiscent of Venice) founded by Italian explorers working for Spain. The settlement is now lost underwater.

[edit] Việt Nam

Vietnam: The southern country of the Viet people

This name was first officially used in the reign of King Gia Long (1762-1820). Gia Long intended to use the name " Nam Viet" which had the same meaning but the Qing emperor disagreed because he thought it might be mistaken with the name given to Vietnam in the first years of Chinese colonization in the first century BC. As a result, the name changed to "Viet Nam". However, the word "Việt Nam" had been used long before that in poems and engraved on the stone tablets in the 15th century.

[edit] Wales

Wales: Land of foreigners or Land of Romanised foreigners

The English name for Wales originates from the Germanic word Walha, meaning stranger or foreigner. (The name was first used by the invading Germanic tribes for the Celtic Welsh, not by the Welsh themselves). As the Celts of Gaul were Romanized, the word changed its meaning to "Romanic people", as is still apparent in the name of the Walloons of Belgium, Wallachia in Romania, as well as the "-wall" of Cornwall.

Cymru: Land of our countrymen

In Welsh, Wales is called Cymru, which is thought to have meant 'countrymen' in Old Welsh. (There is also a mediaeval legend that derives it from the name Camber, son of Brutus and, according to the legend, the original King of Wales.) Cumberland and Cumbria in the north of England derive their names from the same word.

[edit] Zambia

Zambia: Land of the Zambezi River