The origin of names of every country
 

Hahaha,I like how they trolled romanians with Bulgaria being named "Roman realm".http://www.discussworldissues.com/fo...lies/laugh.gif

Nice.

Some funny ones:

France- "Land of the free/spears"

Norway- "Northern way"

Somalia- "Black"

Sudan- "Blacks"

Iran- "Land of the free"

Afghanistan- "Land of horsemen"

Somalia doesn't mean 'blacks', wtf, who made this? Somali is derived from Samaale, which is the name of the mythical forefather of all Somalis.

Probably confused it with Sudan which means land of blacks.

I also spotted a few inaccuracies with other African countries.

LOL @ Russia! How inappropriate… http://www.discussworldissues.com/fo...lies/laugh.gif

Why do you have to take everything so seriously? God fucking damn bro! They aren't all literal.

lol, many were accurate but a shitload aren't.

Maybe the creator had a hidden agenda. Anyway, we should not take it seriously but instead laugh.

Iran- "Land of the free" HAHAHAHAHAHA. Irony!

Isn't it "land of the Aryans" literally?

What I've heard is that Thailand does not mean "land of the free" which is what I was told before. Thai which comes from Tai is just the name of the languages, and it doesn't mean "free". I'm not 100% certain, but that's what I've read. If anyone can clarify this, that would be great.

Australia:
Developed from Terra Australis, a big mythological land in the south that was never conquered by any people, and used to have a noble mythological population, at least this in the perspective that the Europeans at the time, had of it.

Brazil:
The name comes from Hy-Brazil, a island in Celtic Mythology, where the Proto-Celts from Ireland would have fled and established their own population. Ironically, later on, the terms like Brazil in the Middle Ages where very much applied to people who did things such as art and theater, especially in Portugal and Italy. In the case of Portugal, the name can be understood as like in the word Brasao, which means Coats Of Arms, in Portuguese... hence it was the desire of the common people to name this land as both a mythological utopia, as well as an unconquered, vast land of riches (which it does was at the time).

Europe:
Evolved from the idea of honouring the ancestors of a Phoenician princess which some say could have been Cretan, who had sex with a half-bull, half-man, that was an manifestation of Zeus.

Japan (the name has in Japanese language):
Nippon was once know by several names, but after the eventual forced unification of the country, a systematic desire for a nationalist state (and I should point out, the very first nationalistic movement ever) that would cover Japan as well as it's long term cultural partners, Korea and China, and later under Hideyoshi, wanted to get soldiers out of the Philippines as well, arose, so they decided to try to go for the approach of "a land that can be of all, and relates to all". Hence, the land of the rising sun, or the land where the holy empress of the skies, the sun, and so on, Amaterasu, always rose and gave spiritual enlightenment and pride to the people everyday.

I think some of the names are based on a complete dissection of the words, right down to their origin.
That's certainly the case with Denmark (actually field or land of Dan), and the intended meaning of a word isn't always the meaning of the individual parts of the words in their ultimate origin, but that's what they've gone with here - in some cases.

Also the case with France, which is land of the Franks, and here they have gone with a speculative idea about the original meaning of the name of the people, the Franks.
Wiki has a whole article on the subject of the etymology of France!
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Name_of_France

They are right about Turkey. We are indeed strong owners.

http://www.discussworldissues.com/fo...ilies/grin.gif

Spain is also wrong (as many others...)

The most accurate would be island or land of saphans (rabbits), as it is shown by some coins with the legend "cuniculosa" (plenty of rabbits)

Hi-sphn-ya, latinized as Hispania (in latin "ph" becomes "p", as it does from greek "phonikiyo" (phoenician) to "punicus".

Yeh also with britain - from pritain - painted ones..

Scotland , land of the scotti

England - angle land....

Wales is actually called Cymru by the welsh - meaning compatriots.....

This map is so crap.

Belize does not mean "Wallace"............http://www.discussworldissues.com/fo...lies/whoco.gif WTF? There is no proof for that....

It does mean "Muddy Water" in Maya-Mopan (Be'lix).....

It is only referring to the Belize River which gets muddy in the rainy season. It is the longest river with hundreds of contributaries and creeks, making smaller rivers in central Belize muddy.

Most other rivers, lagoons and oceans are clear and a few are turquoise-to-blue (Blue Creek, Chetumal Bay, the "small" and "Great" Blue Hole)

Actually name for Latvia comes from name Latvija which people used to refer to themselves.
Latvji, Letts, Lettland, Latvija

The names obviously aren't what they mean today, hence those who say certain countries' names are written wrong because they are based on some obscure name should know names are always based on something. This chart goes into the very depths of linguistic history, it's obviously not some random chart made by twelve year olds.

If nothing else this map´s good for laughs. "I go to the beach" is my favorite.

I don't know if this is trolling or just misinformation, because some things are true, like Russia being the land conquered by the Viking seafarers, and other are plain wrong


Portugal is Gallic Port: Portu - Gal "Beautiful Port" is Protovelho.

Colombia is "The land of Cristopher Columbus" (Cristoforo Colombo in Genovese) Colombo comes from latin Columba, which means Dove. But Colombia is about the man, not the birds.

Bolivia is not a "Mill on a River". It's the "Land of Simon Bolivar".

Dominican Republic is not "Sunday Republic" It's "The Republic of the Dominican Order". Originally called Ordo Praedicatorum (Order of the Preachers) by Saint Dominic, its founder. Later it took the name of its founder. In turn, Dominic comes from latin Dominus, which means "Lord", like in "Jesus the Lord"


"Niger" means "black" in latin. "Nigeria" is "land of the blacks"

"australia" means "land of the south". Unknown Southern Land is Terra Incognita Australis, which appeared in most XV-XVII century maps, where the Land of Fire, Antarctica and Australia formed a single continent.


Also for Slovakia and Slovenia, they both mean Slavic Land.

Africa's various historical meanings:

Afar: "Dust" (Phoenician)
Ifri or Ifran: "Cave" (From the Banu Ifran Berber Tribe of Yafran)
Aprica: "Sunny" (Etymologiae of Isidore of Seville)
Aphrike: "Land Free of Cold and horror" (Greek)
Af-rui-ka: "To turn toward the opening of KA"/the "Birthplace" (Egyptian)