List of country name etymologies

Categories: Country name etymology

This list covers English language country names with their etymologies. Some of these include notes on indigenous names and their etymologies. Countries in italics no longer exist as sovereign political entities.


Contents: Top - 0–9 A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z
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A

  • Afghanistan: The name means "land of the Afghans", though the meaning of the word Afghan remains unknown. One explanation derives it from Apakan, an 8th or 9th century Iranian ruler. Others point out a 3rd century CE Sasanian (kings of Iran who ruled most of Afghanistan and parts of Pakistan during 241–642) reference to "Abgan", the oldest known mention of a word variant of "Afghan". It also appears in the inscriptions of Shahpur I at Naksh-e-Rustam which mentions a certain Goundifer Abgan Rismaund. The sixth-century Indian Astronomer Varaha Mihira, in his Brhat Samhita (11.61; 16.38), refers to Afghans as Avagan. The seventh-century Chinese pilgrim Hiuen Tsiang refers to a people located to the north of Sulaiman Mountains whom he calls Apokien which obviously alludes to Avagans or Afghans.
The first Muslim reference to "Afghan" appeared in Hudud-al-Alam in 982 CE. The Muslim scholar Al-Biruni (973 - 1048 CE) refers to the "barbaric and rebellious tribes" between Kabol in the west up to valley of Sindh (Indus) in the east as "Afghans" and specifically designates them as Hindus (Sachau's Trans. of Al-Biruni's India, pp 21-22, 199, 208, 239, 317). This also shows that the Afghans had not yet adopted Islam in Al-Biruni's time. Accounts from the end of twelfth century about warfare between the Muslims and Hindus represent Afghans as fighting on both sides, which again reveals that although the legend places their conversion in the early Islamic period, they had not all converted to Islam at this point.
One suggested etymology for the name "Afghan" derives it from Sanskrit upa-ganah, said to mean "allied tribes". However, according to a modern view, the name Afghan evidently derives from Sanskrit Ashvaka or Ashvakan, the Assakenoi of Arrian (J. W. McCrindle, Saan Martin etc). In Sanskrit, word ashva (Iranian aspa, Prakrit assa) means "horse", and ashvaka (Prakrit assaka) means "horseman". Pre-Christian times knew the people of eastern Afghanistan as Ashvakas (horsemen), since they raised a fine breed of horses and had a reputation for providing expert cavalrymen. The fifth-century-BCE Indian grammarian Panini calls them Ashvayana and Ashvakayana. Classical writers use the respective equivalents Aspasios (or Aspasii, Hippasii) and Assakenois (or Assaceni/Assacani, Asscenus). Apparently, the Pre-Christian term Ashvakan mutated into Avagan at some stage before Varaha Mihira's time, and underwent further changes — to Afghan — probably around the beginning of middle ages. The terms Abgan and Apakan, if indeed they refer to "Afghan", apparently represent Iranian variants of the Sanskrit Avagan.
Further, the designation Aspasios/Aspasii (=Isapzais/Aspazais) became the modern Yusufzais only a few centuries ago (see The Pathans, by Olaf Caroe). Scholars identify these Ashvakas i.e. Assakenois and Aspasios as the clans of the Kambojas (E. Lamotte). The Persian suffix -stan expresses the meaning "land".
  • Albania: "land of the highlanders". "Alb" from the PIE root meaning "white" or "mountain". Historians speculate that mountain tribes from modern Kosovo brought their highland ethnonym to the narrow coastal plain.
    • Shqipërië (Albanian name): means "land of the eagle", the eagle having probably been a tribal totem.
    • Arnavutluk (Turkish):
    • Illyricum (former name, Latin variant): after the Illyrians.
  • Algeria: from the name of the capital city Algiers: French: "Alger", from Arabic "al-Jazā'ir" ("The Islands"). Al-Jazā'ir is the local name for Algeria.
  • America: see United States of America below, and under "naming of America"
  • American Samoa (territory of the United States of America): See Samoa and United States of America below.
  • Andorra: Unknown. Pre-Roman, possibly Iberian or Basque.
  • Angola: From ngola, a title used by the monarch of the pre-colonial Kingdom of Ndongo. Portuguese named the area in honour of a friendly Ngola.
  • Anguilla (territory of the United Kingdom): When Christopher Columbus sighted the island in 1493 he called it "Anguilla" – Spanish for "eel", due to its elongated shape.
  • Antigua and Barbuda: Christopher Columbus named Antigua in honour of the Santa Maria La Antigua cathedral in Seville, Spain when he landed there in 1493. "Barbuda" means "bearded" in Portuguese. The islands gained this name after the appearance of the their fig trees, whose long roots resemble beards. Alternatively, it may refer to the indigenous Indians' beards.
  • Argentina: from the Latin "Argentum", meaning "silver". Early Spanish and Portuguese traders used the region's Rio de la Plata or "Silver River" to transport silver and other treasures from upstream Peru. The land around the terminal downstream stations became known as "Argentina" – "Land of Silver".
  • Armenia: Derived from the Persian name Armanestân and Arman attested in Old Persian inscriptions. Some believe the word Armen to refers to the ancient semi-legendary figure Aram, famed for his valiant deeds. Iranians call the people "Armens" or "Armenians".
    • Hayastan (Armenian name): after Hayk, an ancient semi-legendary figure who helped found Armenia. His people called themselves the Hay after him and their country "Hayk" or "Hayastan". The Persian suffix -stan means "land".
    • Filistan (Kurdish variant):
    • Sasomheti (სასომხეთი, Georgian), Somich (Сомих, Ossetian variant):
  • Aruba (territory of Netherlands): Two possible meanings exist. One story relates how the Spanish explorer Alonso de Ojeda named the island in 1499 as "Oro Hubo", implying the presence of gold (oro in Spanish means "gold"). Another possible derivation cites the Arawak Indian word oibubai, which means "guide".
  • Australia: from "unknown southern land" (Latin: terra australis incognita). Early European explorers, sensing that the Australian landmass far exceeded in size what they had already mapped, gave the area a generic descriptive name. Explorer Matthew Flinders (1774–1814), the first to sail around and chart the Australian coast, used the term "Australia" in his publication. Previously Dutch explorers referred to the continent as "Hollandia Nova" (New Holland).
  • Austria: "eastern realm": compare the modern German Österreich, from Old High German ôstarrîhhi, which literally means "empire in the East". In the 9th century, the territory formed part of the Frankish empire's eastern limit, and also formed the eastern limit of German settlement bordering on Slavic areas. Under Charlemagne and during the early middle ages, the territory had the Latin name marchia orientalis (Eastern March), translated to Ostarrîchi in the vernacular, as it first appears in a 996 document.
  • Azerbaijan: "land of fire", native spelling Azərbaycan (from surface fires on ancient oil pools; its ancient name, (Media) Atropatene (in Greek and Latin) or Atrpatakan (in Armenian), actually referring to the present-day Azerbaijan region of Iran, became Azerbaijan in Arabic. The territory of the modern republic of Azerbaijan was known to the Persians as "Aran" and in classical times as "(Caucasian) Albania" and, in part, "(Caucasian) Iberia", although this last term corresponds mostly to the present-day republic of Georgia. (See Georgia below.) Media Atropatene was the region further to the south, located south of the River Araxes. "Aran" is thought to derive from the same root as modern "Iran", while "Albania" and "Iberia" are believed to be toponyms of Caucasus mountain derivation. The name "(Media) Atropatene" comes from Atropates ("fire protector" in Middle Persian) who was the independent Iranian satrap at the time of the Seleucids. The modern ethnonym 'Azerbaijani' has often become the subject of sharp differences of opinion between the ethnically Turkic inhabitants of the modern republic of Azerbaijan and the inhabitants of the Persian-dominated neighboring republic of Iran. Iranians consider the names "Azerbaijan" and "Atropatene" as expressions of historically Persian culture, and therefore often refer to the modern republic of Azerbaijan as "Turkish Azerbaijan", and its inhabitants as "Azerbaijani Turks". In contrast, Turkophone Azerbaijanis insist on their own place as an historically continuous presence in Azerbaijani history. The suffix -an in Persian means "land".
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B

  • Bahamas: from the Spanish "Baja Mar" meaning "Low (Shallow) Sea". Spanish Conquistadors thus named the islands from the waters around them.
  • Bahrain: from Arabic, meaning "two seas". Exactly which seas are being referred to is debated. Bahrain is located in a bay formed by the Arabian mainland and the peninsula of Qatar, and some believe that the "two seas" are the waters of the bay on either side of the island. Others believe that the reference is to Bahrain's position as an island in the Persian Gulf, separated by "two seas" from the Arabian coast to the south and Iran to the north. Yet another claim is that the first sea is the one around Bahrain and the second sea is the abundant natural spring waters under the island itself.
  • Baker Island (territory of the United States of America): named after Michael Baker, of New Bedford, Massachusetts, who claimed to have discovered it in 1832 (subsequent to its actual discovery).
  • Bangladesh: from Bengali/Sanskrit, Bangla referring to the Bengali speaking people, and Desh meaning "country", hence "Country of the Bengalis". The country previously formed part of colonial British India. Bengali culture spans a wider area, extending into present-day India (in West Bengal, Assam, Meghalaya, Tripura and Jharkand.
    • East Pakistan (former name): the name used when Pakistan comprised both modern-day Pakistan, or "West Pakistan", and modern-day Bangladesh – "East Pakistan". See Pakistan below. Note: though the name "Pakistan" comes from an acronym of the country's various regions/homelands, Bangladesh or its regions do not feature as part of the acronym.
  • Barbados: Named by the Portuguese explorer Pedro A. Campos "Os Barbados" ("The Bearded Ones") in 1536 after the appearance of the island's fig trees, whose long roots resemble beards.
  • Bassas da India (territory of France):
  • Belarus: "White Rus'", "White Ruthenia", formerly known as Byelorussia, a literal translation from Russian, "White Russia". (See Russia below.) The name was changed after the collapse of the Soviet Union to emphasize that Belarus and Russia were and would continue to be two separate nations. See Belarus: Name for more. The exact original meaning conveyed by the term "Bela" or 'White' is not certain. It was commonly employed by early cultures as representing the qualities of freedom, purity, or nobility. On the other hand, it may simply have originated as a totem color of convenience. It is interesting to note that part of the western territory of modern Belarus was historically known as "Chernarossija" or 'Black Rus'. The term "Black" was most commonly applied to landscapes bearing especially rich and productive soils. How this may reflect on the origination of the term 'White Rus' has not been explored. Yet another region in present-day western Ukraine was historically known as "Red Russia" or "Red Ruthenia".
  • Belgium: from the name of a Celtic tribe, the Belgae. Possibly further derived from the PIE "*bolg" meaning "bag" or "womb" indicating common descent, and if so, likely following some unknown original adjective.
  • Belize: traditionally said to derive from the Spanish pronunciation of "Wallace", the name of the pirate who set up the first settlement in Belize in 1638. Another possibility relates the name to the Maya word belix, meaning "muddy water", applied to the Belize River.
    • British Honduras (former name): after the colonial ruler (Britain). For "Honduras" see Honduras below. See also Britain below.
  • Benin: named after an old African Empire named Benin, on whose territory modern Benin does not actually lie.
    • Dahomey (former name): after the principal ethnic group of the country.
  • Bermuda (territory of the United Kingdom): gets its name from the Spanish sea captain Juan de Bermúdez who sighted the islands in 1503.
  • Bhutan: land of the Bhotia. Ethnic Tibetans or "Bhotia" migrated from Tibet to Bhutan in the 10th century. The common root is "Bod", an ancient name for Tibet.
    • Druk Yul (Bhutanese name): means "land of the thunder dragon", "land of thunder", or "land of the dragon". The name comes from the violent thunder storms that come from the Himalayas.
  • Biffeche: unchanged since at least the 17th Century; possibly a French spelling of an earlier local name; origin unknown. Arabic has the consonantal root 'BFSh'.
  • Bolivia: from Simón Bolívar 1783-1830, an anti-Spanish militant and first president of Bolivia after its independence in 1824. His surname comes from La Puebla de Bolibar, a village in Biscay, Spain
  • Bosnia and Herzegovina: traditionally, the region consisted of two distinct territories; the larger northern section was named after the Bosna river. The smaller southern territory takes its name from the German noble title Herzog, meaning "Duke". Frederick IV, King of the Romans, made the territory's ruler, the Grand Vojvoda Stjepan Vukcic, a duke in 1448.
  • Botswana: named after the country's largest ethnic group, the Tswana.
    • Bechuanaland (former name): derived from Bechuana, an alternative spelling of "Botswana".
  • Bouvet Island (territory of Norway): named after the French explorer Jean-Baptiste Charles Bouvet de Lozier who discovered the remote island in 1739.
  • Brazil: from the brazilwood tree, which in turn was named because its reddish wood was the color of red-hot embers (brasil in Portuguese).
  • Britain: from Pritani, "painted"; a reference to the original inhabitants of the islands use of body-paint and tattoos; may also derive from the Celtic goddess Brigid. See also United Kingdom below.
  • British Virgin Islands (territory of the United Kingdom): Christopher Columbus, on discovering a seemingly endless number of islands in the nort-east Caribbean in 1493, named them after St. Ursula and the 11,000 virgins. See also Britain above.
  • Brunei: in its full name "Negara Brunei Darussalam", "Darussalam" means "Abode of Peace" in Arabic, while "Negara" means "State" in Malay. "Negara" is derived from the Dravidian "Nagara" meaning "city".
  • Bulgaria: named for the Bulgars. The etymology of their tribal name, Bulgar may come from burg, which means "castle" in Germanic languages. A. D. Keramopoulos derives the name "Bulgars" from burgarii or bourgarioi meaning "those who maintain the forts" (burgi, bourgoi, purgoi) along the northern boundaries of the Balkan provinces, and elsewhere in the Roman Empire, first mentioned in Greek in an inscription dated A.D. 202, found between Philippopolis and Tatar Pazardzhik (and last published in Wilhelm Dittenberger's Sylloge inscriptionum graecarum, 3 ed., vol. II [1917], no. 880,1. 51, p. 593). The Bulgarians, previously known as Moesians, inhabited Thrace. - An alternative Turkic etymology for the name of the pre-Slavicised Central-Asian Bulgars derives from Bulgha meaning sable and has a totemistic origin. - Some associate the name Bulgar with the River Volga in present-day Russia: Bulgars lived in that region before and/or after the migration to the Balkans: see Volga Bulgaria.
  • Burkina Faso: means "land of upright people," "land of honest men" or "land of the incorruptible". The country was formerly called Upper Volta. The name was changed in 1984 by President Thomas Sankara, who had taken power in a coup the previous year. The two parts of the name are from two of the country's main languages: Moré (Burkina) and Dioula (Faso).
  • Burma: see Myanmar below.
  • Burundi: land of those speaking the Rundi language.
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C

  • Cambodia: The name Cambodia is derived from that of the ancient Khmer kingdom of Kambuja (Kambujadesa). Kambuja or Kamboja is the ancient Sanskrit name of an early north Indian tribe, the Kambojas, named after the founder of that tribe, Kambu Svayambhuva, apparently a variant of Cambyses, Kambujiya or Kamboja. See Etymology of Kamboja. The French name for Cambodia, Cambodge, is also derived from Kambuja or Kamboja.
    • Kampuchea (local name): possibly derived in the same fashion. It was also the English language name from 1975-1989.
  • Cameroon: also Cameroun; from Portuguese Rio de Camarões ("River of Shrimps"), the name given to the River Wouri by Portuguese explorers in the 15th century.
  • Canada: from k'anata, meaning "little settlement" or "the village" in an Algonquian language (referring to Stadacona, a settlement near present-day Quebec City); see Canada's name
  • Cape Verde: from the Portuguese Cabo Verde, "green cape", after a cape in Western Africa
  • Caroline Islands: after King Charles II of Spain
  • Cayman Islands (territory of the United Kingdom): Christopher Columbus discovered the islands in 1503 after winds blew him off his course from Panama to Hispaniola. He called the islands Las Tortugas, meaning "The Turtles" in Spanish, due to the large numbers of turtles on the islands. Around 1540 the islands gained the name "Caymanas", a Carib word for "marine crocodile", an animal found on the islands.
  • Central African Republic: Gets its name from its geographical position on the continent of Africa. See also Africa on the Placename etymology page.
  • Chad: locally known in French as République du Tchad. Named for Lake Chad (or Tchad) in the country's southwest. The lake in turn got its name from the Bornu word tsade, which means "lake".
  • Chile: exact meaning unknown. Possiblities include that it comes from a native Araucanian term meaning "the depths", a reference to the fact that the Andes mountain chain looms over the narrow coastal flatland. The Quechua or Mapuche Indian word "chili/chilli" or "where the land ends/where the land runs out/limit of the world" also provides a possible derivation. Another possible meaning originates with a native word tchili, meaning "snow".
  • China: after the Qin Dynasty in Sanskrit, the pronunciation "China" came to the western languages through the Persian word چین "Chin". (see also: China in world languages)
    • Zhong Guo (Chinese name): meaning "center country"
    • Names like the archaic English Cathay, Turkish Xytai and Russian Китай (Kitai) derive from the Khitan people who conquered China in the 10th century.
  • Christmas Island (territory of Australia): because Captain William Mynors discovered the island on Christmas Day in 1643.
  • Clipperton Island (territory of France): named after the English mutineer and pirate John Clipperton, who made it his hideout in 1705.
  • Cocos (Keeling) Islands (territory of Australia): "Keeling" after Captain William Keeling who discovered the islands in 1609.
  • Colombia: named after the explorer Christopher Columbus, despite the fact that he never actually set foot in the country.
  • Comoros: from the Arabic "Djazair al Kamar" – "Island of the moon".
  • Congo: from the former Kongo kingdom.
  • Congo, Democratic Republic of: from the former Kongo kingdom.
  • Cook Islands (territory of New Zealand): named after Captain James Cook who sighted the islands in 1770.
  • Costa Rica: means "rich coast" in Spanish, a name given to it by Spanish explorer Gil Gonzalez Davila.
  • Côte d'Ivoire: means "Ivory Coast" in French. The French named the region in reference to the ivory traded from the area - in similar fashion, nearby stretches of the African shoreline became known as the "Grain Coast", the "Gold Coast" and the "Slave Coast".
  • Crimea: means "moat" in Turkic languages, as a memory of the moat that formerly separated this peninsular from mainland Ukraine.
  • Croatia, Latinization of the Croatian name Hrvatska: of unknown origin, but thought to come from a Sarmatian word for "herdsman" or "cowboy".
  • Cuba: Taíno Indian, "Cubanacan" – "centre place". In Portugal, many believe that the name echoes that of the Portuguese town of Cuba, speculating that Christopher Columbus provided a link.
  • Cyprus: derived from the Greek for "copper" (in Greek "Kypros"), in reference to the copper mined on the island.
  • Czechoslovakia: roughly "land of the Czechs and Slovaks" from the two main Slavic ethnic groups in the country, with "Slovak" deriving from the Slavic for "Slavs"; and "Czech" ultimately of unknown origin.
  • Czech Republic: from Čechové (Češi, i.e. Czechs), the name of one of the Slavic tribes on the country's territory, which subdued the neighboring Slavic tribes around 900. The origin of the name of the tribe itself remains unknown. According to a legend, it comes from their leader Čech, who brought them to Bohemia. Most scholarly theories regard Čech as a sort of obscure derivative, i.e. from Četa (military unit).
    • Bohemia (Latin and traditional English variant): after a Celtic tribe Boii.
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D

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E

  • East Timor: From the Malay word timur meaning "east". \The local official Tetun language refers to East Timor as Timor Lorosae or "east Timor". But the official name of the country uses the Portuguese form: "Timor-Leste" (East Timor). In neighbouring Indonesia it has the formal name Timor Timur - etymologically "eastern east". But Indonesians usually shorten the name as 'Tim-Tim.
    • Portuguese Timor (former name): after the former colonial ruler (Portugal). "Timor" as above. See also Portugal below.
  • Ecuador: "equator" in Spanish, as the country lies on the Equator.
  • Egypt: from ancient Greek (attested in Mycenean) Αίγυπτος, or Aígyptos, which according to Strabo, derived from "Αιγαίου υπτίως" (Aegeou yptios - the land below the Aegean sea). This becomes more apparent in the variation Aegyptos [1]. Alternatively, from the Egyptian name of Memphis, meaning "temple of the soul of Ptah".
    • Mişr (Arabic name, pronounced Maşr in Egyptian Arabic): a widespread Semitic word, first used to mean "Egypt" in Akkadian, and meaning "city". The Turkish name Mısır derives from the Arabic one.
    • Kimi (Coptic name): simply means "black" (ancient Egyptian kmt), as opposed to the desert, called "red".
    • Kemt (i.e. ancient Egyptian kmt, see above): the land of the "black" (mud of the Nile, or [as some have argued] people).
  • El Salvador: "the saviour" in Spanish, named after Jesus.
  • England: derived from the Old English name Englaland. The literatal translation of this is: the land of the Angles.
  • Equatorial Guinea: "Equatorial" from the word "equator", despite the fact that the country doesn't actually lie on the Equator (though it's very close). "Guinea" perhaps from the Berber term "aguinaoui", which means "black".
    • Spanish Guinea (former name): after the former colonial ruler (Spain). "Guinea" as above. See also Spain below.
  • Eritrea: named by Italian colonizers, from the Latin name for the Red Sea "Mare Erythraeum" which in turn was partially derived from the ancient Greek name for the Red Sea "Erythrea Thalassa".
  • Estonia: from the Latin version of the Germanic word Estland, which could originate from the Germanic word for "eastern (way)", or from the name Aestia, first mentioned in ancient Greek writings. Palaeogeographers have not located Aestia exactly: the name may have referred to modern Masuria, in Poland.
    • Chud (Old East Slavic): originally derived from the Gothic for "people" (see "Deutschland" under the heading "Germany"); more recent folk-etymology has also linked the name to the Slavic root for "weird". Lake Peipus still bears the name of "Chudskoe Lake" in Slavic languages.
    • Igaunija (Latvian): from the ancient Ugaunian tribe in southeastern Estonia.
    • Viro (Finnish variant): from the ancient Vironian tribe in northern Estonia.
  • Ethiopia: from the Latin "Aethiopia", meaning "land of the blacks" or more specifically "Land of Burned-Faces", its roots reflecting the Greek αἴθειν aíthein "to burn" and ὤψ ṓps "face".
    • Abyssinia (former name): derives from the Arabic habesh or 'mixed', a reflection of the many ethnic groups inhabiting the country. The term often appears incorrectly cited as cognate to the Latinate/Greek term "abyss".
  • Europa Island (territory of France):
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F

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G

  • Gabon: from Gabão, the Portuguese name for the Komo river estuary (French: Estuaire de Gabon). The estuary took its name from from its shape, which resembles that of a hooded overcoat (gabão). Gabão comes from Arabic قباء qabā’.
  • Gambia: from the river Gambia that runs through the country. The word "gambia" is believed to derive from the Portuguese word "câmbio" (meaning "trade" or "exchange"), in reference to the trade the Portuguese carried out in the area.
  • Georgia: derived from Persian Gurj, probably derived from a PIE term meaning 'mountainous'. In classical times the region had the names of Colchis (the coastal region along the Black Sea) and Iberia (further inland to the east). Both names probably derive from indigenous Caucasian languages.
    • Gruzia in Slavic languages and Gorjestân (گرجستان) in Persian derive from the same source.
    • Sak'art'velo (Georgian name; in English commonly "Kartvelia"): derived from a pagan god called Kartlos, once regarded as the father of all Georgians.
    • Vrastan (Վրաստան, Armenian:
  • Germany: from Latin "Germania", of the 3rd century BC, of unknown origin. The OED2 records theories about the Celtic roots gair, neighbour (from Zeuss), and gairm, battle-cry (from Wachter and Grimm). Partridge suggested *gar, to shout, and describes the gar (spear) theory as "obsolete". Italian, Romanian, and other languages use the latinate Germania as the name for Germany.
  • Ghana: after the ancient West African kingdom of the same name. The modern territory of Ghana, however, never formed part of the previous polity. JB Danquah suggested the use of the name was suggested in the run-up to Ghanaian independence. His research led him to believe that modern Ghanaian peoples descended from the ancient Ghana Kingdom; others dispute his conclusions.
    • Gold Coast (former name): after the large amount of gold that colonisers found in the country.
  • Gibraltar (overseas territory of the United Kingdom): A corruption of the Arabic words "Jebel Tarik" which means "Tarik's Mountain", named after Tarik-ibn-Zeyad, a Berber who landed at Gibraltar in 711 to launch the Islamic invasion of the Iberian Peninsula.
  • Glorioso Islands (territory of France):
  • Greece: from the Latin Græcus (Greek Γραικοί, claimed by Aristotle to refer to the name of the original people of Epirus)
    • Hellas/Ellas/Ellada (Greek name): means "land of light" and relates to helios meaning "sun".
    • Hurumistan (Kurdish variant), Urəm (Урым, Adyghe):
    • Saberdzneṭi (საბერძნეთი, Georgian):
    • Yunanistan (Azeri, Kurdish variant, Turkish), al-Yūnān (Arabic): after Ionians, an older name for Greeks of Asia Minor
  • Greenland (territory of Denmark): named by Eric the Red in 982 to attract settlers.
    • Kalaallit Nunaat (Greenlandic name): means "lands of humans".
  • Grenada: after the southern Spanish city of the same name.
  • Guadeloupe territory of France): Christopher Columbus named the island in honour of the Santa Maria de Guadalupe in Estremadura, Spain when he landed in 1493.
  • Guam (territory of the United States of America): from the native Chamorro word 'guahan', meaning 'we have.'
  • Guatemala: Mayan for "land of trees". When the Spanish arrived, they saw a decayed tree with lots of trees around it right in front of the palace. The Spanish believed this the center of the Mayan Kingdom. When the Spanish asked the name of the area called, the Native Amerindians guessed Guatemala.
  • Guinea:
  • Guinea-Bissau:
  • Guyana: from the indigenous peoples who called the land "Guiana", meaning "land of many waters", in reference to large number of rivers in the area.
    • British Guiana (former name): after the colonial ruler (Britain). "Guiana" has the same etymology as "Guyana". See also Britain above
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H

  • Haiti: Taíno/Arawak Indian, "Hayiti/Hayti" meaning "mountainous land", the island it lies on is "Hispaniola" roughly, "little Spain", but was also originally known also as Hayiti.
  • Honduras: Christopher Columbus named the country "Honduras", Spanish for "depths", a reference to the deep waters off the northern coast.
  • Hong Kong (territory of China): Cantonese "Heung Gong", meaning "fragrant harbour" or "spice harbour", presumably from the fact that Hong Kong was a major trading port for spices.
  • Howland Island (territory of the United States of America): Captain George E. Netcher named the island after the lookout who sighted it from his ship the Isabella on 9 September, 1842.
  • Hungary: Turkic on-ogur, "(people of the) ten spears". In other words, "alliance of the ten tribes". Named after the seven Magyar tribes and three Khazar tribes who settled in the region. The ethnonym Hunni (referring to the Huns) has influenced the Latin (and English) spelling.
    • Uhorshchyna (Угорщина, Ukrainian), Vuhorščyna (Вугоршчына, Belarusian), Węgry (Polish), Wędżierskô (Kashubian), and Ugre in Old Russian: from the Turkic "on-ogur", see above. The same root emerges in the ethnonym Yugra, a people living in Siberia and distantly related to Hungarians. As a matter of trivia, the first letter (transliterated as the two letters YU) in the name of the Russian oil-company Yukos represents an abbreviation of Yugra.
    • Magyarország (native name - land of the Magyars): According to a Hungarian legend, the Hungarians descended from Magor, the son of Nimrod of the Hebrew Bible. (Other sources call the father "Menrót" (Persian); and many ancient kings had the name "Nimrod", so any of them could serve.)
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I

  • Iceland: "land of ice" (Ísland in Icelandic). Popularly (but falsely) attributed to an attempt to dissuade outsiders from attempting to settle on the land. In fact the early settler/explorer Flóki Vilgerðarson coined the name after he spotted "a firth full of drift ice" to the north. This occurred during spring after an especially harsh winter during which all his livestock had died and he had started debating whether to leave.
  • India: Derived from the original name Sindhu of the Indus River in modern-day Pakistan, which gave its name to the land of Sind. Derivations of the Persian form of this name, Hind, were then applied to all of modern Pakistan and India. Main article: Origin of India's name
    • Bharat (Sanskrit name): Popular accounts derive "Bharat" from the name of either of two ancient kings named Bharata.
    • rGya.gar (Dzongkha), rGya.gar.yal (Tibetan variant):
  • Indonesia: "Indies Islands" from the Greek νῆσος nēsos "island", added to the country name India. (Europeans previously referred to Indonesia as the "East Indies".)
  • Iran: "land of the Aryans" or "land of the free". The term "Arya" derived from the PIE (Proto Indo-European), and generally carrying the meaning of "noble" or "free", cognate with the Greek-derived word "aristocrat".
    • Persia (former name): from Latin, via Greek "Persis", from Old Persian "Paarsa", a placename of a central district within the region, modern Fars. A common Hellenistic folk-etymology derives "Persia" from "Land of Perseus".
    • Uajemi (Swahili variant): from the word 'Ajam which Arabs used to refer to Persians. The Arabic word 'Ajam means "the ones whose language we don't understand".
  • Iraq: from the city of Erech/Uruk (also known as "Warka") near the river Euphrates. It is believed to be the first major Sumerian city (and therefore the world's first as well). Another theory suggests that it derives from Irak which in older Iranian languages meant the Lesser Iran. Note that the natives of the western part of today's Iran also called their area "the Persian Iraq" for many centuries.
    • Mesopotamia (ancient name and Greek variant): From the ancient Semitic Beth-Nahrin, "Between the Rivers", a reference to the Tigris and Euphrates.
  • Ireland: after Éire from Proto-Celtic *Īweriū "the fertile place" or "Place of Éire (Eriu)" a Celtic fertility goddess. Often mistakenly derived as "Land of Iron"
    • Hibernia (ancient name and Latin variant): apparently assimilated to Latin hibernus (wintry).
  • Israel: Israel takes its name from the biblical patriarch Jacob, later known as Israel, literally meaning "struggled with God/he struggles with God". Jacob/Israel counts as the exclusive ancestor of the Israelites (as opposed to Abraham and Isaac, who each also had non-Israelite sons). Additionally, the Bible says that after 40 years in the desert, Moses led his followers to the "Land of Israel" - land promised by God to the descendants of the patriarchs, Jacob, Abraham and Isaac.
  • Italy: From Latin Italia, the name having entered Latin from a non-Latin source. The etymology of Italia probably directly relates to an ancient Greek word italos (bull), from PIE *wet; the Greek word follows the sound-changes from Proto-Indo-European to Greek, but the Latin equivalent vitulus (young bull) from this root, does not. Speakers of ancient Oscan called Italy Viteliu, also from PIE *wet. Varro wrote that the region got its name from the excellence and abundance of its cattle (italos', "bull" hence italia). Some disagree with this etymology. Compare Italus.
    • Friagi or Friaz' in Old Russian: from the Byzantine appelation for the medieval Franks.
    • Valland (variant in Icelandic): land of "valer", (an Old Norse name for Celts, later also used for the Romanized tribes).
    • Włochy (Polish) and Olaszország (Hungarian): from Gothic walh, the same root as in Valland, see details under "Wallachia" below.
  • Ivory Coast: see Côte d'Ivoire above
[edit]

J

[edit]

K

  • Kazakhstan: means "land of the Kazaks". The meaning of the word "Kazakh" is hard to express exactly, but it means something along the lines of "independent/rebellious/wanderer/brave/free". It is cognate to the Russian word "Cossack". -Stan is a Persian suffix meaning "land".
  • Kenya: after Mount Kenya, from the Kĩkũyũ name "Kere-Nyaga" ("Mountain of Whiteness").
  • Kingman Reef (territory of the United States of America): named after Captain W.E. Kingman, who came across the reef whilst sailing in the boat Shooting Star on 29 November, 1853.
  • Kiribati: an adaption of "Gilbert", from the former European name the "Gilbert Islands". Note that the correct pronunciation of "Kiribati" is "keer-ree-bahss".
  • Korea, North/South: after the Goryeo Dynasty, the first Korean dynasty visited by westerners. South Koreans call their country Hanguk, while North Koreans call it Joseon. The ancient Joseon may have meant "land of morning calm". (See Names of Korea)
  • Kuwait: from the Arabic diminutive form of "Kut/Kout" meaning "fortress built near water".
  • Kyrgyzstan: derives from three words – "kyrg" meaning "forty", "yz" meaning "tribes" and "-stan" meaning "land" in Persian – "land of forty tribes".
[edit]

L

  • Laos: from French "Laos", derived from Laotian "lao" meaning "a laotian" or "laotian", possibly originally from an ancient Indian word lava. "Lava" names one of the twin sons of the god Rama. Formerly known as "Lan Xang" or "Land of A Million Elephants".
  • Latvia: derived from the regional name "Latgale", itself a hydronym, most likely of Germanic origin. See also the discussion of the name "Lithuania".
  • Lebanon: from the Semitic "Laban", "white", referring to the snow on Lebanon's mountains
  • Lesotho: after the Sotho people.
  • Liberia: from the Latin liber, "free", so named because the nation was created as a homeland for freed American slaves.
  • Libya: after an ancient Berber tribe called Libyans by the Greeks and Rbw by the Egyptians. Up to and until the country's independence, the term "Libya" was largely restricted in meaning to the vast desert interposed between Tripolitanian Lowland and Fazzan plateau to the west and Egypt's Nile river valley to the west. With "Tripoli" the name of new country's capital and the old northeastern regional name 'Cyrenaica' having passed into obsolescence, "Libya" became the convenient name for the country, despite the fact that much of the Libyan desert is actually located in Egypt.
  • Liechtenstein: "light stone" ("light" in weight rather than in brightness). The country was named after the Liechtenstein dynasty purchased and united the counties of Schellenburg and Vaduz and were allowed by the Holy Roman Emperor to rename the new property after its own family.
  • Lithuania (Lietuva): Modern scholars tend to connect this name with the Latin "litus" (see littoral), but no proof exists of any similar regional hydronym. "Livtve", a Latin variant of the toponym, appears in a 1009 chronicle describing an archbishop "struck over the head by pagans in Lituae". A 16th-century scholar associated the word with the Latin word "litus", or tubes — a possible reference to wooden trumpets played by Lithuanian tribesmen. The country name "Latvia" and its region "Latgalia" may share the etymology of "Lithuania".
  • Luxembourg: from Celtic Lucilem "small" (cognate to English "little") and Germanic burg "castle", thus lucilemburrugh "little castle".
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M

  • Macedonia: After the ancient people named Macedonians, whose status as a Hellenic people remains disputed among scholars. Hesiod said the name derived from Makedon, the royal founder of the land, a son of Zeus and a grandson of Deucalion, first cousin to Aeolus, Dorus, and Xuthus. Though named after ancient Macedon, most of the territory of the modern Republic of Macedonia formed part of the kingdom of Paionia (inhabited by the ancient Paeonians), before Macedon and later still Rome conquered the area, which became part of the Roman province of Macedonia Salutaris or Macedonia Secunda. The legal name of the modern country remains currently a matter of dispute between the inhabitants of Greece (who claim the name "Macedonia" as their own cultural patrimony) and the Slavic inhabitants of the "Macedonian" republic (who claim the right to use such a term).
  • Madagascar: from the name of the island in Malagasy language: Madagasikara, itself derived from the proto-Malay "End of the Earth", a reference to the island's long distance by sea from an earlier (South East Asian) homeland.
  • Malawi: possibly based on a native word meaning "flaming water", believed to have derived from the sun's dazzling reflections on Lake Malawi. But President Hastings Banda, the founding President of Malawi, reported in interviews that in the 1940s he saw a "Lac Maravi" shown in "Bororo" country on an antique French map titled "La Basse Guinee Con[t]enant Les Royaumes de Loango, de Congo, d'Angola et de Benguela" and he liked the name "Malawi" better than "Nyasa" (or "Maravi"). "Lac Marawi" does not necessarily correspond to today's Lake Malawi. Banda's had such influence at the time of independence in 1958 that he named the former Nyasaland "Malawi" himself, and the name has stuck.
    • Nyasaland (former name): "Nyasa" literally means "lake" in the local indigenous languages. The name applied to Lake Malawi (formerly Lake Nyasa, or "Niassa").
  • Malaysia: land of the Malay people. The country bore the name Malaya until the accession of Singapore (now seceeded), of Sabah and of Sarawak in Borneo, whence it changed its name. The change reflected the expansion of the state's boundaries beyond the Malay Peninsula.
  • Maldives: From the Sanskrit mahal ("palace") (some sources say Tamil malai or Malayalam mala "mountain(s)"), and Sanskrit diva, "island", thus "palace island". The main island, Malé, held the palace of the islands' Sultan.
    • Dhivehi Raajje (Maldivian name):
    • Maladwipa (Sanskrit for "garland (mala, pronounced maalaa) of islands"; or more likely "small islands" from mala (pronounced mala) meaning "small".
  • Mali: after the ancient West African kingdom of the same name, upon which a large part of the modern state lies. The word "Mali" came in turn from the Malinké people.
  • Malta: from the Phoenician root MLT meaning "refuge". The term may have survived due to the existence of the Greek and Latin word melitta or "honey", the name of the island in classical times, and also the major export from the island during those centuries. The modern name comes from Maltese, previously from Arabic ملطة Malṭah, previously of the same Phoenician origin.
  • Marshall Islands: named after British Captain John Marshall, who first documented the existence of the islands in 1788.
  • Martinique (territory of France): When Christopher Columbus landed on the island in 1502 (he had sailed past it in 1493 but neglected to land) he named it in honour of St. Martin.
  • Mauritania: misnamed after the classical Mauretania in northern Morocco, itself named after the Berber Mauri tribe.
  • Mauritius: named after the Dutch Stadtholder, Prince Maurice of Orange (1567 - 1625).
  • Mayotte (territory of France):
  • Mexico: after the Mexica branch of the Aztecs. The origin of the term "Mexxica" remains uncertain. Some take it as the old Nahuatl word for the sun. Others say it derived from the name of the leader Mexitli. Yet others simply ascribe it to a type of weed that grows in Lake Texcoco. Leon Portilla suggests that it means "navel of the moon" from Nahuatl metztli (moon) and xictli (navel). Alternatively, it could mean "navel of the maguey" (Nahuatl metl).
  • Micronesia: from the Greek words "mikros" (small) and "nesos" (islands) – "small islands".
  • Midway Islands (territory of the United States of America): named after their geographic location midway in the Pacific ocean. Originally named the Middlebrook Islands, after their discoverer Captain N.C. Middlebrooks ("Captain Brooks").
  • Moldova: from the river "Moldova" in Romania.
  • Monaco: "himself alone", a reference to the Greek demigod Hercules, once worshipped at a shrine on the territory. Alternatively, Monaco derives its name from the nearby Greek colony Monoikos founded in the 6th century B.C. by Phoceans. The Phoceans constructed a temple there, the temple of Hercules Monoikos (Μόνοικος means "single house" or "single temple").
  • Mongolia: from Mongol, which probably means "brave" or "fearless".
  • Montserrat (territory of the United Kingdom: Christopher Columbus named the island "Santa Maria de Montserrate" while sailing past it in 1493 because it reminded him of the Blessed Virgin of the Monastery of Montserrate in Spain.
  • Morocco from Marruecos, the Spanish pronunciation of the name of the city of "Marrakesh", believed to derive from the Berber roots tamart "land" + akush "God".
    • Al Maghrib (Moroccan name):means "the Farthest West".
  • Mozambique: from Moçambique Island (Portuguese: ilha de Moçambique), that in turn probably comes from the name of a previous Arab ruler, the sheik Mussa Ben Mbiki, that in spoken Portuguese sounds like Moçambique, when the word is used frequently.
  • Myanmar (formerly Burma). One explanation sees the name as a derivative of the Burmese short-form name Myanma Naingngandaw; an alternative etymology suggests that myan means "quick/fast" and mar means "hard/tough/strong". The renaming of the country has aroused political controversy; as certain minority groups and activist communities charge the symbolism of the move intended to strengthen the position of hard-line political elements inside the country. Correspondingly, such groups continue to refer to Myanmar as "Burma". The name Burma apparently derives from the Sanskrit name for the region: "Brahmadesh", land of (the deity) Brahma.
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N

  • Namibia: from the coastal Namib Desert. "Namib" means "area where there is nothing" in the Nama language.
  • Nauru: the name "Nauru" may derive of the Nauruan word "Anáoero", which means "I go to the beach". The German settlers called the island "Nawodo" or "Onawero".
  • Navassa Island (territory of the United States of America):
  • Nepal: The toponym "Nepal" may derive from the Sanskrit nipalaya, which means "at the foot of the mountains" or "abode at the foot," a reference to its location in relation to the Himalayas. (Compare the analogous European toponym "Piedmont".) An alternative suggestion derives the name from the Tibetan niyampal, which means "holy land".
  • Netherlands: Germanic "low lands"
    • Holland (part of the Netherlands; the term is often used to refer to the country as a whole): Germanic "holt (i.e. wooded) land" (often incorrectly regarded as meaning "hollow [i.e. marsh] land")
    • Batavia (Germanic): "arable land" (derived from the regional name "Betuwe", as opposed to the other regional name "Veluwe" meaning "fallow" or "waste" land)
  • Netherlands Antilles: (territory of Netherlands):
  • New Caledonia (territory of France): Captain James Cook named the islands in 1774 in reference to Scotland. The mountains he saw reminded him of those in Scotland ("Caledonia" being Latin for "Scotland").
  • New Zealand: after the province of Zeeland in the Netherlands, which means "Sealand" in reference to the large number of islands it contains. Abel Tasman referred to New Zealand as Staten Landt, but subsequent Dutch cartographers used Nova Zeelandia in Latin, followed by Nieuw Zeeland in Dutch, which Captain James Cook subsquently anglicised as New Zealand.
    • Aotearoa has become the most common name for the country in the indigenous Maori language, supplanting the loan-phrase Niu Tireni. Aotearoa conventionally means "Land Of The Long White Cloud".
  • Nicaragua: named after Nicarao, a leader of an indigenous community inhabiting the shores of Lake Nicaragua, subsequently the ethnonym of that native community.
  • Niger: named after the Niger River, from a native term "Ni Gir" or 'River Gir'. The term is inevitably wrongly described as deriving from the Latin niger meaning 'black', a reference to the dark complexions of the country's inhabitants.
  • Nigeria: after the Niger river that flows through the western areas of the country and out into the ocean. See above "Niger".
  • Niue (territory of New Zealand): Niu means "coconut," and "é" means "behold." According to legend, the Polynesian explorers who first settled the island knew they were close to land when they saw a coconut floating in the water.
  • Norfolk Island (territory of Australia): named in 1774 by Captain James Cook. The beauty of the island so struck Cook that he named it in honour of the wife of Edward Howard, 9th Duke of Norfolk, a noble peer and benefactor.
  • Northern Mariana Islands (territory of the United States of America): Spanish explorer Ferdinand Magellan (the first European to sight the islands in 1521) named them Islas de los Ladrones (Islands of Thieves). In 1668 Jesuit missionary San Vitores changed the name to Las Marianas in honour of Mariana of Austria, widow of king Philip IV and queen regent of Spain.
  • North Korea: see Korea above.
  • Northern Ireland: see Ireland.
  • Norway: from the old Norse norðr and veg "northern way". The Norwegian name Norge is from the roots norðr and rike, "Northern Kingdom". 'Norðrveg' is a reference to long coastal passage from the western tip of Norway to its northernmost lands in the Arctic.
    • Urmane, or Murmane in Old Russian: from the Norse pronunciation of the word Normans. As a matter of trivia, this word survives in the name of the Russian city Murmansk.
[edit]

O

[edit]

P

  • Pakistan: The Cambridge student and Muslim nationalist Choudhary Rahmat Ali coined this name. He devised the word and first published it on 28 January 1933 in the pamphlet "Now or Never". He made the name an acronym of the different states/homelands/regions, which broke down into: P=Punjab, A=Afghania (Ali's preferred name for the North West Frontier Province), K=Kashmir, S=Sindh and the suffix -stan from BalochiSTAN, thus forming "Pakstan". An "i"-sound later intruded to ease pronunciation, producing "Pakistan". Rahmat Ali later expanded upon this in his 1947 book Pakistan: the Fatherland of the Pak Nation. In that book he explains the acronym as follows: P=Punjab, A=Afghania, K=Kashmir, I=Iran, S=Sindh, T=Turkharistan (roughly the modern central Asian states), A=Afghanistan and N=BalochistaN. Another shade of meaning is added with the Persian word پاک Pāk, which means "pure"; the full name therefore meaning "land of the pure". Use of the name gradually became widespread during the campaign for the setting up of a Muslim state in what was then British India. Note too the Persian suffix -stan meaning "land".
  • Palau:
  • Palestine: named after the ancient Philistines of the area around Gaza. The Greeks adopted the name to refer to the broader area, as Palaistinê, but Herodotus and others considered this as one part of Syria. The Roman Empire later adopted this concept in the form Syria Palaestina, as a new name for the province (formerly known as Judaea) after the defeat of Bar Kochba in AD 135.