THE NAMES OF COUNTRIES

including some familiar names of provinces or peoples

In this list I propose some more acceptable etymologies for the names of some countries, or in many cases, a more elaborate research on the origin of names, than that found in common sources. In many cases I have chosen the etymology that seems more pertinent, and ignored other fancy, unjustified explanations.

References

Cherpillod, André, 1986. Dictionnaire étymologique des noms géographiques. Masson, Paris, New York etc.

Decret, François & Mohamed Fantar, 1981. L'Afrique du Nord dans l'Antiquité. Payot, Paris.

Deroy, Louis & Marianne Mulon, 1992. Dictionnaire des noms de lieux. Le Robert, Paris.

Desfayes, Michel, 1998. A thesaurus of bird names, etymology through paradigms. Museum of Natural History, Sion, Switzerland.

Egli, J.J., 1893. Nomina geographica. Leipzig.

Georgeacas, D. 1969. The names for the African continent. Intern. Kongress für Namenforschung 3: 329-353. Wien.

Grau, Juan, 2000. Voces indígenas de uso común en Chile. Glosario etimológico. 3a ed. Ediciones Oikos Ltda, Santiago de Chile.

Johnson Westropp, J. 1912. Proc. Royal Irish Academy, vol. 30, p. 240, 241, 1912.

Klein, Ernest, 1966-1967. A comprehensive dictionary of the English language. One-volume unabridged edition, 1971. Amsterdam, Oxford, New York.

Losique, S. 1971. Dictionaire étymologique des noms de pays et de peuples. Paris.

Salverte, Eusebius & L.H. Mordacque, 1864. History of the names of men, nations and places in their connection with the progress of civilization.

Muralt, Malou von, 1003. Un arbre devenu pays. Saussurea (Geneva), vol. 33, p. 39-61.

Muses, Charles, 1965. Celtic origins and the Arthurian cycle. In: Celticum XII. Actes du IVe Congrès international d'Etudes gauloises, celtiques et protoceltiques. Sarrebruck (Sarre) 4-9 septembre 1964. Supplément à Ogam. Tradition celtique, No. 98: 359-385. Rennes. This article has been republished in the Journal of Indo-European Studies vol. 7, p. 31, 1979.

Pearsall, Judy & Bill Trumble, editors, 1996. Oxford English reference dictionary, second edition. Oxford University Press.

Pokorny, Julius, 1959-1969. Indogermanisches Wörterbuch. Francke, Bern.

Ronsin, Albert, 1991. La fortune d'un nom, America. Le baptême du Nouveau Monde à Saint-Dié-des-Vosges. Cosmographiae Introductio suivi des Lettres d'Americo Vespucci. Jérôme Millon, Grenoble. 219 p.

Webster's new universal unabridged dictionary, 1996. Barnes & Noble, New York.

Wikipedia. On line dictionary.

Xhevat Lloshi, Albanian pp. 277-299, in Handbuch der Südosteuropa-Linguistik. Herausgegeben von Uwe Hinrichs unter Mitarbeit von Uwe Büttner 1999, Harrassowitz Verlag. Wiesbaden Slavistische Studienbücher, Neue Folge. Herausgegeben von Helmut Jachnow und Klaus-Dieter Seemann, Band 10.

Countries that have changed their name

Recently we have witnessed the renaming of some countries like Dahomey becoming Benin, Congo > Zaire (now back to Republic of Congo), Ceylon > Sri Lanka, Burma > Myanmar of which it is a corruption). There still is an obvious reticence in calling Burma Myanmar. Sri Lanka on the other hand has been readily and promptly accepted. I regret the forsaking of Ceylon. Couldn't we have conserved it ? After all the Germans are by no means disturbed if Deutschland is called Germany by the English, Allemagne by the French, Niemcy by the Poles or Tyskland by the Danes. The Magyars do not seem to mind being called Hungarians, the Hellens Greeks, and the Netherlanders Dutch (and their country Holland). Shqipetars are quite happy beeing called Albanians and the Kartvelebi Georgians, and their country Sakartvelo Georgia. Cerna Gora is universally known as Montenegro, Bhārat is called by the Westerners India, Suomi > Finland, Misr > Egypt, Zhon Guo > China.

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Abyssinia. The former name of Ethiopia.

From Arabic al-habasha meaning "mixed", many inhabitants of this land being a mixture of black and Semitic peoples. See Ethiopia.

Acadie. A region in the province of Québec, Canada.

From Amerind academ, tedlacadem "here, where we live" (not from akadi "fertile land"; the Indians of this region were not cultivators).

Afghanistan. A country in south central Asia.

"Land of the Afghans", a Persian name of unknown meaning or origin; afghàn also means "lamentation" but the connection is uncertain.

Africa. From the name of an ancient tribe in Tunisia, the Afri (adjective: Afer). The name is still extant today as Ifira and Ifri-n-Dellal in Greater Kabylia (Algeria). A Berber tribe was called Beni-Ifren in the Middle Ages and Ifurace was the name of a Tripolitan people in the 6th century. The name is from the Berber language ifri "cave". Troglodytism was frequent in northern Africa and still occurs today in southern Tunisia. Herodote wrote that the Garamantes, a North African people, used to live in caves. The Ancient Greek called troglodytès an African people who lived in caves. Africa was coined by the Romans and "Ifriqiyeh" is the arabized Latin name. (Most details from Decret & Fantar, 1981).

Ainu. A population of northern Japan, distinct from the Japanese.

In the Ainu language the name simply means "man". The Chinese used to call them maomin "hairy people".

Alan. A people of Persian origin that immigrated into Europe.

Also a medieval name for the Ossets. The name Alan has been given a Greek etymology alènon "vagabond". The Ossets are a remnant of the Alans who called themselves As. The Greeks called them Asiaoi. The medieval Ossets were called Allons. See Asia.

Alaska. One of the United Sates of America

From Esquimo Alaxska or Al-ay-es-ka meaning "big land".

Albania. A country in the Balkans.

Foreigners call them albanesi (Itan), Albaner (German), Albanians (English), Alvanos (Greek), Arbanasi (old Serbian), the country Albania, Albanie, Albanien, Alvania, and Albanija, and the language albanese, Albanisch, Albanian, alvaniki, and arbanashki respectively. All these words are derived from the name Albanoi of an Illyrian tribe and their center Albanopolis, noted by the astronomer of Alexandria, Ptolemy, in the 2nd century. From Ancient Greek Albanoi, an Illyrian tribe, in Modern Greek Arvanitis and by themselves arbënesh/arbëresh, the country Arbëni/Arbëri, and the language arbëneshe/arbëreshe. For the etymology of this name, see Alps.

The Albanian call their language Shqip (whence the adjective Shqipëtar: those who speak the same language). The belief that the name means "eagle" arose from a confusion between Shqip the Albanian language and shkipjë or shqipjë a collective name for birds of prey (including eagles). The bird name is cognate to Albanian shqep "to tear", Serbo-Croatian shkopiti "to strike", a characteristic of hawks. The language name must evidently have another semantics; shqiponj means "I understand". "A new and more generalized ethnic and linguistic consciousness of all these people responded to this, distinguished against the foreigners as a community of men (shqiptarë) clearly understanding each other, that is understanding each other shqip. This adverb predominates in everyday use… There is nothing scientific in explaining Shqipëri as "the country of the eagle" and shqiptarë as "the sons of the eagle" (Xhevat Lloshi, 1999).

Albanians are called Arnaut by the Serbs, and Arnavutluk by the Turks, from Greek arneios "lamb" which should be taken as a collective name for "sheep", thus: sheep raisers; see Dalmatia, for parallel naming. The Tosks in southern Albania call their northern counterpart Gegë, from gegeri; gogë is the surname of the Romanians. Gegë and gogë refer to the quality of their speech as heard by the Tosks; in Serbocroatian guga is the babbling of a child.

Albion. A literary surname for Britain or England, attested by Pliny the Elder. Albanach is still used today by the Irish as a name for the Scotsmen. The name would mean "Highlander", from a root alb- "height", cognate to Alps.

Algarve. A province of Portugal.

From Arabic al-gharb "the West", see Maghreb.

Algeciras. A town in southern Spain.

From Arabic al-jazīra al-khadrà "the green island" a name for Spain.

Algeria. A country in North Africa.

In Arabic al-Jazà'ir meaning "the islands", formerly designating the islands near the coast. The Spanish Argelia is a metathesis or inversion of letters.

Allemagne. The French name for Germany.

The country of the Allemands. The names means "the other men", from a root al- "other" and "foreigner":

Greek	allos	other
English	else	other
Gothic	aljis	other
Welsh	aile	other
Latin	alius	other
English	alien	foreigner
Old High German	elilenti	from another land
Old High German	Elisâzzo	Alsace: land on the other side of the Rhine (from the point of view of the Germans)
Teutonic	Alamann	the men established on the other side of the Rhine

This etymology has been proposed by Klein, 1977. The usual explanation from "alle männer" "all the men" is devoid of sense.

Allobroges. An ancient people of Gaul.

The name has probably never been in use by any people. It seems to have been coined by some historian with the Greek allos "other" and Breton broc'h "land", and would be the equivalent of Alamann (see Allemagne).

Alsace. A French province. See Allemagne.

Ambrons. An ancient people from Denmark.

In Ancient Greek Ambrones, so named from the color of their hair (see Denmark):

French	ambré	having a yellowish tint
French	ambre	a reddish yellow substance
Latin	Ambrones	a people from Denmark
Anc.Greek	ambrosia	an amber-colored drink
Italian North	ambra	Yellow Bunting
English	amber	golden
English	embers	hot coal
English, regional	yalla ember	Yellow Bunting
German	ammer	Yellow Bunting
Italian North	amarot	Greenfinch

The Danish Ambrons have no relation whatsoever with the ancient peoples of southeastern France called Ambrons which were nothing but the inhabitants of the town of Embrun.

America. 1. The continent.

The naming of America

The earliest known use of the name America for the continents of the Americas dates from 1507. The western continent is named America on the maps of Martin Waldseemüller (ca. 1470 - ca. 1521/1522) a German cartographer. He was born in Radolfzell (or according to the Catholic Encyclopedia Wolfenweiler, near Freiburg, with his mother originating from Radolfzell) and studied at the university in Freiburg.

The derivation of America from Amerigo Vespucci was first proposed in 1507 by Martin Waldseemüller from Saint-Dié (Lorraine, France) who wrote in his preface of Cosmographiae Introduction: "Je ne vois pas pourquoi on objecterait … de nommer cette partie [du monde] d'après Americus, c-à-d. Amerige" [I do not see why one would object…to name this part (of the world) after Americus, i.e. Amerige]. Amerigo Vespucci (March 9, 1454 - February 22, 1512),  a Genoan merchant, came to the world's attention chiefly through the publication in 1503 and 1504 of two brief letters called Novus Mundus "the New World" he purportedly wrote to Lorenzo de Medici about a voyage undertaken for the king of Portugal. Vespucci’s role in the naming issue, like his exploratory activity, is unclear.

The letters were the most interesting account of explorations in the Americas that had appeared up to that time and caused a sensation that if anything exceeded that created by Columbus's description of his first voyage ten years earlier. The letters were reprinted in every European language and soon came to the attention of Martin Waldseemüller and his friends.

The Waldseemüller group published Cosmographiae Introduction (Introduction to Cosmography), the first attempt to update the geography texts of the ancients. They were quite taken with Vespucci's idea that the Americas were a new land, since it meant they had gone beyond the knowledge of the ancients, in whose shadow they had long toiled. They thought it only appropriate that Vespucci's name grace the new land, of whose extent they had at that point only the vaguest inkling. The naming of America after Amerigo Vespucci was thus a bit capricious. The fact that this is the most ancient explanation is no evidence of being correct.

A few alternative theories have been proposed, but none of them have any widespread acceptance. This explanation is quite unsatisfactory and is certainly not the origin of the name. Why should a whole continent be name after the first name of a navigator who was not even the discoverer of this land, and why was America named after a man who was otherwise so obscure. For centuries it was argued that Amerigo Vespucci was a fraud who had never traveled to the continent that bore his name and did not deserve to have either of his names applied to anything. But it is now fairly well established that he made at least two voyages to the Americas, not as leader of an expedition but possibly as navigator, the first time in 1499.

He was not the first European of his era to set foot on the mainland, as was once thought, but probably was the first to realize that the land he helped explore was a separate continent and not merely the coast of Asia, as Columbus and others believed.

Notes from Albert Ronsin (1991), Wikipedia and other sources.

Origin of America as proposed here:

It seems more logical to consider that the name America, like Antilles, was first used by the Portuguese who were the greatest navigators at that time, with the meaning of  "the land beyond the sea" (mar); America is thus formed with the preposition a "in, with, toward" etc., and mar "sea", with the Romance suffixe –ic as in Lybica, Africa, musica, classico etc. This etymology is consistent with the accentuation of the middle syllable.

America. 2. The United States of America.

The country is usually called U.S.A and within the country U.S. which has pleasantly been taken as the initials of Uncle Sam. The southerners used to call the northerners Yankees. This name originated in early times when, in the predominantly Dutch-speaking New Harlem (later New York), the pronunciation of /j/ was like /y/ as yohn etc. Yanqui is sometimes used, somewhat pejoratively, by Latin Americans who resent the name American being usurped by the North Americans for themselves. On the opposite, Yankee is used by Americans to describe things they are proud of, such as Yankee ingenuity. The U.S.A. are called by the

Arabs	Wilayat Amrika al-Muttahidah
Finns	Yhdysvallat
French	Etats-Unis, abbreviated E.U.
Gaels	an t-Oilean-ur (New Iceland)
German	Vereinigte Staaten
Hebrew	Artzot Ha'Brit
Icelanders	Bandaríkin
Spanish	Estados Unidos which they abbreviate EE.UU. (the double letters meaning plural)
Welsh	Taleithiau Cyfenol or yr Unol Daleithian America
Yugoslavs	Zjdinjene Drzhave
Chinese	Mei-kuo (which is their pronunciation of
"America"); given a Chinese etymology the name would mean "beautiful country"; it is also called Mei zhou, in which mei "beautiful" has only a phonetical value for the accentuated syllable in America; zhou = continent. Japanese Beikoku is their pronunciation of the Chinese name! Given a Japanese etymology, the name would mean "land of the rice" which is unapplicable since the Japan used to produce much more rice than the U.S.

Anatolia. A region of Turkey.

From Greek anatellein "to rise", anatolè "sunrise, east"; thus: region of the rising sun. The Turkish Anadolu is from Greek.

Andalusia. A region of southern Spain.

Said to be from Vandals, a northern tribe who established themsemlves in Spain. This etymology is questionable. The loss of the initial V is unexplicable. For the Arabs, Andalus denoted the whole peninsula.

Andorre. A country in the Pyrenees.

In Navarra, andurrial is a scrub-covered, rough terrain.

Angleterre. The French name for England, "land of the Angles".

Angola. A country in southeastern Africa.

From the Kimbundu language n'gola "lord, chief". N'gola, name of a16th century king, when Portugal colonized the country.

Antigua and Barbuda.

Christopher Columbus named Antigua in honour of the Santa Maria La Antigua cathedral in Seville