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This list covers English language country names with their etymologies. Some of these include notes on indigenous names and their etymologies. Countries in italics no longer exist as sovereign political entities.

A

 Afghanistan:

Main article: Origins of the name Afghanistan

From Afghan and the Persian suffix -stan meaning "land of"; thus: "land of the Afghans". The origin of the word Afghan itself — which is synonymous with Pashtun — remains uncertain. One explanation derives it from Apakan, an 8th or 9th century Iranian ruler.^{citation needed} Others point out a 3rd century Sassanid reference to "Abgan", the oldest known mention of a word variant of "Afghan".^{citation needed} It also appears in the inscriptions of Shapur I of Iran at Naqš-e Rostam which mentions a certain Goundifer Abgan Rismaund.^{citation needed} The sixth-century Indian Astronomer Varahamihira, in his Brhat Samhita (11.61; 16.38), refers to Afghans as Avagan. The seventh-century Chinese pilgrim Xuanzang who travels from Kunduz and Balkh into India where he refers to a people to the north of Sulaiman Mountains whom he calls Apokien, which alludes to Avagans or Afghans. A modern view supported by numerous noted scholars is that the name Afghan evidently derives from Sanskrit Ashvaka or Ashvakan (q.v.), (Panini's Ashvakayana), the Assakenoi of Arrian. The Ashvakayan/Asvakan are stated to be a sub-section of the Kambojas who specialised in horse-culture.

 Åland (autonomous province of Finland):

"Land [in the] water," from the Germanic root *ahw-, cognate with Latin aqua. The Finnish name Ahvenanmaa is partly borrowed, partly translated from Germanic.

 Albania:

"Alb" from the Proto-Indo-European root meaning "white" or "mountain", as mountains are often white-capped with snow; compare Alps.

• Albanian: Shqipëria (Land of the Eagles)

 Algeria:

The name Algeria is derived from the name of the city of Algiers (French Alger), from the Arabic word "الجزائر" (al-ǧazāʼir), which translates as the islands, referring to the four islands which lay off that city's coast until becoming part of the mainland in 1525; al-ǧazāʼir is itself short for the older name ǧazāʼir banī mazġannā, "the islands of (the tribe) Bani Mazghanna", used by early medieval geographers such as al-Idrisi and Yaqut al-Hamawi.

 American Samoa (territory of the United States of America):

See America above and Samoa, United States of America below.

 Andorra:

Etymology unknown and contested; of pre-Roman, possibly Iberian or Basque origin. The name Andorra might be derived from al-Darra, the Arabic word for forest. When the Moors invaded Spain, the valleys of the Pyrenees were especially wooded, and the title Andorra can be found linked to villages in other parts of Spain which had been under Moorish domination. Still others claim that it comes from the Spanish andar, meaning "to walk", which gave name to the nomadic tribe of Andorrisoe which ostensibly migrated to the valleys in and around present-day Andorra, or could possibly originate from a Navarrese word andurrial, which translates as "shrub-covered land." An oft-told legend is that the name came from the archaic "Endor", which Louis le Debonnaire christened what he referred to as the "wild valleys of Hell" after defeating the Moors – wild and desolate mountain ranges have been associated with the Devil throughout much European literature.

 Angola:

From Ngola, a title used by the monarch of the Kingdom of Ndongo. The Portuguese named the area in honour of a Ngola allied with them.

 Anguilla (overseas territory of the United Kingdom):

From the word for "eel" in any of several Romance languages (Spanish: anguila; French: anguille; Italian: anguilla), due to its elongated shape. The circumstances of the island's European discovery and naming are uncertain: Christopher Columbus (1493) or French explorers (1564) are both possibilities.^[1]

 Antigua and Barbuda:

Christopher Columbus named Antigua in honour of the Santa María La Antigua ("Saint Mary the Old") cathedral in Seville, Spain, when he landed there in 1493. "Barbuda" means "bearded" in Portuguese. The islands gained this name after the appearance of the their fig trees, whose long roots resemble beards. Alternatively, it may refer to the beards of the indigenous people.

 Argentina:

Main article: Origin and history of the name of Argentina

From the Latin argentum, meaning "silver". Early Spanish and Portuguese traders used the region's Río de la Plata or "Silver River" to transport silver and other treasures from Peru to the Atlantic. The land around the terminal downstream stations became known as La Argentina – "The Land of Silver".

 Armenia:

Main article: Armenia (name)

From Old Persian Armina (6th century BC), Greek Armenia (5th century BC). The further etymology of the Persian name is uncertain, but may be connected to the Assyrian Armânum, Armanî and/or the Biblical Minni. The Old Persian name is an exonym, see Hayk for the native name and Urartu for the Biblical Ararat.

• Armenian: Հայաստան Hayastan

 Aruba (territory of Netherlands):

Two possible meanings exist. One story relates how the Spanish explorer Alonso de Ojeda named the island in 1499 as "Oro Hubo", implying the presence of gold (oro hubo in Spanish means "there was gold"). Another possible derivation cites the Arawak Indian word oibubai, which means "guide".

 Australia:

Originally from Latin terra australis incognita — "unknown southern land". Early European explorers, sensing that the Australian landmass far exceeded in size what they had already mapped, gave the area a generic descriptive name. The explorer Matthew Flinders (1774 – 1814), the first to sail around and chart the Australian coast, used the term "Australia" in his 1814 publication A Voyage to Terra Australis. Previous Dutch explorers had referred to the continent as Australisch and as "Hollandia Nova" (New Holland). From the introduction in Flinders' book:

"There is no probability, that any other detached body of land, of nearly equal extent, will ever be found in a more southern latitude; the name Terra Australis will, therefore, remain descriptive of the geographical importance of this country, and of its situation on the globe: it has antiquity to recommend it; and, having no reference to either of the two claiming nations, appears to be less objectionable than any other which could have been selected.*"^[2]

...with the accompanying note at the bottom of the page:

"* Had I permitted myself any innovation upon the original term, it would have been to convert it into AUSTRALIA; as being more agreeable to the ear, and an assimilation to the names of the other great portions of the earth."^[2]

Note: Antarctica, which is south of Australia, would be discovered in 1820, although who first saw it in that year is a matter of dispute.

 Austria:

Compare the modern German Österreich, from Old High German ôstarrîhhi, which literally means "empire in the East." In the 9th century, the territory formed part of the Frankish Empire's eastern limit, and also formed the eastern limit of German settlement bordering on Slavic areas. Under Charlemagne and during the early Middle Ages, the territory had the Latin name marchia orientalis (Eastern March). This translated to Ostarrîchi in the vernacular of the time; that Old High German form first appears in a 996 document.

• Arabic Nimsa: Presumably from the Slavic word nowaday used for Germany, via Turkish.
• Czech Rakousko (country) or Rakousy (Upper and Lower Austria): from Rakous (German: Raabs), an important fortress on the Moravian-Austrian border.
• Finnish Itävalta

 Azerbaijan:

Native spelling Azərbaycan (from surface fires on ancient oil pools; its ancient name, (Media) Atropatene (in Greek and Latin) or Atrpatakan (in Armenian), actually referring to the present-day Azerbaijan region of Iran. The name became Azerbaijan in Arabic. The Persians knew the territory of the modern republic of Azerbaijan as "Aran"; and in classical times it became "(Caucasian) Albania" and, in part, "(Caucasian) Iberia", although this last term corresponds mostly to the present-day republic of Georgia. (See Georgia below.) The region of Media Atropatene lay further to the south: south of the River Araxes. "Aran" may derive from the same root as modern "Iran", while "Albania" and "Iberia" appear as toponyms of Caucasus mountain derivation. The name "(Media) Atropatene" comes from Atropates ("fire protector" in Middle Persian) who ruled as the independent Iranian satrap at the time of the Seleucids. The modern ethnonym 'Azerbaijani' has often become the subject of sharp differences of opinion between the ethnically Turkic inhabitants of the modern republic of Azerbaijan and the inhabitants of the Persian-dominated neighboring republic of Iran. Iranians regard the names "Azerbaijan" and "Atropatene" as expressions of historically Persian culture, and therefore often refer to the modern republic of Azerbaijan as "Turkish Azerbaijan", and to its inhabitants as "Azerbaijani Turks". In contrast, Turkophone Azerbaijanis insist on their own place as an historically continuous presence in Azerbaijani history. The suffix -an in Persian means "land".

B

 Bahamas:

From Spanish Baja Mar – "Low (Shallow) Sea". The islands were named by the Spanish conquistadors after the waters around them.

 Bahrain:

Arabic for "two seas". The exact referents of the "two seas" remain a matter of debate. Bahrain lies in a bay formed by the Arabian mainland and the peninsula of Qatar, and some identify the "two seas" as the waters of the bay on either side of the island. Others believe that the name refers to Bahrain's position as an island in the Persian Gulf, separated by "two seas" from Arabia to the south and Iran to the north. Yet another claim suggests that the first sea surrounds Bahrain and the second "sea" metaphorically represents the abundant natural spring waters under the island itself.

Baker Island (territory of the United States of America):

Named after Michael Baker, of New Bedford, Massachusetts, who claimed to have discovered it in 1832 (subsequent to its actual discovery)^clarify.

 Bangladesh: Bangla referring to the Bengali-speaking people, and Desh meaning "country", hence "Country of the Bengalis". The origin of 'Bangla' derives from ancient 'vanga' kingdom of present location of Bengal.

• Bangladesh was formerly known as East Pakistan when it was the eastern exclave of Pakistan. (See Pakistan below; note that the name "Pakistan" comes from an acronym of the country's various regions/homelands in which Bangladesh and its regions do not feature^{citation needed})

 Barbados:

Named by the Portuguese explorer Pedro A. Campos "Os Barbados" ("The Bearded Ones") in 1536 after the appearance of the island's ficus trees, whose long roots resemble beards.

 Belarus:

See also Belarus: History of the name.

From Belarusian, meaning "White Rus'", "White Ruthenia". Formerly known as Byelorussia, a transliteration from the Russian name meaning "White Russia". (See Russia below.) The name changed after the collapse of the Soviet Union to emphasize the historic and ongoing distinctness of the nations of Belarus and Russia. The exact original meaning conveyed by the term "Bela" or 'White' remains uncertain. Early cultures commonly employed the concept of "whiteness" as representing the qualities of freedom, purity, or nobility. On the other hand, it may simply have originated as a totem color of convenience. Part of the western territory of modern Belarus historically bore the name of "Chernarossija" or "Black Rus". The term "Black" most commonly applied to landscapes featuring especially rich and productive soils. How this may reflect on the origin of the term "White Rus" remains as yet unexplored. Yet another region in present-day western Ukraine historically had the name "Red Russia" or "Red Ruthenia". Colors represented cardinal directions in Mongol and Tatar culture^{citation needed}, which may have influenced the naming of these lands.

 Belgium:

From the name of a Celtic tribe, the Belgae.

The name Belgae may derive from the Proto-Indo-European *bolg meaning "bag" or "womb" and indicating common descent; if so, it likely followed some unknown original adjective.

Another theory suggests that the name Belgae may come from the Proto-Celtic *belo, which means "bright", and which relates to the English word bale (as in "bale-fire"), to the Anglo-Saxon bael, to the Lithuanian baltas, meaning "white" or "shining" (from which the Baltic takes its name) and to Slavic "belo/bilo/bjelo/..." meaning "white" (as in the town names Beograd, Biograd, Bjelovar, etc, all meaning "white city"; see Beltane). Thus the Gaulish god-names Belenos ("Bright one") and Belisama (probably the same divinity, originally from *belo-nos = "our shining one") might come also from the same source.

 Belize:

Traditionally said to derive from the Spanish pronunciation of "Wallace", the name of the pirate who set up the first settlement in Belize in 1638. Another possibility relates the name to the Maya word belix, meaning "muddy water", applied to the Belize River.

• British Honduras (former name): after the colonial ruler (Britain). For "Honduras" see Honduras below. See also Britain, below.

 Benin:

Previously called Dahomey, the country was renamed the People's Republic of Benin in 1975 after the Bight of Benin — the body of water on which it lies. This name was picked due to its neutrality, since the current political boundaries of Benin encompass over fifty distinct linguistic groups and nearly as many individual ethnic groups. The "Benin" in "Bight of Benin" is itself the name of an old kingdom (the Kingdom of Benin) which was in the region, centred at Benin City in modern-day Nigeria. (The old kingdom was not coincident with the modern country of Benin, nor historically directly linked to it.) The name is said to derive, via Ubini, from the Yoruba Ile-ibinu, meaning a land of quarrels, referring to a historical period of dispute within the kingdom, and applied (perhaps derogatorily) by the Yoruba people. That was then corrupted by early Portuguese traders into "Benin", and the related term "Bini", the name of the people (though the people themselves use the name "Edo"). Some accounts suggest that "Bini" is related to the Arabic bani, meaning "sons".

• The name Dahomey was the name of the ancient Fon Kingdom, and was determined to be an inappropriate name, as it was the name of the principal ethnic group of the country.

 Bermuda (overseas territory of the United Kingdom):

From the name of the Spanish sea captain Juan de Bermúdez who sighted the islands in 1503.

 Bhutan:

The ethnic Tibetans or Bhotia migrated from Tibet to Bhutan in the 10th century. The root Bod is an ancient name for Tibet.

• Bhutanese language: Druk Yul — "land of the thunder dragon", "land of thunder", or "land of the dragon", from the violent thunder storms that come from the Himalayas.

 Bolivia:

Named after Simón Bolívar (1783–1830), an anti-Spanish militant and first president of Bolivia after the country gained its independence in 1825. His surname comes from La Puebla de Bolibar, a village in Biscay, Spain. The etymology of Bolibar may be bolu- ("mill") + -ibar ("river"). Thus, it might mean a mill on a river.

 Bosnia and Herzegovina:

The country consists of two distinct regions. The larger northern section, Bosnia, takes its name from the Bosna river. The smaller, southern, territory, Herzegovina, takes its name from the German noble title Herzog, meaning "Duke". Frederick IV, King of the Romans, made the territory's ruler, the Grand Vojvoda Stjepan Vukcic, a duke in 1448.

 Botswana:

Named after the country's largest ethnic group, the Tswana.

• Bechuanaland (former name): derived from Bechuana, an alternative spelling of "Botswana".

Bouvet Island (territory of Norway):

Named after the French explorer Jean-Baptiste Charles Bouvet de Lozier, who discovered the remote island in 1739.

 Brazil:

Named after the brazilwood tree, called pau-brasil in Portuguese and so-named because its reddish wood resembled the color of red-hot embers (brasa in Portuguese), and because it was recognized as an excellent source of red dye. In Tupi it is called "ibirapitanga", which means literally "red wood". The wood of the tree was used to color clothes and fabrics.

Another theory states that the name of the country is related to the Irish myth of Hy-Brazil, a phantom island similar to St. Brendan's Island, southwest of Ireland. The legend was so strong that during the 15th century many expeditions tried to find it, the most important being that of John Cabot. As the Brazilian lands were reached by Pedro Álvares Cabral in 1500 A.D., the Irish myth would have influenced the late name given to the country (after "Island of Real Cross" and "Land of Holy Cross"). The proof that the legend was popular among Iberic people may be verified by the name of the Azorean Terceira Island, registered in the 14th century in the Atlas Catalan and around 1436 on the Venetian map of Andrea Bianco.^clarify

See also list of Brazil state name etymologies.

Britain:

From Pretani, "painted ones"^{citation needed}; perhaps a reference to the use of body-paint and tattoos by early inhabitants of the islands; may also derive from the Celtic goddess Brigid^{citation needed}. The form 'Britain' (see also Welsh Prydain) comes from Latin 'Britannia', probably via French. The former name of the island of Britain was Albion, an ancient Greek adaptation of a Celtic name which may survive as the Gaelic name of Scotland, Alba. Traditionally, a folk etymology derived the name from "Brutus", but this is almost certainly not the case. Brittany derives from the same root.

 British Indian Ocean Territory (overseas territory of the United Kingdom):

Self-descriptive.

 British Virgin Islands (overseas territory of the United Kingdom):

Christopher Columbus, on discovering a seemingly endless number of islands in the north-east Caribbean in 1493, named them after Saint Ursula and the 11,000 virgins. The word "British" distinguishes these islands from the adjacent US Virgin Islands.

 Brunei:

Possibly via Hindi from Sanskrit bhurni, meaning "land" or "country". Alternatively, said by some to be from a Malay exclamation "barunah!" meaning "great!", or "excellent!", in reference to the suitability of the location for settlers. It was renamed "Barunai" in the 14th Century, possibly influenced by the Sanskrit word varunai, meaning "seafarers", later to become "Brunei". The word "Borneo" is of the same origin. In the country's full name "Negara Brunei Darussalam", "Darussalam" means "Abode of Peace" in Arabic, while "Negara" means "State" in Malay. "Negara" derives from the Sanskrit Nagara, meaning "city."

 Bulgaria:

Named after the Bulgars. Their tribal name, Bulgar, may come from burg, which means "castle" in Germanic languages. A. D. Keramopoulos derives the name "Bulgars" from burgarii or bourgarioi meaning "those who maintain the forts" (burgi, bourgoi, purgoi) along the northern boundaries of the Balkan provinces, and elsewhere in the Roman Empire, first mentioned in Greek in an inscription dated A.D. 202, found between Philippopolis and Tatar Pazardzhik (and last published in Wilhelm Dittenberger's Sylloge inscriptionum graecarum, 3 ed., vol. II [1917], no. 880,1. 51, p. 593). The Bulgarians, previously known as Moesians, inhabited Thrace.

• An alternative Turkic etymology for the name of the pre-Slavicised Central-Asian Bulgars derives from Bulgha meaning sable and has a totemistic origin.
• Some associate the name Bulgar with the River Volga in present-day Russia: Bulgars lived in that region before and/or after the migration to the Balkans: see Volga Bulgaria.

 Burkina Faso:

From two of the country's principal languages, meaning "land of upright people", "land of honest men" or "land of the incorruptible" (Burkina from the More language and Faso from Dioula). President Thomas Sankara, who took power in a coup in 1983, changed the name from "Upper Volta" in 1984.

• Upper Volta (former name): after the Volta's two main tributary rivers, both originating in Burkina Faso.

 Burma:

see Myanmar below.

 Burundi:

From a local name meaning "land of the Kirundi-speakers."

C

 Cambodia:

The name "Cambodia" derives from that of the ancient Khmer kingdom of Kambuja (Kambujadesa). The ancient Sanskrit name Kambuja or Kamboja referred to an early Indo-Iranian tribe, the Kambojas, named after the founder of that tribe, Kambu Svayambhuva, apparently a variant of Cambyses, Kambujiya or Kamboja. See Etymology of Kamboja.

• Kampuchea (local name): derived in the same fashion. It also was the official English-language name from 1975 to 1989.

 Cameroon:

From Portuguese Rio de Camarões ("River of Shrimps"), the name given to the Wouri River by Portuguese explorers in the 15th century.

 Canada:

Main article: Canada's name

From the word Kanata meaning "village" or "settlement" in the Saint-Lawrence Iroquoian language spoken by the inhabitants of Stadacona and the neighbouring region, in the 16th century, near present-day Quebec City. See also Canadian provincial name etymologies.

 Cape Verde:

Named after Cap-Vert a cape in Western Africa. From Portuguese Cabo Verde: "Green cape".

Caroline Islands

Named after Charles II, king of Spain from 1665 to 1700.

See "Micronesia" and "Palau" below

 Catalonia:

Catalunya in Catalan. The origin is unclear and there are many hypotheses. Perhaps from the word meaning "land of castles" (see Castile for a similar origin). According to another somewhat similar theory (Lafont 1986), Catalunya could come from Arabic Qalat-uniyya (Qalat means "castle" and -uniyya is a collective suffix) because medieval Catalonha used to be a frontier country with a lot of castles in front of the Muslim and Arabized zone of the Iberic peninsula. Some texts suggest that the name Catalunya derives from "Gauta-landia": Land of the Goths, or "Goth-Alania" meaning "Land of the Goths and Alans"^[3] through Arabian *Cotelanuyya [cf. Andalusia, land of the Vandals], as the Visigoths and Alans invaded and divided Iberia between themselves, agreeing to rule some parts together, with the region of Catalunya going to the Visigoths. Additionally, the Visigothic kingdom of Catalonia may have been named after the original homeland of the Visigoths, "Gotland". Coromines suggests an Iberian origin: Laietani (latinization of Iberian laiezken) > *laketani > laketans > metathesized as catelans > catalans, reforced by castellani (with an epenthetic s according to Coromines). Another theory suggests *kaste-lan as the Iberian name later latinized as castellani (an Iberian tribe in northern Catalonia according to Ptolemy); then the name would have evolved into *catellani > *catelans > *catalans.

 Cayman Islands (overseas territory of the United Kingdom):

Christopher Columbus discovered the islands in 1503 after winds blew him off his course from Panama to Hispaniola. He called the islands Las Tortugas ("The Turtles" in Spanish) due to the many turtles there. Around 1540, the islands gained the name Caymanas, from a Carib word for marine alligators or "caiman", an animal found on the islands.

 Central African Republic:

Named after its geographical position in the center of the continent of Africa; see also List of continent name etymologies.

 Chad:

Locally known in French as République du Tchad. Named for Lake Chad (or Tchad) in the country's southwest. The lake in turn got its name from the Bornu word tsade: "lake".

 Chechnya:

The Russian ethnonym Chechen probably derives from the name of the ancient village of Chechana or Chechen-aul. The village is on the bank of the Argun River, near Grozny. Another theory derives the name from chechenit' sya, "to talk mincingly".^[4]

The native term, Noxçi, is derived from nexça (sheep cheese), nox (plow) or from the prophet Noah (Nox in Chechen).

 Chile:

Exact etymology unknown. Possibilities include that it comes from a native Mapudungun term meaning "the depths", a reference to the fact that the Andes mountain chain looms over the narrow coastal flatland. The Quechua or Mapuche Indian word chili/chilli or "where the land ends/where the land runs out/limit of the world" is a possible derivation. Another possible meaning originates with a native word tchili, meaning "snow".

 China:

The English name of China comes from the Qin Dynasty, possibly in a Sanskrit form; the pronunciation "China" came to the western languages through the Persian word چین "Chin". (see also: China in world languages)

• Chinese: Zhong Guo — "central country"
• Archaic English Cathay, Turkish Xytai and Russian Китай (Kitai), from the Khitan people who conquered north China in the 10th century.

 Christmas Island (territory of Australia):

So named because Captain William Mynors discovered the island on Christmas Day in 1643.

Clipperton Island (territory of France):

Named after the English mutineer and pirate John Clipperton, who hid there in 1705.

 Cocos Islands (territory of Australia):

Named after coconuts, the main local product.

• Keeling Islands (alternative name), after Captain William Keeling, who discovered the islands in 1609.

 Colombia:

Named after the explorer Christopher Columbus, despite the fact that he never was in the country.

 Comoros:

From the Arabic Djazair al Qamar: "island of the moon."

 Congo, Republic of the:

Named after the former Kongo kingdom, in turn named after the Bakongo people.

 Congo, Democratic Republic of the:

Named after the former Kongo kingdom, in turn named after the Bakongo people.

• Zaire (former name), from Nzere, "river", after Congo River.

 Cook Islands (territory of New Zealand):

Named after Captain James Cook, who sighted the islands in 1770.

 Costa Rica:

The name, meaning "rich coast" in Spanish, was given by the Spanish explorer Gil González Dávila.

 Côte d'Ivoire:

From French, meaning "Ivory Coast". The French so named the region in reference to the ivory traded from the area — in similar fashion, nearby stretches of the African shoreline became known as the "Grain Coast", the "Gold Coast" and the "Slave Coast."

 Croatia:

Latinization of the Croatian name Hrvatska, derived from Hrvat (Croat): a word of unknown origin, possibly from a Sarmatian word for "herdsman" or "cowboy".^{citation needed} Might be related to an aboriginal tribe of Alans.

 Cuba:

From Taíno Indian Cubanacan — "centre place". In Portugal, some believe that the name echoes that of the Portuguese town of Cuba, speculating that Christopher Columbus provided a link. In Portuguese and Spanish, the word "cuba" refers to the barrels used to hold beverages.

 Cymru

Cymru is the Welsh name for Wales, thought to mean "Land of the Compatriots" in Old Welsh. The term "Welsh" comes from the Anglo-Saxon "Wealh", meaning foreigner or unfamiliar neighbour.

 Cyprus:

Derived from the Greek Κύπρος (Kypros) for "copper", in reference to the copper mined on the island in antiquity.

 Czechoslovakia:

Roughly "land of the Czechs and Slovaks", from the two main Slavic ethnic groups in the country, with "Slovak" deriving from the Slavic for "Slavs"; and "Czech" ultimately of unknown origin.

 Czech Republic:

From Čechové (Češi, i.e. Czechs), the name of one of the Slavic tribes on the country's territory, which subdued the neighboring Slavic tribes around 900. The origin of the name of the tribe itself remains unknown. According to a legend, it comes from their leader Čech, who brought them to Bohemia. Most scholarly theories regard Čech as a sort of obscure derivative, i.e. from Četa (military unit).

• Bohemia (Latin and traditional English variant): after a Celtic tribe Boii.

D

 Dagestan:

The word Daghestan or Daghistan (Avar: Дагъистан; Arabic and Persian: داغستان) means "country of mountains", it is derived from the Turkic word dağ, meaning mountain and the Persian suffix -stan meaning "land of". The spelling Dagestan is a transliteration from Russian language, which lacks the voiced velar fricative.

 Democratic Republic of the Congo:

See Congo, Democratic Republic of, above

 Denmark:

From the native name Danmark, meaning "march (i.e., borderland) of the Danes", the dominant people of the region since ancient times. The origin of the tribal name is unknown, but one theory derives it from PIE dhen: "low" or "flat", presumably referring to the low elevation of most of the country.

 Djibouti:

Named after the bottom point of the Gulf of Tadjoura. Possibly derived from the Afar word gabouti, a type of doormat made of palm fibres. Another plausible, but unproven, etymology is that "Djibouti" means "Land of Tehuti" or Land of Thoth, after the Egyptian Moon God.

• French Territory of the Afars and the Issas (former name): after the colonial ruler (France) and the two main ethnic groups in the country. See also France, below.
• French Somaliland (former name): after the colonial ruler (France). For Somaliland see Somalia below.

 Dominica:

From the Latin "Dies Dominica" meaning "Sunday": the day of the week on which Christopher Columbus first landed on the island.

 Dominican Republic:

Derived from Santo Domingo, the capital city, which bears the name of the Spanish Saint Domingo de Guzmán, the founder of the Dominican Order.

E

 East Timor:

From the Malay word timur meaning "east". The local official Tetum language refers to East Timor as Timor Lorosae or "East Timor", or Timor-Leste in Portuguese. In neighbouring Indonesia it has the formal name Timor Timur — etymologically "eastern east". Indonesians usually shorten the name to Tim-Tim.

• Portuguese Timor (former name): after the former colonial ruler (Portugal). "Timor" as above.

 Ecuador:

"Equator" in Spanish, as the country lies on the Equator.

 Egypt:

From ancient Greek (attested in Mycenean) Αἴγυπτος (Aígyptos), which, according to Strabo, derived from Αἰγαίου ὑπτίως (Aigaíou hyptíōs) — "the land below the Aegean sea"). That is more apparent in the Latin form Aegyptus. Alternatively, from the Egyptian name of Memphis, *ħāwit kuʔ pitáħ, meaning "house (or temple) of the soul of Ptah".

• Mişr (Arabic name, pronounced Maşr in Egyptian Arabic): a widespread Semitic word (Hebrew: Mitzraim), first used to mean "Egypt" in Akkadian, and meaning "city" or "to settle or found" in Arabic. The Turkish name Mısır derives from the Arabic one. However, the Hebrew form means "straits or narrow places", referring to the shape of the country as it follows the Nile River, and takes on more symbolic weight in the Bible in reference to the Exodus story.
• Kême (Coptic name): "black land" (Ancient Egyptian kmt), referring to the mud of the Nile after the summer flood, as opposed to the desert, called "red land" (Ancient Egyptian dšrt).

 El Salvador:

"The saviour" in Spanish: named after Jesus.

 England (constituent country of the United Kingdom):

Derived from the Old English name Englaland, literally translatable as "land of the Angles".

The indigenous languages of Ireland and Scotland refer to England as the "land of the Saxons" — for example, Irish Sasana. Cornish — also a Celtic language — uses Pow Saws — literally "Saxon country".

 Equatorial Guinea:

"Equatorial", from the word "equator". The Equator does not pass through the country's land, though the country straddles the Equator, as its island of Annobon lies to the south, while the mainland lies to the north. "Guinea" perhaps comes from the Berber term aguinaoui, which means "black".

• Spanish Guinea (former name): after the former colonial ruler (Spain). "Guinea" as above; See also Spain, below.

 Eritrea:

Named by Italian colonizers, from the Latin name for the Red Sea, Mare Erythraeum ("Erythraean Sea"), which in turn derived from the ancient Greek name for the Red Sea: Ἐρυθρά Θάλασσα (Eruthra Thalassa).

 Estonia:

From the Latin version of the Germanic word Estland, which could originate from the Germanic word for "eastern (way)", or from the name Aestia, first mentioned in ancient Greek texts. Palaeogeographers have not located Aestia exactly: the name may have instead referred to modern Masuria in Poland.

• Chud (Old East Slavic): originally derived from the Gothic for "people" (see "Deutschland" under the heading "Germany"); more recent folk-etymology has also linked the name to the Slavic root for "weird". Lake Peipus still bears the name of "Chudskoe Lake" in Slavic languages.
• Igaunija (Latvian): from the ancient Ugaunian tribe in southeastern Estonia.
• Viro (Finnish variant): from the ancient Vironian tribe in northern Estonia.

 Ethiopia:

From the Greek word Αἰθιοπία (Aithiopía, Latin Æthiopia), from Αἰθίοψ (Aithíops), "Ethiopian" — sometimes parsed by Westerners as a purely Greek term meaning "of burnt (αἰθ-) visage (ὤψ)". However, some (i.e., the 16–17th c. Book of Aksum Matshafa Aksum) Ethiopian sources state that the name derived from "'Ityopp'is", a son of Cush, son of Ham who, according to legend, founded the city of Aksum.

• Abyssinia (former alternate name): derives from an Arabic form of the Ge'ez (and other Ethiosemitic languages) word Habesha, a name referring to the collection of all tribes in ancient Ethiopia.

Europa Island (territory of France):

The island was named for the British ship Europa, which visited it in 1774.

F

 Falkland Islands (overseas territory of the United Kingdom):

The English Captain John Strong named the strait between the two main islands the Falkland Sound when he landed on the islands in 1690, and the term eventually came to apply to the whole island group. The name honoured Anthony Cary, 5th Viscount Falkland, First Lord of the Admiralty, whose family name was also their residence "Falkland Palace" in Scotland.

• Islas Malvinas (Spanish language name): comes from the French sailors who frequented the islands during the 1690s. They came from St. Malo in Brittany, France, so others often referred to them in French as the "Malouines".
• Sebald Islands — a nearly defunct name of Dutch origin which commemorated Sebald de Weert, who is usually credited with first sighting the Falkland Islands in 1598.

 Faroe Islands (territory of Denmark):

From Faroese (originally Old Norse) Føroyar, "sheep islands".

 Fiji:

From the Tongan name for the islands: Viti.

 Finland:

From Germanic, meaning "Land of the Finns". Originally, the Germanic term Finn, deriving possibly from finthan ("wander, find"), and carried forth in the North Germanic languages, probably referred to hunter-gatherers, whose closest cultural successors in modern terms would be the Sami people. Latin Fennia.

• Suomi (Finnish name), Soome (Estonian name), Sum' (Old Russian name): may derive from the Baltic root zeme for "land": zeme ← sheme ← shäme → Häme ← shaame → Saami ← Soomi ← Suomi.
• An Fhionnlainn (Irish name) is derived from Finlandia though by coincidence Fionnlann also means "Land of the fair" in Irish.

Formosa:

See Taiwan.

 France:

Main article: Name of France

French derivation of Francia, "Land of the Franks". A frankon was a spear used by the early Franks, thus giving them their name. The term "Frank" later became associated with "free" as the Franks were the only truly freemen, since they subjugated the Romanized Gauls.

• Gallia (Latin) from the name of a Celtic tribe. Many Celtic groups used similar names: compare Gaul, Galatia, and Galicia.

 French Guiana (territory of France):

See France above and Guyana below.

 French Polynesia (territory of France):

The geographic term "Polynesia" means "many islands", formed from the Greek roots πολύ (polý), "much, many" and νῆσος (nēsos), "island".

See also France above.

 French Southern and Antarctic Lands (territory of France):

From the geographic location of the territories (in the southern Indian Ocean).

Note: France's claims in Antarctic are in abeyance because of the 1959 Antarctic Treaty.

See also France above.

G

 Gabon:

From Gabão, the Portuguese name for the Komo river estuary (French: Estuaire de Gabon). The estuary took its name from its shape, which resembles that of a hooded overcoat (gabão). Gabão comes from Arabic قباء (qabā’).

 Gambia, The:

From the river Gambia that runs through the country. The word gambia supposedly derives from the Portuguese word câmbio (meaning "trade" or "exchange"), in reference to the trade the Portuguese carried out in the area.

 Georgia (the west Asian country):

Derived from Persian Gurj,^[5][6] probably derived from a PIE term meaning "mountainous". In classical times Greeks referring to the region used the names of Colchis (the coastal region along the Black Sea) and Iberia (further inland to the east). Some also believed that Georgia was so named by the Greeks on account of its agricultural resources, since "georgia" (γεωργία) means "farming" in Greek. However, the modern Greek name is now taken to be a derivation from the Persian root Gurj.^[7] Both names probably derive from indigenous Caucasian languages.

• Gruzia in Slavic languages (Грузия in Russian, for example) and in Hebrew (גרוזיה), and Gorjestân (گرجستان) in Persian derive from the same source. Gruzia, probably imported from Russian, is used in Vietnamese.
• Sakartvelo (Georgian name; in English commonly "Kartvelia"): derived from a pagan god called Kartlos, once regarded as the father of all Georgians.
• Vrastan (Armenian: Վրաստան)

 Germany:

Main article: Names for Germany

From Latin "Germania", of the 3rd century BC, of unknown origin. The Oxford English Dictionary records theories about the Celtic roots gair ("neighbour") (from Zeuss), and gairm ("battle-cry") (from Wachter and from Grimm). Eric Partridge suggested *gar ("to shout"), and describes the gar ("spear") theory as "obsolete". Italian, Romanian, and other languages use the latinate Germania as the name for Germany. The Irish language uses An Ghearmáin, also cognate.

• Allemagne (French), Alemania (Spanish), Alemanha (Portuguese), ألمانيا (Arabic), Almân (Persian), Almanya (Turkish): from the name of the Alamanni, a southern Germanic tribe, itself probably meaning "all the men", i.e. referring to a confederation of tribes.
• Deutschland (German), Duitsland (Dutch): from the Old High German word diutisc, meaning "of the people" (itself from ancient Germanic thiuda or theoda, "people") and land, "land": "land of the people". Of the same root are Tyskland (Danish, Norwegian, Swedish), Þýskaland (Icelandic) and tedesco (Italian adjective form).
• Niemcy (Polish), Německo (Czech), Nemecko (Slovak), Nemčija (Slovene), немецкий ("nemetski") — but Германия ("Germania") for the country (Russian), Németország (Hungarian): Either from a Slavic root meaning "mute", "dumb", i.e., metaphorically, "those who do not speak our language" or from the Germanic Nemetes tribe.
• Purutia (Tahitian): Prussia.
• Saksa (Estonian, Finnish): from the name of the Germanic tribe of Saxons (in turn, possibly from Old High German sahs, "knife").
• Vācija (Latvian), Vokietija (Lithuanian):

 Ghana:

After the ancient West African kingdom of the same name. The modern territory of Ghana, however, never formed part of the previous polity. J. B. Danquah suggested the use of the name in the run-up to Ghanaian independence. His research led him to believe that modern Ghanaian peoples descended from the ancient Ghana Kingdom; others dispute his conclusions.

• Gold Coast (former name): after the large amount of gold that colonisers found in the country. Compare the names Europeans gave to nearby stretches of shore: "Ivory Coast", "Slave Coast" and "Grain Coast".

 Gibraltar (overseas territory of the United Kingdom):

A corruption of the Arabic words Jebel Tarik which means "Tarik's Mountain", named after Tarik-ibn-Zeyad, a Berber who landed at Gibraltar in 711 to launch the Islamic invasion of the Iberian Peninsula.

Glorioso Islands (territory of France):

The Glorioso or Glorieuses Islands take their name, presumably, for their wonderful (glorious) looks. A Frenchman, Hippolyte Caltaux, settled in 1880 and established a coconut and maize plantation on Grande Glorieuse. (That does not explain the Spanish- or Portuguese-looking form of the name used in English.)

 Greece:

Main article: Names of the Greeks

From the Latin Græcus (Greek Γραικοί, claimed by Aristotle to refer to the name of the original people of Epirus)

• Hellas/Ellas/Ellada (Greek name): land of the Hellenes, descended in mythology from the patriarch Hellen (not the abducted Helen); the place name has a linguistic cognate in the English verb "settle". A popular folk etymology holds the name to mean "land of light", relating to ἥλιος (hḗlios), the Greek word for "sun".
• Hurumistan (Kurdish variant), Urəm (Урым, Adyghe):
• Saberdzneṭi (საბერძნეთი, Georgian):
• Yunanistan (Azeri, Kurdish variant, Turkish), al-Yūnān (Arabic), Yunān (Persian), Yavan (Hebrew): after Ionians, an older name for Greeks of Asia Minor

 Greenland (territory of Denmark):

English name given by Eric the Red in 982 to attract settlers.

• Kalaallit Nunaat (Greenlandic name): means "lands of humans".

 Grenada:

After the southern Spanish city of Granada. From Jewish and Arabic inhabitants around 1000 AD: Gárnata (Arabic: غرناطة). Columbus originally named the island Concepción ("Conception" in English).

 Guadeloupe territory of France):

Christopher Columbus named the island in honour of Santa María de Guadalupe in Extremadura, Spain, when he landed in 1493. The Spanish spelling is Guadalupe.

 Guam (territory of the United States of America):

From the native Chamorro word guahan, meaning "we have".

 Guatemala:

The country name comes from the Nahuatl Cuauhtēmallān, "place of many trees", a translation of K'iche' Mayan K’ii’chee’, "many trees" (that is, "forest").^[8] When the Spanish arrived, they saw a decayed tree with lots of trees around it right in front of the palace. The Spanish believed this the center of the Mayan Kingdom. When the Spanish asked the name of the area, the Native Amerindians told them that name.