Country Names Explained

hello and welcome to fire of learning I'm Justin the names of the countries around the world are important they're not just the names of an area of land but oftentimes of a people of generations of people and of their history struggles and successes the words France Iran United States China mean a lot of things many important things but what do they more literally mean where do the names originally come from in the first place what is a Sweden or in India well in this video we're going to find out as we explore the nearly forgotten tales of how the countries of our planet got their names and what they mean so let's get to it [Music] first on our list which will go in no particular order will place Canada Canada comes from an iroquois word kanata meaning village it was picked up by the British and French to describe the region long before the nation of Canada was even an idea it became used to refer to the British provinces of Upper and Lower Canada in the late 1700s and the country took its name from the single province of Canada which emerged in the 1840s Iceland and while Greenland is not technically its own country it can be grouped together here with Iceland because of a common origin both were named by the Vikings originally called snow land Iceland was renamed by floki vulgar darson yes that floki because of its cold barren terrain the naming of Greenland occurred a little bit later and it is perhaps one of history's most well known bamboozles as though the name was chosen to attract settlers it is very much not green Ireland meaning the land of arrrooo linked to a goddess of the same name it is a word meaning prosperous and bountiful Portugal from the Latin port was collee the report this means port and the word Calais is actually related to the word Gaul or Gaelic referring to the Celts who were living in the Iberian Peninsula prior to Roman dominance it was originally a name for a local area but over time the region around Port Kigali began to adopt the same name until referred to the whole country Spain the word Spain has unclear origins as it is very ancient the name likely originated long before the Roman Empire entered the area from a Phoenician word it might mean the western land it might mean the land of metal forging it might mean the land of rabbits linguists are still unsure Scotland the land of the scottie what the term Scot meant originally is unclear but Scotty was actually a name for the Gaels a group of Celts from Ireland who inhabited the western half of Scotland gradually the name stuck to the whole country Wales the term Wales comes from the Germanic word wall 'has which meant something like foreigner it was used originally to refer to any non Germanic person however the anglo-saxons began to use it specifically for the Britons as they settled in modern England speaking of England England the land of the angles the angles were one of the main Germanic tribes which settled in England following the fall of the Roman Empire along with these Saxons and some others like the Jews now if you've watched my past videos you may know that these Saxons were the more prominent group and that England was in fact largely unified by the Saxons so why England and not Saxon door Saxony while the name England was favored by the famous king of Wessex short for West Saxony Alfred to promote unity of Angles and Saxons the name was less important as the English Saxons had a common origin and had at that time become a single people fun fact though in some languages like Irish England is still called Saxony to tie these countries all together now the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland the name the United Kingdom is simply pointing out the fact that the kingdom of England kingdom of Scotland and kingdom of Ireland exists as a United Kingdom as for Great Britain the term great is a geographical term pointing out that the island of Britain is the most major of the British Isles and the word Britain probably comes from a Celtic word for the proton II meaning painted people Belgium the name comes from the ancient germanic tribe known as the bell guy the name likely originated as meaning the angry or furious a reference to the battle prowess of the tribe france takes its name from the Frankish tribes who ruled the region after the Roman Empire fell the word franc meant something along the lines of free and so France is basically the land of the free people the United States of America I plan to have a whole video dedicated to this one actually but the fact that the United States has such a bland name basically comes from the fact that it was intended to be a union of practically independent States for the first few years of its existence so a cool collective name wasn't as important to the nation's founders therefore the name is simply a union of states on the American continent Mexico Mexico comes from an Aztec word regional name around Mexico City today the place of the Mexica the ruling people of the Aztec empire Cuba Cuba probably comes from an indigenous tie no word meaning the abundant land or great place Venezuela the name means little Venice it likely originated with the man that the Americas were named dr. Amerigo Vespucci according to sources the stilt houses along the coast reminded the Italian Explorer of the city of Venice and so he called the region vennett seola Brazil is named after the brazilwood of the region brazo means something along the lines of red or like an ember and Portuguese so you can roughly translate it as the land of the wood Ruud like an ember Argentina Argentina comes from Italian meaning the land of silver a reference to the supposed parley mythical abundance of silver in the land the Netherlands I did a video on this topic already actually the Netherlands is another name for the Low Countries although gradually as the region became its own country around the 17th century it referred specifically to the Dutch Republic that was forming Switzerland the name comes from the town of Schmitz the town that laid the foundation for the nation in the late Middle Ages its meaning is uncertain but it may be something along the lines of strong or clear Italy the name of Italy predates the founding of the city of Rome itself and so the exact meaning and origin isn't clear we do know however it originally only referred to the southern part of the peninsula where the ancient Greeks inhabited and might mean the land of cattle or refer to an ancient king of the region at Allis Greece the name for Greece in English comes from Greek iya which is what the Romans called Greece making it was called an ex on him or a name for something used by foreigners and not the people themselves Greece calls itself a loss the origin of the word Greece is unclear and may refer to what the Greeks called themselves before calling themselves Helene's Egypt this is kind of another excellent the word Egypt is a heavy corruption of the ancient Amarna language and its word the Koopa meaning the Temple of the soul of taw this originally only referred to this city of Memphis however and the ancient Egyptians called their entire country canet Saudi Arabia the House of Saud is the ruling family of Saudi Arabia and that is where the country takes its name although the name has historically also referred to the region in general Arabia comes from the name of the people there the arabs which may go back to meaning something like wanderer merchants or nomads syria the name syria derives from the ancient empire in the city of assyria known also as a shore or a sewer iraq iraq may be one of the oldest names in existence probably coming from the ancient Sumerian city of rook which may have meant fertile City or village that gradually came to refer to the whole country India India has three official names India and Bharat are the official ones with Hindustan being a commonly accepted one as well the word India comes from the sanskrit word Shindo which referred to the Indus River China the name for China ultimately derives from the qin dynasty that ruled a country in ancient times and was ultimately responsible for uniting the kingdom's into a single country its founder was Qin Shihuang Japan the name for Japan in English probably comes from how the Chinese pronounce Nippon they called it she Pongo again the name for Japan and Japanese is either new pawn or Nihon meaning the base of the Sun or the Land of the Rising Sun the name Korea comes from one of the northern ancient kingdoms of korea gray you or co guru which upon contact with Westerners was corrupted into Korea Russia while Russia is a Slavic nation today the original Roose people are thought to have been in Norse Vikings who settled and took over the region during the Middle Ages the name Roose may refer to the men who row sweden the name for sweden comes from the swedish spiria which means the realm of the Swedes Swedes may mean something along the lines of the tribe or one's own Norway nor way comes from North vague meaning the northern way referring to its extensive coastline leading northward the native name for the country noria likely has a similar origin though it is unclear Finland in Finland the country calls itself Swamy which may mean marshland but the origin of both that word and of Finland is unclear but both are quite ancient the romans mentioned a people known as the funny around 100 AD possibly refer to them denmark comes from the old norse dawn mork meaning the danish march a March was a kind of borderland the origin is unclear but it may refer to an ancient people known as the Donnie or to a mythical king named dawn Germany I devoted some time to talking about the variety of names used to refer to Germany in various languages around the world in part 2 of my documentary on Germany while the Germans call their own country Deutschland the English word comes from the Latin guerre manya a word which has unclear origins and may be Celtic meaning neighbor Poland Poland's name comes from the tribe of Poland's and is likely related to the word for fields so roughly the people or the land of the fields austria austria is a corruption of the word österreich which means the eastern realm or Eastern Kingdom Libya Libya is an ancient name for the people's West of Egypt libel a with an unclear origin however the name only began to be used again recently when the Italians invaded the region in a twentieth century it then became the name for the country shortly after Ethiopia the name for this country may be Greek meaning burnt faced referring to the complexion of these sub-saharan African peoples the darker skinned people's south of Egypt or it may be Egyptian meaning the robbers of hearts Madagascar this is an exonym popularized by a mistake which the people of the island nation soon adopted it was originally confused by the Europeans for the Somali port of Mogadishu the name he came corrupted and stuck both the Democratic Republic of the Congo and Republic of the Congo take their names from the Congo River it was named after the bantu congo people who inhabited the region and may mean something like gathering-place the country takes its name for the word for the king of the region prior to European contact in Angola Bulgaria probably dating back to the ancient word boga which means shaker or disturbed Australia from the Latin Terra Australis it means simply the southern land or as you could also say the land down under though it was called New Holland for quite a while the name of Australia was given before the even more southern land of Antarctica was discovered New Zealand the country that is often forgotten on maps is not forgotten here on fire of learning the original Zealand is in the Netherlands and that is from Dutch explorers that the nation takes its name the spelling was later changed but the name was kept all the same by the later British the Philippines were named after king philip ii of spain by Spanish explorers and has since been adopted by the local Southeast Asian natives as the name of their country Romania takes its name from its heritage as a part of the Roman Empire the historical region of document of the Roman Empire in the second century AD and the name is derived from Romanus meaning the citizens or people in Rome Singapore Singapore derives from the ancient Sanskrit Sima para the city of the lion explorers of the region who gave it this name likely confused a Malayan Tiger for a lion Indonesia another exonym from the Greek in dos meaning Indian and nassos meaning islands compare this to Polynesia many islands turkey turkey means essentially the land of the Turks what the word Turk means however is uncertain and may mean helmet or strong fun fact the turkey bird is actually named after the country and so unfortunately we did not get to cover every country in this video however if you enjoyed this video I will absolutely make part 2 also if you did enjoy this video then I invite you to come check out the rest of fire of learning and to subscribe to keep up with more videos like this in the future to help with the costs of production fire of learning does take donations on patreon the link to which you can find in the description you can support the channel with as little as a one dollar contribution however simply subscribing to our YouTube channel for free is also a large help a special thanks to our patreon supporters listed here we are also on Instagram Facebook and Twitter so come check us out there too thank you for watching

Channel: Fire of Learning

Views: 875,656

Rating: 4.81005 out of 5

Keywords: Country, Name, Planet, Meanings, England, Saxony, India, Ireland, USA, Brazil, Poland, Russia, China, Canada, Etymology, Origins

Id: mwzRKJPd9H4

Length: 14min 19sec (859 seconds)

Published: Fri Mar 22 2019