List of country name etymologies

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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.

A

The origin of the word Afghan - which is synonymous with Pashtun - remains uncertain. One explanation derives it from Apakan, an 8th or 9th century Iranian ruler. Others point out a 3rd century Sassanid reference to "Abgan", the oldest known mention of a word variant of "Afghan". It also appears in the inscriptions of Shapur I of Iran at Naqš-e Rostam which mentions a certain Goundifer Abgan Rismaund. The sixth-century Indian Astronomer Varahamihira, in his Brhat Samhita (11.61; 16.38), refers to Afghans as Avagan. The seventh-century Chinese pilgrim Xuanzang who travels from Kunduz and Balkh into India where he refers to a people located to the north of Sulaiman Mountains whom he calls Apokien which obviously alludes to Avagans or Afghans. A modern view supported by numerous noted scholars is that the name Afghan evidently derives from Sanskrit Ashvaka or Ashvakan (q.v.), (Panini's Ashvakayana), the Assakenoi of Arrian. The Ashvakayan/Asvakan are stated to be a sub-section of the Kambojas who specialised in horse-culture.

(autonomous province of Finland):

"Land [in the] water," from the Germanic root *ahw-, cognate with Latin aqua. The Finnish name Ahvenanmaa is partly borrowed, partly translated from Germanic.

"Alb" from the PIE root meaning "white" or "mountain", as mountains are often white-capped with snow; compare Alps.

*Albanian: Shqipëria

*Turkish: Arnavutluk

The name Algeria is derived from the name of the city of Algiers (French Alger), from the Arabic word "الجزائر" (al-jazā’ir), which translates as the islands, referring to the four islands which lay off that city's coast until becoming part of the mainland in 1525; al-jazā’ir is itself short for the older name jazā’ir banī mazghannā, "the islands of (the tribe) Bani Mazghanna", used by early medieval geographers such as al-Idrisi and Yaqut al-Hamawi.

America:

Believed to derive from the Latinized version of the explorer Amerigo Vespucci's name, Americus Vespucius, in its feminine form, America. "America" is also Latin for "Land of the Prince." Another less-popular theory derives it from the name of Richard Amerike.

See also United States of America below and Naming of America

(territory of the United States of America):

See America above and Samoa, United States of America below.

Etymology unknown and contested; of pre-Roman, possibly Iberian or Basque origin. The name Andorra may be derived from al-Darra, the Arabic word for forest. When the Moors invaded Spain, the valleys of the Pyrenees were especially wooded, and the title Andorra can be found linked to villages in other parts of Spain which had been under Moorish domination. Still others claim that it comes from the Spanish andar, meaning "to walk", which gave name to the nomadic tribe of Andorrisoe which ostensibly migrated to the valleys in and around present-day Andorra, or could possibly originate from a Navarrese word andurrial, which translates as "shrub-covered land." An oft-told legend is that the name came from the archaic "Endor", which Louis le Debonnaire christened what he referred to as the "wild valleys of Hell" after defeating the Moors – wild and desolate mountain ranges have been associated with the Devil throughout much European literature.

From Ngola, a title used by the monarch of the Kingdom of Ndongo. The Portuguese named the area in honour of a Ngola allied with them.

(overseas territory of the United Kingdom):

From the word for "eel" in any of several Romance languages (Spanish: anguila; French: anguille; Italian: anguilla), due to its elongated shape. The circumstances of the island's European discovery and naming are uncertain: Christopher Columbus (1493) or French explorers (1564) are both possibilities.

Christopher Columbus named Antigua in honour of the Santa María La Antigua ("Saint Mary the Old") 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 beards of the indigenous people.

From the Latin argentum, meaning "silver". Early Spanish and Portuguese traders used the region's Río de la Plata or "Silver River" to transport silver and other treasures from Peru to the Atlantic. The land around the terminal downstream stations became known as Argentina – "Land of Silver".

From Old Persian Armina (6th century BC), Greek Armenia (5th century BC). The further etymology of the Persian name is uncertain, but may be connected to the Assyrian Armânum, Armanî and/or the Biblical Minni. The Old Persian name is an exonym, see Hayk for the native name and Urartu for the Biblical Ararat.

*Armenian: Հայաստան Hayastan

(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 hubo in Spanish means "there was gold"). Another possible derivation cites the Arawak Indian word oibubai, which means "guide".

Originally from Latin terra australis incognita - "unknown southern land". Early European explorers, sensing that the Australian landmass far exceeded in size what they had already mapped, gave the area a generic descriptive name. The explorer Matthew Flinders (1774 – 1814), the first to sail around and chart the Australian coast, used the term "Australia" in his 1814 publication A Voyage to Terra Australis. Previous Dutch explorers had referred to the continent as Australisch and as "Hollandia Nova" (New Holland). From the introduction in Flinders' book:

"There is no probability, that any other detached body of land, of nearly equal extent, will ever be found in a more southern latitude; the name Terra Australis will, therefore, remain descriptive of the geographical importance of this country, and of its situation on the globe: it has antiquity to recommend it; and, having no reference to either of the two claiming nations, appears to be less objectionable than any other which could have been selected.*

...with the accompanying note at the bottom of the page:

"* Had I permitted myself any innovation upon the original term, it would have been to convert it into AUSTRALIA; as being more agreeable to the ear, and an assimilation to the names of the other great portions of the earth.

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). This translated to Ostarrîchi in the vernacular of the time; that Old High German form first appears in a 996 document.

*Arabic Nimsa: Presumably from the Slavic word nowaday used for Germany, via Turkish.

*Czech Rakousko (country) or Rakousy (Upper and Lower Austria): from Rakous (German: Raabs), an important fortress on the Moravian-Austrian border.

*Finnish Itävalta

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. The name became Azerbaijan in Arabic. The Persians knew the territory of the modern republic of Azerbaijan as "Aran"; and in classical times it became "(Caucasian) Albania" and, in part, "(Caucasian) Iberia", although this last term corresponds mostly to the present-day republic of Georgia. (See Georgia below.) The region of Media Atropatene lay further to the south, located south of the River Araxes. "Aran" may derive from the same root as modern "Iran", while "Albania" and "Iberia" appear as toponyms of Caucasus mountain derivation. The name "(Media) Atropatene" comes from Atropates ("fire protector" in Middle Persian) who ruled as 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 regard 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 to 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".

B

From Spanish Baja Mar – "Low (Shallow) Sea". Spanish conquistadors thus named the islands after the waters around them.

From Arabic. The exact referents of the "two seas" remain a matter of debate. Bahrain lies in a bay formed by the Arabian mainland and the peninsula of Qatar, and some identify the "two seas" as the waters of the bay on either side of the island. Others believe that the name refers 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 suggests that the first sea surrounds Bahrain and the second "sea" metaphorically represents 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).

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 than that of the state of Bangladesh: the culture extends into present-day India (in Assam (Boro Peoples), Sikkim, Tripura, West Bengal, 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 that 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.)

*Note; the river Ganga leaves the plains from Hindustan of the Indo-Gangetic Plain of South Asia into Bangladesh forming the Ganges Delta (Bengal Delta) the biggest in the world, also known as the Mouths of the Ganges opening up into the Bay of Bengal near the Sunderbans (National Parks of India), a natural habitat shared by Indo-Banga inhabitants for Indian Wildlife; Home of the Royal Bengal Tiger both the National animal of Bharat and Bangladesh (Independent Bengal).

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.

From Belarusian, meaning "White Rus'", "White Ruthenia". Formerly known as Byelorussia, a transliteration from the Russian name meaning "White Russia". (See Russia below.) The name changed after the collapse of the Soviet Union to emphasize the historic and ongoing separate distinctness of the nations of Belarus and Russia. (See Belarus: Name for more.) The exact original meaning conveyed by the term "Bela" or 'White' remains uncertain. Early cultures commonly employed the concept of "whiteness" as representing the qualities of freedom, purity, or nobility. On the other hand, it may simply have originated as a totem color of convenience. Note that part of the western territory of modern Belarus historically bore the name of "Chernarossija" or 'Black Rus'. The term "Black" most commonly applied to landscapes featuring especially rich and productive soils. How this may reflect on the origin of the term 'White Rus' remains as yet unexplored. Yet another region in present-day western Ukraine historically had the name "Red Russia" or "Red Ruthenia". Note also that colors represented cardinal directions in Mongol and Tatar culture.

From the name of a Celtic tribe, the Belgae.

The name Belgae may derive from the PIE *bolg meaning "bag" or "womb" and indicating common descent; if so, it likely followed some unknown original adjective.

Another theory suggests that the name Belgae may come from the Proto-Celtic *belo, which means "bright", and which relates to the English word bale (as in "bale-fire"), to the Anglo-Saxon bael, to the Lithuanian baltas, meaning "white" or "shining" (from which the Baltic takes its name) and to Slavic "belo/bilo/bjelo/..." meaning "white" (like town names Beograd, Biograd, Bjelovar, etc all meaning "white city") (see Beltane). Thus the Gaulish god-names Belenos ("Bright one") and Belisama (probably the same divinity, originally from *belo-nos = "our shining one") may also come from the same source.

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.

According to the Wikipedia article "Benin": "The name "Benin" has no proper connection to the Kingdom of Benin (or Benin City). The name Dahomey was changed in 1975 to the People's Republic of Benin, named after the body of water on which the country lies, the Bight of Benin. This name was picked due to its neutrality, since the current political boundaries of Benin encompass over fifty distinct linguistic groups and nearly as many individual ethnic groups."

*The name Dahomey was the name of the ancient Fon Kingdom, and was determined to be an inappropriate name as it was the name of the principal ethnic group of the country.

(overseas territory of the United Kingdom):

From the name of the Spanish sea captain Juan de Bermúdez who sighted the islands in 1503.

The ethnic Tibetans or Bhotia migrated from Tibet to Bhutan in the 10th century. The root Bod expresses an ancient name for Tibet. Bhutanese language: Druk Yul - "land of the thunder dragon", "land of thunder", or "land of the dragon". From the violent thunder storms that come from the Himalayas.

Named after Simón Bolívar (1783-1830), an anti-Spanish militant and first president of Bolivia the country after gained its independence in 1825. His surname comes from La Puebla de Bolibar, a village in Biscay, Spain. The etymology of Bolibar may be bolu- (mill) + -ibar (river). Thus, it ultimately may mean a mill on a river.

The country consists of two distinct regions: the larger northern section, Bosnia, represents the name of the Bosna river. The smaller southern territory, Herzegovina 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.

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.

Named after the brazilwood tree, called pau-brasil in Portuguese and so-named because its reddish wood resembled the color of red-hot embers (brasa in Portuguese), and because it was recognized as an excellent source of red dye. In Tupi it is called "ibirapitanga", which means literally 'red wood'. The wood of the tree was used to color clothes and fabrics.

Another 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 being John Cabot. As the Brazilian lands were reached by Pedro Álvares Cabral in 1500 A.D., the Irish myth would have influenced the late name given to the country (after "Island of Real Cross" and "Land of Holy Cross"). The proof that the legend was popular among Iberic people may be verified by the name of the Azorean Terceira Island, registered in the 14th century in the Atlas Catalan and around 1436 on the Venetian map of Andrea Bianco.

Britain:

From Pretani, "painted ones"; perhaps a reference to the use of body-paint and tattoos by early inhabitants of the islands; may also derive from the Celtic goddess Brigid . The form 'Britain' (see also Welsh Prydain) comes from Latin 'Britannia', probably via French. The former name of the island of Britain was Albion, an ancient Greek adaptation of a Celtic name which may survive as the Gaelic name of Scotland, Alba. Traditionally, a folk etymology derived the name from "Brutus", but this is almost certainly not the case. Brittany derives from the same root.

C

The name "Cambodia" derives from that of the ancient Khmer kingdom of Kambuja (Kambujadesa). The ancient Sanskrit name Kambuja or Kamboja referred to an early Indo-Iranian tribe, the Kambojas, named after the founder of that tribe, Kambu Svayambhuva, apparently a variant of Cambyses, Kambujiya or Kamboja. See Etymology of Kamboja.

* Kampuchea (local name): derived in the same fashion. It also served as the official English-language name from 1975 to 1989.

From Portuguese Rio de Camarões ("River of Shrimps"), the name given to the Wouri River by Portuguese explorers in the 15th century.

From the word Kanata meaning "village" or "settlement" in the Saint-Lawrence Iroquoian language spoken by the inhabitants of Stadacona and the neighbouring region in the 16th century, near present-day Quebec City; see Canada's name. Also see Canadian provincial name etymologies

Named after Cap-Vert a cape in Western Africa. From Portuguese Cabo Verde, "Green cape".

Caroline Islands

Named after Charles II, who reigned as king of Spain from 1665 to 1700.

See "Micronesia" and "Palau" below

Catalunya in Catalan. The origin is unclear and there are a lot of hypotheses. Perhaps from the word meaning "land of castles" (see Castile for a similar origin). According to another but somewhat similar theory (Lafont 1986), Catalunya could come from Arabic Qalat-uniyya (Qalat means "castle" and -uniyya is a collective suffix) because medieval Catalonha used to be a frontier country whith a lot of castles in front of the Muslim and Arabized zone of the Iberic peninsula. Some texts suggest that the name Catalunya derives from "Gauta-landia": Land of the Goths, or "Goth-Alania" meaning "Land of the Goths and Alans" through Arabian *Cotelanuyya [cf. Andalusia, land of the Vandals], as the Visigoths and Alans invaded and divided Iberia between themselves, agreeing to rule some parts together, with the region of Catalunya going to the Visigoths. Additionally, the Visigothic kingdom of Catalonia may have been named after the original homeland of the Visigoths, "Gotland". Coromines suggests an Iberian origin: Laietani (latinization of Iberian laiezken) > *laketani > laketans > metathesized as catelans > catalans, reforced by castellani (with an epenthetic s according to Coromines). Another theory suggests *kaste-lan as the Iberian name later latinized as castellani (an Iberian tribe in northern Catalonia according to Ptolemy); then the name would have evolved into *catellani > *catelans > *catalans.

(overseas 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 ("The Turtles" in Spanish) due to the large numbers of turtles on the islands. Around 1540 the islands gained the name Caymanas, from a Carib word for marine alligators or "caiman", an animal found on the islands.

Named after its geographical position in the center of the continent of Africa.

See also Africa on the Placename etymology page.

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, "lake".

The Russian ethnonym Chechen probably derives from the name of the ancient village of Chechana or Chechen-aul. The village is situated on the bank of the Argun River, near Grozny. Another theory derives the name from chechenit' sya "to talk mincingly.

The native term, Noxçi, is derived from nexça (sheep cheese), nox (plow) or from the prophet Noah (Nox in Chechen)

Exact etymology unknown. Possibilities include that it comes from a native Mapudungun 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".

The English name of China comes from the Qin Dynasty, possibly in a Sanskrit form; the pronunciation "China" came to the western languages through the Persian word چین "Chin". (see also: China in world languages)

* Chinese: Zhong Guo - "central country"

* Archaic English Cathay, Turkish Xytai and Russian Китай (Kitai), from the Khitan people who conquered north China in the 10th century.

(territory of Australia):

So named 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.

(territory of Australia):

Named after coconuts, the main local product.

*Keeling Islands (alternative name), after Captain William Keeling who discovered the islands in 1609.

Named after the explorer Christopher Columbus, despite the fact that he never actually set foot in the country.

From the Arabic "Djazair al Qamar" — "Island of the moon."

Named after the former Kongo kingdom, in turn named after the Bakongo people.

* Zaire (former name), from Nzere, "river", after Congo River.

(territory of New Zealand):

Named after Captain James Cook, who sighted the islands in 1770.

The name, meaning "rich coast" in Spanish, given by the Spanish explorer Gil González Dávila.

From French. The French named the region "Ivory Coast" 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."

Latinization of the Croatian name Hrvatska, derived from Hrvat (Croat): a word of unknown origin, possibly from a Sarmatian word for "herdsman" or "cowboy". May be related to an aboriginal tribe of Alans.

From Taíno Indian Cubanacan — "centre place". In Portugal, some believe that the name echoes that of the Portuguese town of Cuba, speculating that Christopher Columbus provided a link. In Portuguese and Spanish, the word "cuba" refers to the barrels used to hold beverages.

Cymru is the Welsh name for Wales, thought to mean "Land of the Compatriots" in Old Welsh.

Derived from the Greek Κύπρος (Kypros) for "copper", in reference to the copper mined on the island in antiquity.

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.

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.

D

The word Daghestan or Daghistan (Дагъистан; Arabic and داغستان) means "country of mountains", it is derived from the Turkic word dağ meaning mountain and Persian suffix -stan meaning "land of". The spelling Dagestan is a transliteration from Russian language, which lacks the voiced velar fricative.

See Congo, Democratic Republic of, above

From the native name, Danmark, meaning "march (i.e., borderland) of the Danes", the dominant people of the region since ancient times. Origin of the tribal name is unknown, but one theory derives it from PIE dhen "low" or "flat", presumably in reference to the lowland nature of most of the country.

Named after the bottom point of the Gulf of Tadjoura. Possibly derived from the Afar word "gabouti", a type of doormat made of palm fibres. Another plausible, but unproven etymology suggests that "Djibouti" means "Land of Tehuti" or Land of Thoth, after the Egyptian Moon God.

*French Territory of the Afars and the Issas (former name): after the colonial ruler (France) and the two main ethnic groups in the country.

*French Somaliland (former name): after the colonial ruler (France). For Somaliland see Somalia below.

E

From the Malay word timur meaning "east". The local official Tetum language refers to East Timor as Timor Lorosae or "East Timor", or Timor-Leste in Portuguese. In neighbouring Indonesia it has the formal name Timor Timur - etymologically "eastern east". But Indonesians usually shorten the name to Tim-Tim.

*Portuguese Timor (former name): after the former colonial ruler (Portugal). "Timor" as above.

"Equator" in Spanish, as the country lies on the Equator.

From ancient Greek (attested in Mycenean) Αίγυπτος, or Aígyptos, which according to Strabo, derived from "Αιγαίου υπτίως" (Aigaiou hyptios - "the land below the Aegean sea"). This becomes more apparent in the Latin form Aegyptus. Alternatively, from the Egyptian name of Memphis, *ħāwit kuʔ pitáħ meaning "house (or temple) of the soul of Ptah".

*Mişr (Arabic name, pronounced Maşr in Egyptian Arabic): a widespread Semitic word (Hebrew: "Mitzraim"), first used to mean "Egypt" in Akkadian, and meaning "city" or "to settle or found" in Arabic. The Turkish name Mısır derives from the Arabic one. However, the Hebrew form means "straights or narrow places" referring to the shape of the country as it follows the Nile River and takes on more symbolic weight in the Bible in reference to the Exodus story.

*Kême (Coptic name): "black land" (Ancient Egyptian kmt), referring to the mud of the Nile after the summer flood, as opposed to the desert, called "red land" (Ancient Egyptian dšrt).

"The saviour" in Spanish, named after Jesus.

(constituent country of the United Kingdom):

Derived from the Old English name Englaland, literally translatable as "land of the Angles".

The indigenous languages of Ireland and Scotland refer to England as the "land of the Saxons" — for example, Irish Sasana. Cornish — also a Celtic language — uses Pow Saws — literally "Saxon country".

"Equatorial" from the word "equator", despite the fact that the country doesn't actually lie on the Equator (though very close to it). "Guinea" perhaps from the Berber term aguinaoui, which means "black".

*Spanish Guinea (former name): after the former colonial ruler (Spain). "Guinea" as above.

F

(overseas territory of the United Kingdom):

The English Captain John Strong named the strait between the two main islands the Falkland Sound when he landed on the islands in 1690, and the term eventually came to apply to the whole island group. The name honoured Anthony Cary, 5th Viscount Falkland, the then First Lord of the Admiralty, who took his family title from Falkland Palace in Scotland

*Islas Malvinas (Spanish language name): comes from the French sailors who frequented the islands during the 1690s. They came from St. Malo in Brittany, France, and so others often referred to them in French as the "Malouines".

*Sebald Islands - a nearly defunct name of Dutch origin, which commemorated Sebald de Weert.

(territory of Denmark):

From Faroese (originally Old Norse) Føroyar, "sheep islands".

From the Tongan name for the islands: Viti.

From the Germanic/Swedish Land of the Finns. Originally, the Swedish term Finn referred to the Sami or Lapps. The word derives from a root Germanic root meaning "nomadic hunter and gatherer", related to the English verb "find". Latin Fennia. In modern Swedish "finna" is the verb for "to find".

*Suomi (Finnish name), Soome (Estonian name), Sum' (Old Russian name): may derive the Baltic root zeme for "land": "zeme" ← "sheme" ← "shäme" → Häme ← "shaame" → Saami ← "Soomi" ← "Suomi"

*An Fhionnlainn (Irish name) is derived from Finlandia though by coincidence Fionnlann also means Land of the fair in Irish.

Formosa:

see Taiwan.

French derivation of Francia, "Land of the Franks". A frankon was a spear used by the early Franks, thus giving them their name. The term "Frank" later became associated with "free" as the Franks were the only truly freemen, since they subjugated the Romanized Gauls.

*Gallia (Latin) from the name of a Celtic tribe. Many Celtic groups used similar names: compare Gaul and Galatia.

(territory of France):

see France above and Guyana below.

(territory of France):

The geographic term Polynesia means "many islands", formed from the Greek roots: poly = many; and νῆσος nēsos = island.

G

From Gabão, the Portuguese name for the Komo river estuary (French: Estuaire de Gabon). The estuary took its name from its shape, which resembles that of a hooded overcoat (gabão). Gabão comes from Arabic قباء qabā’.

From the river Gambia that runs through the country. The word gambia supposedly derives from the Portuguese word câmbio (meaning "trade" or "exchange"), in reference to the trade the Portuguese carried out in the area.

Derived from Persian Gurj, probably derived from a PIE term meaning 'mountainous'. In classical times Greeks referring to the region used the names of Colchis (the coastal region along the Black Sea) and Iberia (further inland to the east). Some also believed that Georgia was so named by the Greeks on account of its agricultural resources, since "georgia" (γεωργία) means "farming" in Greek. However, the modern Greek name is now taken to be a derivation from the Persian root "Gurj". Both names probably derive from indigenous Caucasian languages.

* Gruzia in Slavic languages (Грузия in Russian, for example) and Gorjestân (گرجستان) in Persian derive from the same source. Gruzia, probably imported from Russian, is used in Vietnamese.

* Sakartvelo (Georgian name; in English commonly "Kartvelia"): derived from a pagan god called Kartlos, once regarded as the father of all Georgians.

* Vrastan (Armenian: Վրաստան)

From Latin "Germania", of the 3rd century BC, of unknown origin. The Oxford English Dictionary records theories about the Celtic roots gair ("neighbour") (from Zeuss), and gairm ("battle-cry") (from Wachter and from 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. The Irish language uses An Ghearmáin, also cognate.

* Allemagne (French), Alemania (Spanish), Alemanha (Portuguese), ألمانيا (Arabic), Almân (Persian), Almanya (Turkish): either "land of all the men" i.e. "our many tribes" or from the Alamanni, a southern Germanic tribe (whose name may have the same sort of etymology) (Modern German -- Alle Männer).

* Deutschland (German), Duitsland (Dutch): from the Old High German word "diutisc", meaning 'of the people' (itself from ancient Germanic "thiuda" or "theoda" 'people') and "land" 'land': "land of the people". Of the same root are Tyskland (Danish, Norwegian, Swedish), Þýskaland (Icelandic) and tedesco (Italian adjective form):

* Niemcy (Polish), Německo (Czech), Nemecko (Slovak), Nemčija (Slovene), (немецкий (nemetski) - but Германия (Germania) for the country) (Russian), Németország (Hungarian): Either from a Slavic root meaning "mute", "dumb", i.e., metaphorically, "those who do not speak our language". Or from the Germanic Nemetes tribe.

* Purutia (Tahitian): Prussia.

* Saksa (Estonian, Finnish): from the name of the Germanic tribe of Saxons (in turn, possibly from Old High German sahs, 'knife').

* Vācija (Latvian), Vokietija (Lithuanian):

After the ancient West African kingdom of the same name. The modern territory of Ghana, however, never formed part of the previous polity. J. B. Danquah suggested the use of the name 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. Compare the names Europeans gave to nearby stretches of shoreline: "Ivory Coast", "Slave Coast" and "Grain Coast".

(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):

The Glorioso or Glorieuses Islands take their name, presumably, for their wonderful (glorious) looks. A Frenchman, Hippolyte Caltaux, settled in 1880 and established a coconut and maize plantation on Grande Glorieuse. (This does not explain the Spanish or Portuguese-looking form of the name used in English.)

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): land of the Hellenes, descended in mythology from Hellen; the place name has a linguistic cognate in the English verb "settle". A popular folk etymology holds the name to mean "land of light", relating to ἥλιος (hḗlios), the Greek word for "sun".

* Hurumistan (Kurdish variant), Urəm (Урым, Adyghe):

* Saberdzneṭi (საბერძნეთი, Georgian):

* Yunanistan (Azeri, Kurdish variant, Turkish), al-Yūnān (Arabic), Yunān (Persian), Yavan (Hebrew): after Ionians, an older name for Greeks of Asia Minor

(territory of Denmark):

English name given by Eric the Red in 982 to attract settlers.

* Kalaallit Nunaat (Greenlandic name): means "lands of humans".

After the southern Spanish city of Granada. Columbus originally named the island Concepción.

territory of France):

Christopher Columbus named the island in honour of Santa María de Guadalupe in Extremadura, Spain when he landed in 1493.

(territory of the United States of America):

From the native Chamorro word 'guahan', meaning 'we have'.

The country name comes from the Nahuatl Cuauhtēmallān, "place of many trees", a translation of K'iche' Mayan K’ii’chee’, "many trees" (that is, "forest"). 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, the Native Amerindians told them this name.

From the Susu (Sousou) language meaning 'Women'. The first Europeans to arrive in the area would have heard Susu, the main language spoken by the inhabitants of coastal Guinea. The English form comes via Portuguese Guiné from a (presumed) indigenous African name. Or possibly from the Berber "Akal n-Iguinawen" meaning "land of the blacks".

*French Guinea (former name): after the colonial ruler (France), and "Guinea" as above.

That part of the region known as "Guinea" which has as its capital the city of Bissau. Compare the usage of Congo-Brazzaville.

*Portuguese Guinea (former name): after the colonial ruler (Portugal), and "Guinea" as above.

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".

H

Taíno/Arawak Indian, "Hayiti/Hayti" meaning "mountainous land". The island of which Haiti forms a part, Hispaniola (roughly, "little Spain") originally had the name Hayiti.

Christopher Columbus named the country "Honduras", Spanish for "depths", a reference to the deep waters off the northern coast.

(Special administrative region of ):

An approximate phonetic rendering of the Hakka / Cantonese name "香港", meaning "Fragrant Harbour" or "Incense Harbour"; more accurately Heung1 Gong2 (Yale). The original fragrant harbour was a small inlet between the island of Ap Lei Chau (鴨脷洲) and the south side of Hong Kong Island, now known as Aberdeen Harbour in English, but still called Heung Gong Tsai (香港仔, Little Hong Kong) in Cantonese. The fragrance came from incense grown to the north of Kowloon that was stored around Aberdeen Harbour for export, before the development of Victoria Harbour. The village of Heung Gong Tsuen (香港村) on Ap Lei Chau is perhaps the earliest recorded use of the name. Another legend goes that a female pirate named Xiang Gu （香姑）often attacks the harbor.

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.

Turkic: on-ogur, "(people of the) ten arrows" — in other words, "alliance of the ten tribes". Byzantine chronicles gave this name to the Hungarians; the chroniclers mistakenly assumed that the Hungarians had Turkic origins, based on their Turkic-nomadic customs and appearance, despite the Finno-Ugric language of the people. The Hungarian tribes later actually formed an alliance of the seven Hungarian and three Khazarian tribes, but the name originates from the time before this, and first applied to the original seven Hungarian tribes. 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 in Siberia, inhabited by Khanty and Mansi people, the closest relatives to Hungarians in the Finno-Ugric language family.

* Magyarország (native name - land of the Magyars): According to a famous Hungarian chronicle (Simon of Kéza: Gesta Hunnorum et Hungarorum, 1282), Magyar (Magor), the forefather of all Hungarians, had a brother named Hunor (the ancestor of the Huns); their father king Menrot, builder of the tower of Babel, equates to the Nimrod of the Hebrew Bible.

* The Turkish language uses Macaristan, a compound derived from a Turkish spelling of Magyar and the Persian suffix -stan meaning "country".

I

"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 started debating whether to leave.

Derived from the original name Sindhu of the Indus River in modern-day Pakistan, which gave its name to the land of Sind. People later applied derivations of the Persian form of this name, Hind, to all of modern Pakistan and India.

* Bharat (Sanskrit name): Popular accounts derive "Bharat" from the name of either of two ancient kings named Bharata.

* Hindustan (Hindi Name): The name Hind is derived from a a Persian pronunciation of Sind. The Persian -stān means country or land (cognate to Sanskrit sthāna "place, land").India is called al-Hind الهند in the Arabic language, and sometimes in Persian. (e.g. in the 11th century Tarik Al-Hind "history of India") and Hind هند in Persian. It also occurs intermittently in usage within India, such as in the phrase Jai Hind. The terms Hind and Hindustan were current in Persian and Arabic from the 11th century Islamic conquests: the rulers in the Sultanate and Mughal periods called their Indian dominion, centred around Delhi, Hindustan.

The word Hindu (हिन्दु) was loaned from Persian into Sanskrit in early medieval times and is attested — in the sense of dwellers of the Indian subcontinent, in some texts, such as Bhavishya Purāna, Kālikā Purāna, Merutantra, Rāmakosha, Hemantakavikosha and Adbhutarūpakosha. Hindustan was in use synonymously with India during the British Raj. The term is from the Persian Hindustān هندوستان, as is the term Hindu itself. It entered the English language in the 17th century. In the 19th century, the term as used in English referred to the northern region of India between the Indus and Brahmaputra and between the Himalayas and the Vindhyas in particular, hence the term Hindustani for the Hindi-Urdu language.

* rGya.gar (Dzongkha), rGya.gar.yal (Tibetan variant):

* Hodu (Hebrew):

A pseudo-Greek name, apparently invented in the mid-19th century to mean "Indies Islands", from the Greek νῆσος nēsos "island", added to the country name India. (Europeans previously referred to Indonesia as the "East Indies".)

*Dutch East Indies/Nederlands Oost-Indie (former name): after the former colonial ruler (Netherlands)

*Nam Dương (Vietnamese variant):

"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 any ethnics which are not Arab, including Persians. The Arabic word Ajam means "the ones whose language we don't understand".

From the city of Erech/Uruk (also known as "Warka") near the river Euphrates. Some archaeologists regard Uruk as the first major Sumerian city. Another theory suggests that Iraq derives from Irak, which in older Iranian languages meant the Lesser Iran. Note that the natives of the southwestern part of today's Iran also called their area "the Persian Iraq" for many centuries (for Arabs: "Iraq ajemi": no-Arabic-speaker Iraq). Before the constitution of the state of Iraq, the term "Iraq arabi" referred to Baghdad-Basra country.

*Mesopotamia (ancient name and Greek variant): a loan-translation (Greek meso- (between) and potamos (river), meaning "Between the Rivers") of the ancient Semitic Beth-Nahrin, "Land of two Rivers", a reference to the Tigris and Euphrates.

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", or from a reflex of Proto-Indo-European *arya, or from variations of the Irish word for west (modern Irish iar, iarthar).

*Hibernia (ancient name and Latin variant): apparently assimilated to Latin hibernus (wintry).

*Ireland is known as Eirinn in Scottish Gaelic, from a grammatical case of Éire. In fellow Celtic language Welsh it is Iwerddon, in Cornish it is Ywerdhon or Worthen and in Breton it is Iwerzhon.

*In Gaelic bardic tradition Ireland is also known by the poetical names of Banbha (meaning piglet) and Fódhla. In Gaelic myth, Ériu, Banbha and Fódla were three goddesses who greeted the Milesians upon their arrival in Ireland, and who granted them custodianship of the island.

Israel takes its name from the biblical patriarch Jacob, later known as Israel, literally meaning "struggled with God/he struggles with God". According to the account in the Book of Genesis, Jacob wrestled with a stranger at a river ford and won through perseverance. God then changed his name to Israel signifying that he had deliberated with God and won as he had wrestled and won with men.

From Latin Ītalia, itself from Greek Ιταλία, from the ethnic name Ιταλός, plural Ιταλόι, originally referring to an early population in the southern part of Calabria. This ethnic name probably directly relates to a word ιταλός (italós) ('bull') quoted in an ancient Greek gloss by Hesychius (from his collection of 51,000 unusual, obscure and foreign words). This "Greek" word is assumed to be a cognate of Latin vitulus ('calf'), although the different length of the i is a problem. Latin vitulus ('calf') is presumably derived from the PIE root *wet- meaning 'year' (hence, a 'yearling', a 'one-year-old calf'), although the change of e to i is unexplained. The "Greek" word, however, is glossed as 'bull', not 'calf'. Speakers of ancient Oscan called Italy Víteliú, a cognate of Greek Ιταλία and Latin Ītalia. Varro wrote that the region got its name from the excellence and abundance of its cattle. Some disagree with this etymology. Compare Italus.

*Friagi or Friaz' in Old Russian: from the Byzantine appellation 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.

see Côte d'Ivoire above

J

Taíno/Arawak Indian "Xaymaca" or "Hamaica", "Land of wood and water" or perhaps "Land of Springs".

The English name of "Japan" comes from Geppun, Marco Polo's Italian rendition of the islands' Chinese name 日本 (pinyin: rìběn, at the time approximately jitpun), or "sun-origin", i.e. "Land of the Rising Sun", indicating Japan as lying to the east of China (where the sun rises). Also formerly known as the "Empire of the Sun".

*Nihon / Nippon: Japanese name, from the local pronunciation of the same characters as above.

Jarvis Island (territory of the United States of America):

The island was named after the owners Edward, Thomas, and William Jarvis of the British ship Eliza Francis by her commander, one Captain Brown, who discovered the island.

The Norse suffix -ey means island (see modern Nordic languages; "øy" in Norwegian, "ø/ö" in Danish and Swedish) and is found in many parts of the British Isles. The significance of the first part of the island's toponym is unclear. Among theories are that it derives from jarth (Norse: earth) or jarl (earl), or perhaps a personal name, Geirr, to give "Geirr's Island".

Johnston Atoll (territory of the United States of America):

Named after Captain Charles J. Johnston, the commanding officer of the ship Cornwallis, who came across the atoll on 14 December, 1807.

After the river Jordan, the name of which derives from the Hebrew and Canaanite root yrd — "descend" (into the Dead Sea.) The river Jordan forms part of the border between Jordan and Israel/West Bank. In classical times, the region (known as Nabataea) encompassed territories on both sides of the River Jordan, infrequently also territories on the Sinai peninsula in Africa.

* Transjordan (former name): "Trans" means "across" or "beyond" i.e. east of the river Jordan.

* Urdun (Arabic), literal translation of name Jordan, sometimes spelled Urdan

Juan de Nova (territory of France):

Named after João da Nova, a 15th century Portuguese explorer/navigator.

K

Means "land of the Kazakhs". The word "Kazakh" does not have a straightforward exact English translation, but it means something along the lines of "independent/rebellious/wanderer/brave/free". The Russian term kazak (казак) - "cossack" in English - offers a cognate word. -stan as a Persian suffix means "land".

After Mount Kenya, from the Kĩkũyũ name "Kere-Nyaga" ("Mountain of Whiteness").

* British East Africa (former name): after its geographical position on the continent of Africa and the former colonial power (Britain).

See also Britain above and Africa on the Placename etymology page.

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.

An adaptation of "Gilbert", from the former European name the "Gilbert Islands". Note the pronunciation of "Kiribati": /'kiribas/.

* Gilbert Islands (former name): named after the British Captain Thomas Gilbert, who sighted the islands in 1788.

Korea (North and South):

After the Goryeo Dynasty, the first Korean dynasty visited by Persian merchants who referred to Goryeo as Korea. The name of Goryeo itself appears to be derived from the traditional Chinese name for the race of people who founded various ancient states and empires in the area of Manchuria and the Korean Peninsula, such as Gojoseon and Goguryeo. At present, South Koreans call Korea Hanguk, while North Koreans call it Joseon, the latter of which probably originated as a local ethnonym's phonetic transcription.

L

Name coined under French rule, derived from Lao 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. Might also be from "Ai-Lao" the old Chinese name for the Tai ethnic groups of which the Lao people belong to. Formerly known as "Lan Xang" or "land of a million elephants".

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