Places names.
I always find interesting the history and story behind how places, cities and countries got their name.
What are the histories behind various countries and places names?
I'll start with The United States of America. America was the continent's name the country was in, names after an explorer. After several colonial states united and became the country called The United States of America.
Terra Australis
The Land Down Under
And also if a place has multiple names like Nipon/Japan or Deutschland /Germany share how each came and how the discrepancy happened.
I'm from the UK
The UK is actually called the United Kingdom, and it's called that because it is one kingdom that has united several regions. We call it UK because calling it the United Kingdom is long.
>>409171
OP the name of the explorer was Amerigo Vespucci (he was italian obviously)
>>409176
Deutschland is old german for, well.. People-land. German people land even. In slavic countries it's usually called some variation of Nymchy, which means foreigner. Germania was the old roman name for the region between the Rhine and the Elbe.
OT: Sweden comes from the old norse word, Swethiuth. In Swedish, it's called Sverige. Short for Svea Rike.
Svea is middle Sweden, the part containing the capital, that conquered the two other parts of Sweden, Göta and Norrland.
>>409171
Philippines, named after King Philip II of Spain.
USA is the most stupid name for a country
I would be surprised if there is any country in America that is not made of united states.
England is such as of the old name of the realm, Aengaland, the land of the Angles.
>primordial nationalism doesn't real
>>409171
China
From the Latin: Sina. Which is in turn from the Persian Chini. Possibly from the State of Qin that forged the Chinese Empire.
Chinese however called it Zhongguo, meaning "Central State." I.e. the center of the world. But that really only ever took off during the Han- T'ang Dynasty Periods when it was pretty clear there was to be one Empire.
Prior to that, it was Zhonghua (Central States), the name that the Pre-Imperial Zhou dynasty states took for themselves. They did not see themselves as one country, but saw themselves as the most civilized cunts around for miles belonging to the same race: the Huaxia meaning "Grand and Illustrious." The Huaxia renamed themselves "Han" in honor of the first (respected) Chinese dynasty which saw the formulation of the concept of Zhongguo.
Most place names are pretty innocuous.
Imagine some some pld geezer called Hemming had a farm, with some out buildings and hovels for his workers.
He (or his workers) might have called it Hemmings stead or Hemmings homestead. Over time, that name might have stuck and we might have a town called
Hemmingstead
Hemstead
Hemminghamstead
Hemmingham
Hemham
Hemmingstadt
Hemmingheim
Hemheim
Hemstadt
Hemstad
Hemmingstad
Emmingstad
Emmingstead
Emstead
Emstad
As you might guess, all of the above are variations on basically the same name based on how that name has evolved, where Hemming decided to settle down etc.
The same applies to variations, ending in
Vik wich weig wijk wyk
thorpe dorp dorf rup orp
ness nes naes
by
ton ten tun
haven hafen hamn ham hamm
burg borough brough burgh borg
bridge bruck brug bro
mouth mund mond munde
etc etc you get the idea
I've often toyed with the idea of a grrmanic place name generator which would place personal names or descriptor names next to featurr names to come up with a proto germanic place name and then translate to what its various modern iterations would be.
Šiauliai is said to have originated after the "Battle of Saule" (Battle of The Sun) and for that, it was called "The City of the sun".
Brazil is named after a tree, pic related.
Was the first thing explored in our land, and was used to make red dye Brasil is actually a derivative of the word "brasa" = ember.
>>409297
I believe it's value was more attributed to being prime material for ship building as well. I had a professor that told me it was even used in the production of some Stradivarius
>>409171
My hometown Shanghai got it's name from the time of the Song dynasty.
During the Song dynasty China was frequently bullied by nomadic people to the north and the west. That really fucked up the Silk Road trade route. So the Song government expanded their maritime trading to makeup for their losses, an aquatic Silk Road if you will.
That's when a little fishing village in eastern-southern China developed into a port town which they named Shanghai, 'upon-the-sea' because of it's at the part of the eastern coastline that extends outwards into the ocean.
And that name has been stuck ever since.
>>409304
That would be a plus, but i think almost any tropical wood would do for that.
From Wales here. Wales got it's name because it comes from the Brythonic word combrogi (Welsh word for Wales is Cymru, and Welsh word for Welsh [person] is cymry). combrogi meant "fellow-countrymen" and initially referred to the Celts, including Scotland and shit, but excluding the Anglo-Saxon 'invaders' of Britain.
Nowadays it's just pretty much about Wales
>>409171
Paris got its name from the Homeric character Paris
> https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paris_%28mythology%29#Later_treatments
The tribe called the Parisii were the Paris people in Homer's story.
> https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Parisii_%28Gaul%29
Helen represents the Hellenes, Paris and Helen united together. The Parisii migrated to Gaul and settled around modern day Paris.
>>409961
The Romans were also a migrant from the Trojan war, they claimed heritage from Aeneas
> https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Origines
The name Alexandria comes from a Swiss Napoleonic engineer called Alexandre Dumas. He found the city and since the original egyptian name (El Fakirza Hubkehubke) was to difficult for frenchmen to pronounce, they simply called it Alexandria after Alexandre Dumas.
Dumas was his nickname by the way, which means "bumbling fool", as Alexandre Dumas was one of the few Swiss guard who opened fire outside the Tuileries palace and got all his friends massacred.
After the Egyptian campaign, Alexandre Dumas was recruited into english service. Thus the french word Dumas found it's way into English. It is from this event that the english "Dumbass" has it's origin.
>>409176
I think Japan comes from Marco Polo.
>>409171
Ireland.
Éire + land. Not really hards desu
>>410074
What
Alexander the great founded Alexandria
>>411686
Eireann = Aryan
The Irish are the Eireann master race, they get the name from that.
California was named after some junk in a fantasy novel
>>411717
nope, Éireann is the genitive form of Éire
>>411686
Éire comes from the goddess Ériu, which in terms come from a root meaning bountiful.
According to myth the tripartite goddesses associated with sovereignty, Ériu Banba and Fódla (Modern Irish Éire, Banbha, Fódhla) promised to aid the gaels in capturing Ireland from the gods. In return the Gaels named the Island after them, with Éire being the most common name, banbha and fodhla being relegated to poetic usage.
The Island was known as Inis Fáil, or island of destiny previously.
Argentina comes from silver (argentum), due to the Río de la Plata (Silver River in Spanish)
Bolivia comes from Simón Bolívar, general who achieved independence of the northern countries of SA
Perú comes from Virú, a small region/village in Colombia (lel)
Chile is unknown, some claim it comes from a bird, or that Incas used it as "southern region"
>>411770
Chile could be also ''cold place/valley''.
>>411727
It was also supposed to be a magic island.
>>411766
>nope, Éireann is the genitive form of Éire
And Aryans come from Arya in Central Asia
>>411780
What about the delicious meat dish? And spicy pepper and powder?
Palermo, sicily, comes form greek Pan-ormos, "Whole port" because it was a natural port.
Milan comes from Mediolanum, latin for "in the middle of a plain".
Naples come from greek Nea Polis, "new City"
New Orleans, New York, New Zealand etc. you can imagine.
the most absurd etymology is Montevideo, capital of Uruguay: it was discovered by portuguese ships. a man on board said "Monte vide eu!" which translates to "I see a mountain!" and so it became Montevideo kek
>>409171
The case of Spain is similar to the USA. The name of Spain comes from Hispania, and in fact the king Philip II called himself Hispaniarum rex in the coins. It "curiously" means king of the spains and not king of Spain. The modern difference between Spain and Hispania is young.
As for the origin of Hispania, it's apparently not latin in origin. There's a lot of dispute between linguists with feno/punic, iberian and celtic origins being the different options. On of the most famous one is one of the punic theories where it means "Rabbit Island".
>>409187
I was sure that Nymchy meant mute.
>>409187
Actually, the Slavic words for Germans come from the word "mute" - alluding to the fact the Germanic people spoke a language, completely alien to the Slavs.
>>411838
>The case of Spain is similar to the USA.
>>409973
>>411804
Arya comes from an indo-iranian word meaning noble,iirc. Nothing to do with a place and nothing to do with Ireland.
Iran and aryan share a root, I believe, as well as the Alans in the caucasus.
The finnish word for slave is Orja, which is believed to date from the early finno-ugric steppenigger days when they would be in close contact with Iranic tribes like the Scythians
>>411848
Pretty similar to the word "barbarian" - "bar bar" was used to name the jibberish spoken by non-Greeks
>>411808
That's mexico, you imbecile, almost at the other extreme.
>>411815
>the most absurd etymology is Montevideo, capital of Uruguay: it was discovered by portuguese ships. a man on board said "Monte vide eu!" which translates to "I see a mountain!" and so it became Montevideo kek
That's an urban myth, disproved by now. Nobody knows actually the origin of that name.
Also Orleans derives from Aurelian. The city was founded honoring that emperor.
>>411866
The Irish word for the English language is béarla, which comes from béalra, meaning "mouthing", jargon or gibberish.
>>411858
Arya - Aria - Arachosia
Arians - Aryans - Iranian
>>411853
Nah, get fucked, you're not even funnt. It's called after Americo Vespucci.
Anyways the sentence you're quoting doesn't have anything to do with the naming of the continent but with the naming of nation after a territory that doesn't fully control.
>>411858
Iran is actually the [land of the] aryans. Aryānā vaēža.
>>411884
Noice. I had heard of Arachosia before but never made the connection.
TIL
>>411889
Nope, the Spanish looked at the new world as a mirror image of Europe, the most North Westerly area of Europe is Armorica.
The mirror on the American side is North Easterly = Armorica = America.
>>411884
>>411898
ARYANS
>tfw you know an Iranian that insists on saying Persia/Persian
>implying it hasn't been called Iran by the people who live there longer than anyone had ever given it the name Persia
I guess he just thinks it sounds more exotic and women will be more attracted to "I'm Persian" than "I'm Iranian"
>>411899
>I'm dumb, the post
>>409171
Texas comes from Tejas, which meant "friend", referring to the Spanish by the Caddo native, whom with they traded.
>>411929
Amerigo Vespucci is a made up theory with other theories. There is no continuity with America and Vespucci whereas the Spanish named the southern areas in relation to places in Europe.
New England
New Spain
New Amsterdam
New York
et cetera
>>411956
>trying this hard
5/10
>>411884
The name arians precedes the region of Arya. Scholars place the avesta in Central Asia more up to the north.
And iranian is just a deformation of aryan, with both words being cognates. To call himself iranian, Darius uses the word "ariya" in Bisotun. Erân from where the name Iran derives was the plural of "Aryan" (Er), with the nation being called Eranshahr (literally Kingdom of the Aryans) in middle persian. The king was šāhān-šāh Ērān meaning king of kings of the aryans. This is even easier to see if you read the parthian version of the title, šāhān šāh Aryān.
In a similar rule, in India you have the concept of Āryāvarta (Home of Aryans) to refer to the indian cultural continent.
Ironically, indian aryans are outside of the iranian "kingdom of the aryans" (eran shahr) and iranians are outside of the indian "home of the aryans" (aryavarta). Even more ironically the original home of the avestan aryan peoples is also mostly or completely outside of both.
>>411899
The spanish prefered to call the Americas the (west) Indies, being historically one of the nations more insistent on this name. The term america was coined by a german.
>>411924
It's exactly that, the west nowadays associates Persia with Cyrus and Iran with Khomeini. Ironically, Reza Shah was trying to do the opposite thing by "changing" the name (actually he was changing it for the rest of nations and not his own one). "Persia" was the paradygm of oriental backwards and decadent monarchy in 19th and early 20th century Europe, with Iran sounding fancy and new for them.
>>411991
The first place they landed, was literally called "the Spanish Island", or Spain as an island.
> Hispaniola
>>412016
What does that have to do with anything? It was part of the Reinos de Indias and governed by the Consejo de Indias from the beginning.
>>411874
didn't know about Montevideo, I thought it was legit.
I was talking about New Orleans in Louisiana though, not Orléans in France
The city in Alabama Arab is pronounced like the apple, not like the word arab, cause it was first call Arad, but someone misspelled it on the water tower with a b and the town just rolled with it keeping the rad a pronunciation.
When Japan moved the capital from Kyoto to the east they called it East Capital or Tokyo.
Is there any truth to the Iceland and Greenland anecdote?
>>409171
After the French and Indian War, French Acadians from Canada were forced to move south to Louisiana. Eventually the Acadians mixed with the local French population and "Acadian" became "Cajun".
>>412063
Neither Arab nor Arad seem anything like the word apple.
>>409961
>bullshit: the post
>>414225
The post specifically talks about why Arab is mispronounced so the a is like the a in apple.
related site
http://www.kalimedia.com/Atlas_of_True_Names.html
>>411715
jesus man get your shit together
>>414343
So is the a in arab....
Are you one of those weird americans that say "ayy-rab"? Lmao i'm so sorry for you.
>>409254
>thorpe dorp dorf rup orp
Reading that out loud sounded very humorous to me.
>>409961
WE WUZ TROJANS N SHEET
>>414817
>he doesn't know the Trojan refugees were actually ancient Slovenes
>>409187
Something curious is that, at least in spanish (not sure if it's called like this in other languages) Germany is called Alemania, which I guess comes from the region/kingdom called after the Alemanii tribe.
Russia came from how people there are always in a hurry.
Amsterdam.
There flows a river trough amsterdam called the Amstel. Way back in around 1300 the first people started living here. To controll the water the build a dam (is that the english word for it ?) The place than soon became known as amstelredamme, this just ment "place where the Amstel has a dam". Then the pronounciation became different overtime and now its just called amsterdam
>>417512
Also the netherlands it self (or holland, both mean the same thing) got its name by being below sealevel. The dutch word "neder" means below or just low. Add the word land and an english pronounciation and you get the Netherlands.
>>417512
And where did the river get its name?
>>409171
can tell you about where I'm from, OP
Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania
>Pittsburgh (originally Fort Duquesne) was captured by British forces during the Seven Years War. The earliest known reference to the new name of the settlement is in a letter sent from General John Forbes (a Scotsman) to William Pitt the Elder, dated 27 November 1758, notifying Pitt that his name had been given to the place. In that letter, the spelling is given as "Pittsbourgh"
>The city's name is commonly misspelled as Pittsburg because innumerable cities and towns in America make use of the German -burg suffix, while very few make use of the Scottish -burgh suffix. This problem is compounded by the fact that from 1891 to 1911, the official spelling of the city's name was temporarily changed to Pittsburg.
>the confusion and controversy surrounding the aborted spelling change means that both the Pittsburgh and the Pittsburg spelling were commonly encountered around the turn of the 20th century, and continued uses of Pittsburg still occur to this day.
Pittsburgher's or "yinzers" like myself see the "h" as a point of pride, and it's annoying when national media makes the mistake of leaving off the -h. Our unofficial initials are "PGH". (We're called yinzers, btw, because we say "yinz" here, and not "y'all" like in the south or "youse guys" like in new jersey. our dialect is very specific because of where we are and it's worth looking into, especially if you're into linguistics. we have local words that don't make sense to others across the U.S. like "buggy, jaggoff, slippy, nebby, "red up", etc.)
bonus fact: Pittsburgh is 2nd overall in the world for having the highest number of bridges city-wide. (1st is Venice, Italy)
Pittsburgh is beautiful and the people here are just the awesomest, down-to-earth people. Cost of living is lower here then most other major cities. foreigners moving to U.S. should definitely consider moving here!
>>419272
>>>409171 (OP)
2/2
Pennsylvania (Penn's woodlands) is named for >William Penn, English real estate entrepreneur, philosopher, early Quaker and founder of the Province of Pennsylvania, the English North American colony. He was an early advocate of democracy and religious freedom, notable for his good relations and successful treaties with the Lenape Native Americans.
>Whether from personal sympathy or political expediency, to Penn's surprise, the King granted an extraordinarily generous charter which made Penn the world's largest private (non-royal) landowner, with over 120,000 km2. Penn became the sole proprietor of a huge tract of land west of New Jersey and north of Maryland (which belonged to Lord Baltimore), and gained sovereign rule of the territory with all rights and privileges (except the power to declare war). The land of Pennsylvania had belonged to the Duke of York, who acquiesced, but he retained New York and the area around New Castle and the Eastern portion of the Delmarva Peninsula. In return, one-fifth of all gold and silver mined in the province (which had virtually none) was to be remitted to the King and the Crown was freed of a debt to the Admiral of £16,000, equal to £2,239,804 today
>Penn first called the area "New Wales", then "Sylvania" (Latin for "forests" or "woods"), which King Charles II changed to "Pennsylvania" in honor of the elder Penn.
>Penn then traveled to America and while there, he negotiated Pennsylvania's first land-purchase survey with the Lenape Indian tribe. Penn purchased the first tract of land under a white oak tree at Graystones on July 15, 1682. Penn drafted a charter of liberties for the settlement creating a political utopia guaranteeing free and fair trial by jury, freedom of religion, freedom from unjust imprisonment and free elections
-- it's all in the wiki. Sorry for just copy/pasting, but I'm tired (it's almost 2am here).
P.S. Philly sucks!
>>411717
I always thought it was just how a backwater peasant pronounced Island.
>>411815
>Mediolanum, latin for "in the middle of a plain".
Oh wow I'm an idiot for not thinking about it
>>419272
I live in pittsburgh too
Dont tell fuckers to come here were full you liberal commie bastard
>>411924
I know some people like that, and at least in the US I think there's a political component too. We aren't bitter enemies with the Persians.
>>413396
this pls
>>420182
don't be a dick, you jaggoff. think there aren't a lot of students from other countries at CMU and Pitt every year? go listen to some Donny Iris, drink an Iron City and chill.
http://pittsburgh.cbslocal.com/2015/07/31/pittsburgh-named-one-of-the-most-livable-cities-in-the-world/
http://www.nextpittsburgh.com/business-tech-news/economist-names-pittsburgh-livable-city/
>>417568
I am not totally sure but i think its based of ame stelle which would be translated to place at the water
>>413396
Also want to know this.
>>410074
>>409171
I am not sure if this is true but here goes. In ancient Phoenicia there was a city called hadasht, meaning city. Then they founded a city along the north African coast, called Qart-Hadasht, or Carthage, meaning new city. The Carthaginians founded a city in Spain called by the Romans Carthago Nova or new carthage. Which eventually morphed into Cartagena. Then the Spaniards founded a city in Columbia also called Cartagena, but which we might as well call new Cartagena. So new Cartagena means new new new city.
>>423957
>Hadasht
>Had a sht
Kek
>>409171
asia is actually named after the western part of turkey
>>414837
In French, Germany is called 'Allemagne', from the same root.
The same root is used for the other Iberian languages too, as well as Arabic iirc.
>>411727
>The name of Calafia was likely formed from the Arabic word khalifa (religious state leader) which is known as caliph in English and califa in Spanish. Similarly, the name of Calafia's monarchy, California, likely originated from the same root, fabricated by the author to remind the 16th-century Spanish reader of the reconquista, a centuries-long fight between Christians and Muslims which had recently concluded in Spain
OHH SHIII-
>>424048
What work?
I'm from Slovenia.
So basically the name means ˝the land of slovenes/slovenians, but it can also means just ˝the land of slavs˝, because, even though we use word ˝slovan˝, for a slav, the old version of that word was ˝sloven˝.
But, going even further in history, the word ˝slav˝ in old church slavonic was ˝slovenina˝
>>409171
I live in Sussex, which means south saxons. This is in England, which means angle land.
Here we have a blackboys, which apparently comes from the men coming out of the nearby coal mines black.
Theres an upper dicker and lower dicker on a hill called the dicker, with dickering apparently being another word for bartering as there used to be a large market there.
Theres a cuckfield and a river cuckmere (I hope these dont get filtered), both being associated with the cockeral for some reason.
Theres battle, which was built up around battle abbey which was built on the site of the battle of hastings, so the town is named after a historical event.
