The Meanings of Country Names – a Map (Eastern Hemisphere)

Everyone probably knows that Norway has something to do with the north, right? Or that Liberia comes from the Latin for “free.”

And then there’s Burkina Faso.  Or Bosnia-Hercegovina. Or Uzbekistan. Or Papua-New Guinea. I’m afraid most of us don’t exactly speak those languages.

So, here are 5 maps that show what the Eastern Hemisphere would like if the countries’ names were all translated into English, from whatever their ultimate sources might be.


More maps:

• US states
• Western Hemisphere

Europe  (i.e., "Wide Face")

A little explanation is probably in order for some of these:

• “10 arrows” referred to a confederation of 10 Hungarian tribes
• The name for Spain is actually from the Phoenician for “hyraxes” (they thought the rabbits they saw there looked their native hyraxes – whatever the heck a hyrax is)
• I could not fit in the itty-bitty Andorra (“scrubland”), Monaco (“single”), and Liechtenstein (“stone of light”) – if those are even really actual countries, that is. 

Africa  ("Dust")

More notes:

• I didn’t include the Ivory Coast or Central African Republic, as those seemed pretty obvious. At the same time, if I were to just go by their root meanings, they would be Ivory Flank and Central Dust Public Thing.
• Madagascar is actually a reworking of Mogadishu (which means “seat of the shah”). Some early explorer must have been very lost indeed.
• “Vexation” was coined by a rival kingdom on what must have been an obvious thorn in their side
• “Our canoes” supposedly came about when some European explorer dude asked the natives what their land was called, pointing broadly to the where the natives had beached their canoes.  True story.

Middle East

• “Male descendent of Muhammad” refers to only the “Emirates” part of the UAE
• Copper was named after Cyprus, and not the other way around
• The Created’s are for Turkey and Turkmenistan (with the latter actually meaning “land of the ones who are like the created”)

Asia  ("East")

• “China” comes from the Chin Dynasty, which comes from the Chin family, who come from the Chin Valley, which means …
• The Philippines are named after King Phillip II of Spain (the Philippines were originally a Spanish colony), with Phillip coming from the Greek roots hippos (horses) and philos (love).

Oceania

• The Marianas were named after Queen Mariana of Austria, widow of Philip IV of Spain (they too were once Spanish). And, if we read the state etymology post, we know that Mary comes from the Hebrew word for bitterness.
• The “indirect replies” were not given to some explorer, but are “in reference to the island's creation story involving the destruction of the giant Chuab.” Hey, thanks for nothing, Wikipedia!
• Kiribati is a native version of Gilbert (as in Gilbert Islands), who were named after British explorer Thomas Gilbert. The surname Gilbert is, in turn, from the first name Gilbert, which means “bright pledge” in some long-ago Germanic tongue.