List of subnational name etymologies

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This article provides a collection of the etymology of the names of subnational entities. This page generally only deals with regions and provinces; cities and other localities and features may appear listed under the individual country, with a link below.

Contents

[edit] Australia

[edit] States

[edit] Austria

[edit] Bundesländer (States)

  • Carinthia, German Kärnten: derived from the early medieval (tribal?) state Karantania (German Karantanien); a suggested etymology references a Celtic term for "stone" or "crag", while tradition holds that the name means "land of friends"
  • Lower Austria, German Nieder-Österreich: the lower part (lower in height) of the original territory of Austria ('the eastern country'), as opposed to Upper Austria; also called Österreich unter der Enns 'Austria below the (river) Enns'
  • Salzburg: after the city of Salzburg (literally "salt castle"), which takes its name from the salt mines that existed there during the Middle Ages
  • Styria, German Steiermark: after the castle of Steyr; in the high Middle Ages, it formed a march of the Holy Roman Empire, hence -mark
  • Tyrol, German Tirol, Italian Tirolo: after the castle of Tirol near Merano
  • Upper Austria, German Ober-Österreich: the upper (physically higher) part of the original territory of Austria, as opposed to Lower Austria; also called Österreich ob der Enns 'Austria above the (river) Enns'
  • Vienna, German Wien: from Celtic Vindobona (vindo "white" + bona "foundation, fort")
  • Vorarlberg, literally "in front of the Arlberg", takes its name from the Arlberg, a mountain (German: Berg) characterised by Arle, a local German term for "mountain pine".

[edit] Belgium

[edit] Regions

  • Brussels, Dutch Brussel, French Bruxelles (the capital city, outside any province; also Belgium's third region): medieval Dutch broek 'bog' + zele (in many place names in the Low Countries) 'habitation using thatching'
  • Flanders, Dutch Vlaanderen, French Flandre(s): plural of a terrain type; extended from the historical county (about half lost to French and Dutch neighbours; the rest roughly made up two administrative provinces, East Flanders and West Flanders; in French les Flandres, plural) to the whole Dutch-speaking, majority part of Belgium (French la Flandre, singular)
  • Wallonia, French Wallonie: from the (Romanized (Germano-)Celtic, now Francophone) Walloon people, as in many European countries, so named by Germanic neighbours; meaning: 'strangers'

[edit] Provinces

  • Liège – of disputed etymology. The name Liège may have the same origin as the ancient name of Paris, i.e. Lutetia; the German form, Lüttich, suggests this. Liège and Lutetia would both derive from Latin lucotætia, "marsh" or "mud". Another suggestion derives the names from Latin Lætica, "colony", or Leudica, "free". Alternatively, the Latin Leudica meaning "public place" may have given rise to the Walloon Lîdje and thence to Liège. Note that the name appeared in written form as Liége (with an acute accent) until the 1950s.

[edit] Canada

[edit] Provinces and territories

See Canadian provincial name etymologies

[edit] Regions

  1. Credited to Italian navigator Giovanni da Verrazano, who first named a region around Chesapeake Bay Archadia (Arcadia) in 1524 because of "the beauty of its trees", according to his diary. Cartographers began using the name Arcadia to refer to areas progressively farther north until it referred to the French holdings in maritime Canada (particularly Nova Scotia). The -r- also began to disappear from the name on early maps, resulting in the current Acadia. [1]
  2. Possibly derived from the Míkmaq word akatik, pronounced roughly "agadik", meaning "place", which French-speakers spelled as -cadie in place names such as Shubenacadie and Tracadie, possibly coincidentally. [2]

[edit] China

[edit] People's Republic of China

Most of the names of the modern administrative regions appeared as coinages in the Ming Dynasty and in the Qing Dynasty in ancient China. The Republic of China (ruling all of China from 1911 to 1949) and the People's Republic of China (ruling most of China after 1949) inherited most of them, and each made modifications and innovations. This list only includes the subnational entities under the effective control of the People's Republic of China.

[edit] Republic of China (Taiwan)

The Republic of China governed all the territory of China from 1911 to 1949, and retreated to Taiwan after the Chinese civil war (1927 - 1949). The list below includes only the subnational entities under the effective control of the Republic of China.

[edit] Czech Republic

[edit] Denmark

  • Bornholm: the Old Norse version of the name, Burgundarholm, suggests connections with the Burgundians, who traditionally originated in Scandinavia
  • Copenhagen (Danish: København) - a corruption of the original designation for the city, Købmandshavn, or "Merchants' Harbour" in Danish. It comes to English via the German Kopenhagen.
  • Faroe Islands (Danish: Færøerne, Faroese: Føroyar) - literally, "Sheep Islands", from their dense population of sheep
  • Greenland (Danish: Grønland) - from Old Norse Grœnland, literally, "green land"; so named by Erik the Red to induce settlement there. Greenlandic-speakers use the name Kalaallit Nunaat, meaning "Land of the Greenlanders"
  • Jutland (Danish: Jylland; German: Jütland) - name associated with the Jutes
  • Zealand (Danish: Sjælland) - literally "seal-land", from the seals found on the coasts of the island

[edit] Finland

  • Helsinki - from Old Norwegian Helsingfors (Helsing, a local tribe, plus fors meaning "waterfall")
  • Ostrobothnia (or in Swedish: Österbotten) - "Eastern Bothnia"

[edit] France

Note that most modern French départements take their names from local geographical features: usually rivers, occasionally mountain ranges or coasts. Thus most such names have a self-evident immediate origin: even non-speakers of French can deduce them with a minimum of geographical knowledge. The traditional provinces and regions (of any period) often bear names with more obscure and superficially richer histories.

[edit] Germany

[edit] Bundesländer (States)

[edit] Historic regions

[edit] Greece (Hellas)

  • Arcadia - from Arcas, the legendary eponymous leader of early Hellenic settlers
  • Sparta - from Greek spartē, a cord or rope made from the shrub spartos, a type of broom

[edit] India

[edit] States

The element Pradesh appears in the names of many Indian states. It means "land" or "province" in Sanskrit.

  • Andhra Pradesh: Land of the Andhras. Andhra also denotes "south" in Sanskrit - the equivalent of Australis in Latin.
  • Arunachal Pradesh: In Sanskrit, aruna means "dawn-lit" and achal "mountains"
  • Assam: from Kamarupa in Sanskrit; or from Ahom, a name given to the ruling Shan people by the inhabitatnts of the former kingdom of Kamarupa, and leter assimilated in the Sanskrit form Asama, as if meaning "unequalled, peerless or uneven".
  • Bihar - from vihara ("Buddhist monastery"). Foreign invaders often used abandoned viharas as military cantonments; the word Bihar may have come from the large number of viharas thus employed in the area that later became Bihar.
  • Chhattisgarh - "36 forts". Originally many-towns land of Dasarana (ten cities), which over time changed to Dahala and, after the Muslim conquest as the region atrophied with no connections to the rest of India, reverted to forest and to tribal ways[citation needed]. The name Chhattisgarh preserves the memory of the many cities.
  • Gujarat - Land of the "Gurjars", a "kshatriya" tribe or warrior-class.
  • Haryana - The word "hari" means "green" in Hindi. The Green revolution reached its peak in the mid-1960s at the time of the setting up of this state. People of the area take pride in their bountiful agriculture, and caused the state to receive this name.
  • Himachal Pradesh: In Sanskrit, hima means "snow" and achal "mountains" (referring to the Himalayas). Himanchal, Himachal, Himalaya, Himaratta, Himapradesh are all synonyms.
  • Karnataka: from Karu + Naad = Karnaad, which means "lofty + land". "Karnatik", also spelt "Carnatic", the adjectival form of "Karnaad", means "of Karnaad". The term "Carnatic Music" also shares this etymology. Two other (probably erroneous) proposed etymologies suggest:
    • "Karnaad" as from "Kari + Naad", "kari" in Sanskrit meaning "elephant"; hence: "Land of Elephants";
    • Even more unlikely: "Karnaad" as "Kara + Naad", from "Kaaraa", the Turkic/Mongol/Urdu/Hindi word for "black", hence "Black Land". Champions of this etymology believe it refers to the black cotton soil of central Maharashtra, which however quickly turns red as one moves southward.
These latter two etymologies also share a common flaw in that they combine the Dravidian word "Naad" for "country" with Turkic "Kaaraa" or Sanskrit "Kari".
  • Kerala: from Kera meaning "coconut" in classical Tamil; hence, "Land of coconut trees".
  • Madhya Pradesh - "Middle Province"
  • Maharashtra - "Great State". Maha means "great" or "big" (compare Latin and English 'major') and rashtra means "nation" or "state".
  • Manipur - "Jeweled land"
  • Punjab - Persian for "five rivers"
  • Rajasthan - Raja's land (-sthan) - Land of Kings
  • Tamil Nadu - Tamil country (Nadu in the Tamil language means "country" or "homeland")
  • Uttar Pradesh: in Sanskrit, uttar means "north", pradesh means "province"
  • West Bengal: the word Bengal derives ultimately from Sanskrit Vanga, an area that currently falls largely in Bangladesh. Vanga stood in contradistinction to Rarha and to Varendra, the regions that actually form the present Indian state. Persian, Hindi and Bengali derived Bangâlah, Bangâl and Bânglâ, respectively, from the Sanskrit original. The British anglicised these words into Bengal, and this name came to denote the entire linguistic region. - The term West Bengal originated after the partition of Bengal province in 1905, when the administration set up the two separate provinces of West and East Bengal. The latter, after a period as East Pakistan (1955 - 1971), became the present country of Bangladesh.

[edit] Union Territories

  • Chandigarh - "Chandi's fort". No actual fort ever existed; a large Chandi temple "protected" the locals, hence the name. The goddess Chandi is a form of Kali or Parvati.
  • Lakshadweep - "Hundred Thousand Islands". In Sanskrit, laksha means "a hundred thousand" and dweep means "island".
  • Puducherry: Pudu + cheri from the Tamil words for "new" and "settlement" or "camp". Formerly in English Pondicherry

Reference: [4]

[edit] Indonesia

[edit] Iran (Persia)

[edit] Italy

  • Campania - from the Latin campania (countryside, plain, battlefield). Compare Champagne in France.
  • Friuli - from the Latin Forum Julii (The market of Julius), which at the beginning referred only to the city of Cividale, founded by Julius Caesar and then extended to the whole region
  • Latium (in modern Italian: Lazio) - land of the early Italic inhabitants known as Latins, in their turn popularly associated with the mythological King Latinus [in turn, "Latins" (in Latin, Latīnī) -- as well as the name of King Latīnus (simply the singular of the same name) -- clearly derived their names from Latium by means of the ethnic suffix -īnus, with the obvious meaning of "inhabitant(s) of Latium", which makes this etymology ridiculously circular, but let that serve as a warning to the reader as to the quality of this and other etymologies on this page]. Ovid hints at perhaps a slightly more sophisticated folk etymology, with a legend of the naming of Latium after Saturn latente deo (as a god in hiding) after he allegedly fled to Italy following his expulsion by Jupiter. - Modern linguists postulate origins in a Proto-Indo-European language (PIE) root *stela- (to spread, extend), expressing the idea of "flat land" (in contrast to the local Sabine high country). But the name may originate from an earlier, non Indo-European one. See the Online Etymological Dictionary.
  • Lombardy - from the Germanic tribe of the Lombards (literally "long-beards" or "long-bearded axe people", or, according to another theory, "long-halberds"), who invaded Italy in the 6th century. Note: After the Lombard invasion, the name "Longobardia" or "Langobardia" applied to the whole of Italy for about two centuries, throughout Europe and also in Arabic (al-Ankubardiya). The name Italia did not return into wide use until the late 8th century
  • Marche - literally. "marches", "borderlands". In the Middle Ages the region lay on the boundaries between imperial lands and the more independent areas of southern Italy. The March of Ancona became the best known of such marches
  • Sardinia - speculatively linked with the Shardana people and/or with Sardis
  • Sicily - island settled by the Sicels

[edit] Korea

[edit] Malaysia

  • Alor Star - alor in Malay means "furrow", while star refers to a kind of tree (Bouea macrophylla) that bears small, sour fruit known as kundang or remia in Malay
  • Cyberjaya - Malay: "cyber excellence", a reference to the city's designation as the "Silicon Valley of Malaysia"
  • Ipoh - named after the ipoh tree whose poisonous sap the Orang Asli used to coat their blowpipe darts with
  • Johor - from Arabic jauhar, or "precious stones"
  • Kangar - named for the Malay 'kangkok', a kind of hawk (Spizaetus Limnaetu)
  • Kelantan - said to be a corruption of gelam hutan, the Malay name for the Melaleuca leucadendron tree, also possibly derived from kilatan ("lightning")
  • Klang - possibly from Mon-Khmer klong or Malay kilang ("warehouse")
  • Kota Bharu - Malay: "new town/fort"
  • Kuala Lumpur - Malay: "muddy confluence", a reference to the founding of the city at the confluence of Gombak River and Klang River
  • Kuching - Malay: "cat", but probably a corruption of the Indian cochin ("port") or a reference to the mata kucing trees that used to proliferate where the city grew subsequently
  • Labuan - derived from the Malay labuhan ("anchorage")
  • Langkawi - Malay for "eagle island", but possibly related to Langkasuka, an ancient Hindu kingdom founded in Kedah in the 1st century CE
  • Malacca - named by the founder of Malacca, Parameswara, after the Melaka tree under which he sheltered
  • Negeri Sembilan - Malay: "nine states", a reference to the nine original districts (or nagari) settled by the Minangkabau
  • Penang - named after the Pinang tree
  • Perak - Malay: "silver", from the silvery colour of tin for which the area became famous; or possibly from the "glimmer of fish in the water"
  • Putrajaya - Malay: "princely excellence", named after the first Prime Minister of Malaysia, Tunku Abdul Rahman Putra and possibly a reference to the planned city's status as the new administration centre for the Federal Government
  • Selangor - possibly from the Malay selangau ("fly") due to the abundance of flies along the Selangor River
  • Sungai Petani - literally "farmer river" in Malay, said to originate from the concentration of paddy-fields and farmers in the state
  • Taiping - Chinese: "great peace"

[edit] Mexico

See Mexican state name etymologies

[edit] Netherlands

  • Alkmaar: from Aelcemaer, meaning 'lake of auks', due to the fact that lakes formerly surrounded the core of Alkmaar - all of them now drained and thus turned into dry land
  • Amsterdam: from Amstelredam, which means "dam over the Amstel" (the river Amstel flows through present-day Amsterdam)
  • Batavia (Germanic): "arable land" (derived from the regional name "Betuwe", as opposed to the other regional name "Veluwe" meaning "fallow" or "waste" land)
  • Holland (part of the Netherlands; but the term often refers to the country as a whole): Germanic "holt (i.e. wooded) land" (often incorrectly regarded as meaning "hollow [i.e. marsh] land")
  • Rotterdam: meaning 'dam over the Rotte' (the river Rotte flows through present-day Rotterdam)

[edit] New Zealand

See also List of New Zealand place names and their meanings.

[edit] Pakistan

[edit] Provinces

[edit] Pakistani-administered portions of the Kashmir

  • Azad Kashmir — Azad: Urdu, "Free"; "Kashmir" either:
    • from the Koshur (Native Kashmiri) for "mountain tribes people" in north-east Pakistan; or
    • from Sanskrit KaSyapa-mIra, land of the Kasyapa[1], although this has also been called a "folk etymology". [2]

[edit] Papua New Guinea

[edit] Poland

[edit] Portugal

  • Alentejo - meaning "beyond the Tejo (the Tagus river)"
  • Azores - from Açores (pl.), after the "Açor", a type of bird
  • Beira - quite literally, the "edge" (during the early phase of Portugal's history, Beira formed a borderland)
  • Madeira - "wood"

[edit] Romania

See: Etymological list of counties of Romania

  • Bessarabia - from Basarab I, Wallachian king who led some expeditions in this land
  • Bukovina - (in German: "Buchenland") = "beech land"
  • Dobrogea - "good land"
  • Haţeg - "Terra Herzog" = Duke's land
  • Muntenia - from muntean = man of the mountains, from Romanian munte=mountain
  • Oltenia - from the river Olt, called Alutus by the Romans, possibly from Latin lutum, meaning "mud" or "clay".
  • Transylvania - "beyond the woods"
    • Ardeal - "wooden hill" - arde expresses an Indo-European root meaning forest, the same as in English Forest of Arden and Belgian Ardennes Woods; Deal means hill in Romanian
  • Wallachia - "land of the foreigners"

[edit] Russia (including Siberia and the Russian Far East)

[edit] Spain

  • Andalusia - from the Arabic name (Al-Andalus, with several suggested etymologies) formerly applied to the whole Iberian Peninsula
  • Aragon - from the Aragon River, that gave its name to the county of Aragon, one of the little Christian polities that resisted Islamic rule in Spain during its greatest extent (see Reconquista)
  • Asturias - the land of the Astures, an early people of north-west Spain
  • Basque Country (Basque: Euskal Herria - from the ancient tribe of the Vascones, whose name became an ethnonym in the Middle Ages. The Basque name derivates from Euskara (the autoctonous name for the Basque language).
    • Biscay (Basque: Bizkaia]]: variant of bizkarra ("shoulder", "back" or, in this case, "mountain range" in Basque)
    • Álava (Basque: Araba]]: uncertain ethymology. It's been claimed that the name could cme from a Roman town called Alba, from several prossible Basque ethymologies and even from Arabs (though they never were in the province for long). A chronicle of 905 talks of Arba but later the common word is Alaba or Alava.
    • Guipuscoa (Basque: Gipuzkoa]]: unkown. Old documents use sometimes the variant Ipuscoa.
  • Cantabria - from the Cantabri, an untamed mountaineer people defeated by the Romans only after a great military effort (Cantabrian Wars, 29 - 19 BC). Spaniards also call this region La Montaña ("the Mountain"), but usually call the Bay of Biscay the Cantabrian Sea.
  • Catalonia - from the castlà ("castellan") class who governed the nascent feudal Catalonia from their castles in the 11th and 12th centuries. (Compare the etymology of "Castile".)
  • Extremadura - from Medieval Latin Extrema Dorii (literally, "extremes of the Douro river"), referring to the territories south of the Douro basin; or from an Old Castilian word used to designate the further territories controlled by the Christians (see Reconquista)
  • Navarre (Spanish: Navarra, Basque: Nafarroa) - from the Kingdom of Navarre. Navarra has been argued to have either a Basque or Romance ethymology. In the first case it would come from nabar ("brownish, multicolor", also "plowshare"), in the second from nava ("river bank").
  • Galicia - from Latin Gallaecia, the name of the province created in Roman Hispania by Diocletian in 298 CE. It derives from gallicoi or callicoi, (Galli or Celts).
  • León -- the ancient kingdom and subsequent province of León take their name from the city of León, whose name derives from its position as the base of a Roman legion (Latin legio)

[edit] Switzerland

[edit] Taiwan

See Republic of China (Taiwan)

[edit] Ukraine

Most of Ukraine's oblasts take their names from their principal city; but Volyn Oblast, Zakarpattia Oblast, and the Crimean Autonomous Republic provide exceptions to this rule. See also subdivisions of Ukraine.

[edit] United Kingdom and dependencies

See also British toponymy, List of generic forms in British place names, Etymological list of counties of the United Kingdom)

  • England - from Engla-lond, the land settled in the early 6th century by various peoples from Low Germany, among them the Angles (Latin Anglii) who originally inhabited the fish-hook shaped territory known as Angeln situated in present-day Schleswig. See Anglo-Saxons.
  • Gibraltar - from Arabic "jabal Tāriq" -> "Tarik's rock" because the Arab general Tarik-ibn-Ziyad started his conquest of the Iberian Peninsula from here in 711.
  • Northern Ireland - from Old Irish Eriu. Precise meaning uncertain, though it could derive from the name of a prehistoric fertility goddess.
  • Scotland Literally 'land of the Scots'. The Scottish people, originally from Ireland, settled parts of western Scotland in the 5th century, although the name "Scotland" did not come into use until after the 9th Century. Alba, the Gaelic name for Scotland means 'highlands': compare the Latin albus - 'white' (describing the mountains). Caledonia, the Latin name, means forested highlands
  • Wales - "land of the foreigners", from the Germanic 'wealas' the term used by Anglo-Saxon invaders of the British Isles for the native Celts they encountered. The Welsh native toponym "Cymru" means "fellow countrymen". Ancient Germanic tribes named several areas in Europe in a similar way, using their term for places inhabited by peoples of Celtic or Latin descent, including "Wallonia" in Belgium, Wallachia in Romania, "welsche Schweiz" (French-speaking Switzerland) and the archaic "Welschenland" (a term for Italy).

[edit] United States

[edit] States

[edit] Counties

[edit] Notes

  1. ^ Talageri, Shrikant. Chapter 4:"The Geography of the Rigveda". The Rigveda. A historical analysis. New Delhi: Aditya Prakashan 2000. Retrieved 25 November 2006
  2. ^ Witzel, Michael. "Have Words, Will Travel!" from "WESTWARD HO ! The Incredible Wanderlust of the Rgvedic Tribes Exposed by S. Talageri", ELECTRONIC JOURNAL OF VEDIC STUDIES Vol. 7 (2001), issue 2 (March 31). Retrieved 25 November 2006.

[edit] See also

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