http://www.balticsww.com/names.htm - http://www.balticsww.com/names.htm

Ok

England is simple Eng is old English for Angel.

Rhodesia, now defunct, was named after South Africa Prime Minister Cecil Rhodes.

China after the 1st emperor, Chin.

Mexico from the Aztec tribal name, Mexica.

America comes from Amerigo Vespucci who discovered it.

Europe from Europa the Pheonicean princess.

Russia from the Rus (Swedish settlers).

Can anyone tell me the meaning of their country's name or any other they know?

Zhong Guo : The middle kingdom, country

De Guo : From De Yi Zhi (deutsch)

Fa Guo : From Fa Lan Xi (France)

Xi La: From Hellas

Xi Ban Ya: From Espana

Pu Tao Ya: From Portugal

Mi Lu: Peru

A Gen Ting : Argentina

A Fu Han : Afghanistan

A La Buo : Arabia

Tu Jue : Turkey

Han Guo : From Dae Han Min Gook

Chao Xian : From Choson, the fresh dawn

Ri Ben : From Nippon, the start of the sun

Ma Qi Dun : Macedonia

Mian Dian : Myanmar, from her capital Vientianne

Yue Nan : Vietnam, over the south

Su Lian : USSR, literally translated as union of soviets

Jian Pu Zhai : Kampuchea

Da Bu Li Dian : The big Bulidian, or Great Britain

He Lan : Holland

That's very interesting Britain is Big Bulidian.

But I think Rangoon is the capital of Myanmar. Vientiane is in Lao (and very nice it is too).

In Estonian we call the Netherlands Madalmaad which means Low-lands!!!

I don't know much, but it seems logical that Estonia comes from East land or something to do with east, as our conquerers came from the west and therefore gave us the name of that kind.

Actually, I've used that word on several occasions.

neth·er  (nthr) adj. Located beneath or below; lower or under: the nether regions of the earth. [Middle English, from Old English neothera, from neother, down.]

Yeah as far as I am concerned Canada is a village compared to the US.

I heard a funny joke about how Canadians invented their country name...

Canadians were trying to figure out what to name their country, so they started drawing letters out of a hat. As they drew the letters, they read them out loud, "'C' eh. 'N' eh. 'D' eh." And the Canadians got their name.

Yeah as far as I am concerned Canada is a village compared to the US.

[/QUOTE]

I don't see how that has anything to do with it. There are many advantages to living in Canada over the U.S. Does size imply anything about a certain country. If you want to debate politics there is another forum for that. You just shouldn't say things like that which may be interpreted as disparaging. So next time be for considerate.

I heard a funny joke about how Canadians invented their country name...

Canadians were trying to figure out what to name their country, so they started drawing letters out of a hat. As they drew the letters, they read them out loud, "'C' eh. 'N' eh. 'D' eh." And the Canadians got their name.

[/QUOTE]

That is a funny joke, perhaps that's the origin of that. Apparently, when the U.S. was gaining independence from the British they were considering naming their new country The United States of Columbia to honour Christopher Columbus.

Dam we should have named it as such. The actual name of Mexico is the United States of Mexico. USA is an obnoxiously inclusive name. Canada should have been named the United States of Leif Eriksson

perhaps it should be the USAV United States of Amergo Vesspucci, that would at least sound more exotic.

Canada was an Algonquin word by the way, same with Kebec (Quebec).

Egypt, comes from the Greek word Aegyptos, which I have no idea why they called it that.

Also: Khemme, which in the ancient Egyptian language means black land.

And, Massre, the arabic name, which is derived from the biblical character Mizraim, the supposed ancestor of the Egyptians.

Nobody knows for sure any more! Depending on the root words that you choose it can mean either "sunburned" (sounds logical), or "goat-fall" (connected to the milkyway that was represented as the Nile?- a bit far-stretched but who knows?).

Most of the words we use about Egypt are Greek and they have fun origins as well. So "obelisk" was a type of small spit that was used in Greece for meat cooking (something like "souvlaki":-). When the Greeks saw the huge Egyptian "Obelisks" (who knows what the Egyptians called them?) they thought they resembled meat-sticks and humorously named them "Obeliskos"

(Obelias = spit, obeliskos = small spit)

The name "Turkey" was obviously given to anatolia when the crusaders arrived. When they came they saw turks living all over anatolia and turk culture dominat between the anatolians, so they called these lands turkey...

Kebab-stone?

Since I live here, and the country does tend to get overlooked, I'd better add that Luxembourg is named after the capital city Luxembourg*, which derives from Lucilinburhuc, Alleman Frankish for 'little castle'.

It's interesting the French call Germany 'Allemagne' after the Alleman Franks, and the Germans call France Frankreich meaning Empire of the Franks also after the Alleman Franks, when the Alleman Franks were one tribe, and the only little bit of Europe that still remains of their realm is Luxembourg.

*Note noted for their imagnination, Luxembourgers. And I get bored with people thinking something is wrong when I say my address ends 'Luxembourg Luxembourg'

Scotland is rather obviously the land of the Scots.

Only interesting because the Scots came from Ireland.

Norway is the sea route to the North: any other countries named after a stretch of water? NB it's sometimes said it means 'land of the Norse' but that's a copout.  Iceland however is the land of ice, and Finland the land of the Finns. Denmark is the field of the Danes (although 'mark' comes to mean 'outlying' or 'bordering' land), and I have no idea where Sweden - Sverige - comes from.

By the way, in Denmark don't avoid saying CopenhAYgen because it's the English name. Don't say CopenhAAgen unless you want them to think you're German. Try Kerpenhaan if you want to be polite; in fact K'penhaan is better if you can put the stress on the apostrophe.

Portugal comes from the Roman name for Oporto, Portus Cale apparently, so something Gate or Port.

I think having a 'ma' sound is more accurate, but I'm no expert.

Yiannis, I find it interesting that the Greeks gave many countries and lands names, but it was the Romans who named Greece (at least for all non-Greeks).

Actually Scot is quite interesting for the same reason as the earlier Welsh example. The Scots cal l themselves Gaels, Scot is the English name for them and it roughly translates to barbarian in the Angle tongue.

Ha,ha! Indeed, that was a clever observation, I haven't thought of it that way, but you're absolutelly right!

Ironic, isn't it?

It's very possible the word Scot found it's way into English from Latin. The Romans would very definately have thought of the Scotti as barbarians. Nowadays we use the tribal names of Vandal and Visigoth to mean uncivilised behaviour in modern English, probably deriving from Roman influence. Perhaps the Anglo-Saxons did the same back then with Scotti.

The arabic word is "Mýsr" for egypt.

The land can be peaceful,but the people certainly aren't.

Saudi Arabia  from their founder King Saud.

Bahrain from the word Bahar which means sea and Bahrain means Two Seas ( that it is surrounded by two seas)

And Arabic name for Egypt is Masr which meant land or country (Old meaning not used usually these days)

According to this site: http://www.allamaiqbal.com/person/movement/movement.htm - http://www.allamaiqbal.com/person/movement/movement.htm

Although his main interests were scholarly, Iqbal was not unconcerned with the political situation of the, country and the political fortunes of the Muslim community of India. Already in 1908, while in England, he had been chosen as a member of the executive council of the newly-established British branch of the Indian Muslim League. In 1931 and 1932 he represented the Muslims of India in the Round Table Conferences held in England to discuss the issue of the political future of India. And in a 1930 lecture Iqbal suggested the creation of a separate homeland for the Muslims of India. Iqbal died (1938) before the creation of Pakistan (1947), but it was his teaching that "spiritually ... has been the chief force behind the creation of Pakistan."

Brasil - From pau-brasil, a type of vegetation that covered a large deal of the country, though the portuguese called it firstly the lands of Santa Cruz (Holy Cross) and Vera Cruz (True Cross).

Does that mean the country was named after the nut, rather than vice versa?

No problem. I'll put again what's missing...

The two portuguese autonomous atlantic archipelagoes:

Madeira - literally, wood. When the settlers first set foot on the island, it was all covered with deep woods, up from the mountains down to the seashore. They actually set the island on fire before bringing the colonists in.

Açores - The plural of Açor, a type of bird that apparently inhabited the isles when the portuguese started to colonize them. Somewhat like a hawk.

Yes, because apparently the "pau-brasil" already existed elsewhere. The country no!

The Philippines was named after Spain's King Philip <insert appropriate Roman numerals here>

The name we westerners have for Nippon, Japan, is a corrupted form of the Cantonese word "Jatbun", or so I've been told.

I recently rean a research article that presented this meaning for the name Egypt: From the Hellinic "AIGYPTOS" that is formed by the words "YPO or YPTIA of the Aegean" and means "under or on the back of the Aegean"

As for the name Greece, it might have been "enforced" by the Romans but we do find Aristotle and Apollodorus that wrote about the "Graeci" that were the "Selle" or "Helle" a Hellinic tribe of Epirus.

what was the name before the spanish?

The actual name of Greece is "Hellenic Republic"

Imperatore Dario I

I think you mean the Latin "Vitulus", the well known "calf god". If it had any connection to Hellinic, it would have looked more like "Bosporos" from "bous"= ox and "poros"= "generally means pathway or provide" a word applied usually to straits. But when we connect this to the myth of Heracles in Skythia that tells us how he "drove" cattle there the name "bosporos" actually does make sense.

Greece: As I said we do find Aristotle and Apollodorus that wrote about the "Graeci" that were the "Selle" or "Helle" a Hellinic tribe of Epirus.

Hellas: formed by the words "elion"="to grasp, to hold" or "elios"= "sun and the word "laas" = "rock". Most agree on the "sun" version giving the meaning of "land of sun"

1. España (Spain) - Actual name, since 1100 AC, when the southern french change the name "Spania"

2. Spania- A deformation of Hispania, since 500 to 1100 AC

3. Hispania- Roman name of Spain (and Portugal), based in the phoenician name for Spain.

4. Spn (Sphan, Sephan, Shaphan, Shphanim...) The phoenician name for Spain (if we read 90% of the theories), with many explanation: the rabbit theory, land of rabbit or land of burrows/ and the geographical theories, the  land of the West (from Phoenicia) or the land of the North (from the phoenician cities in North África)

bye

Origins of the names hispano (Hispanic).

According to Espasa-Calpe, the Dictionary of the Spanish Royal Academy, hispano comes from a mythological character, whose father was Hispalo, one of Hercules’ companions who is attributed with having founded the ancient city called Ispalis (or Hispalis). Located on the banks of the Betis River (now the Guadalquivir), Hispalis corresponds to what later became Seville. An important commercial center during the time of the Turdetanians, who came from the ancient city of Turdetania in southern Spain, Hispalis was later a Roman colony under Caesar. Then, under the Goths and Vandals, it became the capital of southern Spain. So the Iberian Peninsula was called Hispania since the Roman era. The word hispánico derives from the Latin Hispanicus and the word España (Spain) stems from the Greek Spania-- a term used first by the Greek geographer Artemidorus as a secondary name for Ispania, which was later changed to Hispania by the Romans. The latter also changed Ispalis to Hispalis. In his Geografia Sacra (1642), the renown French reformist pastor and writer Samuel Bochart explains that if we wish to understand the etymology concerning the word Ispanic, we must look to the language of a people more ancient than the Greeks. He believed Ispania derived from the Phoenician term span, which means "land of rabbits." And, indeed, the reverse side of a coin bearing the image of the Roman Emperor Hadrian, who was born in Spain, reveals Spain symbolized by the figure of a seated woman with a rabbit at her feet. Before the arrival of the Romans, the peninsula was called Iberia, which means "running water" [Editor’s note: in Greek] and the Iberians established their towns along the river banks or on land between the rivers.

Alot more at : http://www.hellohola.org/mesones/arewelatinos.html - http://www.hellohola.org/mesones/arewelatinos.html

I've heard of some kind of festival that takes place in Seville that has something to do with Hellines and the foundation of the city. Maybe one of the Spanish in here can give more info about this.

Of course, there are more theories about the name Spain, that is one; other hypothesis say that Spain is a iberan word; an other hypothesis say that it is a word of the Venetos (umm a people from oriental Alps).

But the most popular hypothesis is "Land of Rabbits"; many scientist said that is impossible, because the phoenician didn't know the rabbit... But, the literal punic name for Spain is "Land of Hyraxes", hyrax is an animal present in Middel East and North Africa, so when phoenicians came to Spain they called to rabbits with the name of a similar animal, the Hyrax.

Here the Hispania's coin (fith): http://www.museumoflondon.org.uk/frames.shtml?http://www.museumoflondon.org.uk/MOLsite/exhibits/coins/emps08.htm - http://www.museumoflondon.org.uk/frames.shtml?http://www.mus eumoflondon.org.uk/MOLsite/exhibits/coins/emps08.htm

The history of the name "Iberia" are very large, the greek name for Spain, surelly is most recent than "Sphan" because the greeks arrivaled to Spain after the arrival of the punics. Romans prefer Hispania because were more geographical than Iberia; Iberia was the name of Spain but also the name of many peoples: iberic peoples, only stablished in South and East of the Peninsula.

About Seville, i don't know that festival, but there is a problem: the greeks stablished in northern Mediterranean coast, in Spain since the Pirineos to Ebro or Turia river, and the phoenician since Turia to Algarbe in Portugal. Surelly, if foreign peoples found Seville they were the phoenicians.

http://155.210.60.15/HAnt/Hispania/medocc.jpg - http://155.210.60.15/HAnt/Hispania/medocc.jpg

bye

Canada is just jelous it didn't get that name.

I don't believe that any of the archaeological evidance at hand suggests that Greek collonization, that far, started anywhere before 6th century BC.

In any case, Greek colonies in Spain were mostly trading posts, it was the Carthagenians who ruled Spain. In excavations in Spain we find bulks of Carthagenian artifacts and only a few Greek.

What are your sources that suggest Greek presence of that extend?

France is named after the Franks. The Germanic ethinicity that absorbed the others.

The "Frank" word means "free people", they were federatis working as mercenaries for the Roman empire. Many of them settled as wanderers in France.

Sometime the southern France is called Occitania, after the language that was once spoken here. Occitan, itself named after the word "oc" meaning yes is the mentioned language in opposition of the French who was using the word "oil". Oc itself is related to "Occident" meaning western in French.

My former province is Gascony, named after its people the Gascons, who are Vascons interbreeded with Visigoths (Goth Vascons).

Actually, the coutry Brasil was name after a legendary island that was suposed to exist in the middle of the Atlantic. You can find some pre-expansion maps that show that. When the portuguese reached Brasil, they concluded that there was no island after all, but the name caught on...

Bulgaria from Bulgars. But what does it mean.... I am not sure. I think I heard somewhere that it's a greek word which means something like ....barbarian?????

Sofia /our capital/ from St. Sofia. who had three daughters - Hope, Love and Belief

What about Ireland? I know the Irish call their country Eire, but what does Eire mean?

And as for Brasil, the country was indeed named after the brasil wood which was the first good that it produced. The word brasil, on the other hand, is related to the word 'brasa', which is an ember, a red-hot coal. 

DOH!

Didn't see that.

In any case, Makednos derives from Greek "Makos" meaning long or tall.

Jews, especially Joshephus clearly mention Macedonians as Greeks and Alexaner as the "Greek king", so let's not go to them, you won't like it...

Cyrrilos and Methodios created the Clatolitic script, to be able to translate the bible from Greek to Slavic and thus Christinize them. However Glatolitic was proven to be too complicated, so their pupils shortened it and altered it a bit, to create the Cyrrilic one. Both alphabets derive from the Greek one.

http://www.ancientscripts.com/glagolitic.html - http://www.ancientscripts.com/glagolitic.html

http://www.ancientscripts.com/cyrillic.html - http://www.ancientscripts.com/cyrillic.html

Why does it matter if these countries recignize the name? I live in America and no one cares about their new "acceptance of the name." Tehy agree to recignize so more of your soldiers can die instead of American soldiers. Plus, America doesn't recignize any ties to claims of Ancient History of the Macedonians. They wouldn't do this, because they realize they cannot make a claim, such that FYROM has any claims to Ancient Macedonia, because it is simply not true,

Today's Macedonians are decents of ancient Macedonians as much as today's Greeks of Greece are decents of ancient Greece. 

In addition to this it is nonsense for Greeks to tell the others their identity. You are doing the same thing for the Turks who live in Greece. You are still denying their identities and calling them "Muslim Greeks".........

You are calling yourselves as Hellenes, Hellas.......... Well what is the story of this name. Isn't it an artificial name?

Stop messing with others and live with your own facts which may be ridiculous for others too............. They are not judging you. You can not judge them too.

It is because of Greece today we have a country whose name is Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia. This is terrible. You are even interfering the name of their country.  Macedonia is Macedonia. This is so simple but because of your narrow minded, fascist state educational system Greece creates idiot problem such this.

Turkey recognize officially the country as Macedonia. Best wishes to all Macedonians from which some of my ancestors come (they were Turks) from the town Kastoria which is under Greek occupation now in southern Macedonia.