List of subnational name etymologies

From Freepedia

This article provides a collection of the etymology of the names of subnational entities. This page generally only deals with regions and provinces; cities and other localities and features may appear listed under the individual country, with a link below.

Contents

Australia

Austria

  • Carinthia: derived from the medieval state Karantania; it is suggested that it is Celtic for stone or crag, while traditionally holds it means "land of friends"
  • Lower Austria: the lower part (lower in height) of the original territory of Austria, as opposed to Upper Austria
  • Salzburg: after the city of Salzburg (literally "salt castle"), which takes its name from the salt mines that existed there during the Middle Ages
  • Styria: after the castle of Steyr; in the high Middle Ages, it formed a march of the Holy Roman Empire, hence -mark
  • Tyrol: after the castle of Tirol near Meran
  • Upper Austria: the upper (physically higher) part of the original territory of Austria, as opposed to Lower Austria.
  • Vienna: from Celtic Vindobona (vindo "white" + bona "foundation, fort")
  • Vorarlberg, literally "in front of the Arlberg", takes its name from the Arlberg, a mountain (German: Berg) characterised by Arle, a local German term for "mountain pine".

Canada

See Canadian provincial name etymologies

People's Republic of China

Most of the names of the modern provinces appeared as coinages in the Ming Dynasty and in the Qing Dynasty. The Republic of China (Nationalist) period and the People's Republic of China after 1949 inherited most of them, and each made their own modifications and innovations.

Czech Republic

Denmark

  • Copenhagen - from Danish køber "merchant" and havn "port, harbor"
  • Jutland - name associated with the Jutes
  • Zealand - literally "seal-land", from the seals found on the coasts of the island

Finland

  • Helsinki - from Old Norwegian Helsingfors (Helsing, a local tribe, plus fors meaning "waterfall")
  • Ostrobothnia (or in Swedish: Österbotten) - "Eastern Bothnia"

France

Note that most modern French départements take their names from local geographical features: usually rivers, occasionally mountain ranges or coasts. Thus most such names have a self-evident immediate origin: even non-speakers of French can deduce them with a minimum of geographical knowledge. The traditional provinces and regions (of any period) often bear names with more obscure and superficially richer histories.

Greece

  • Arcadia - from Arcas, the legendary eponymous leader of early Hellenic settlers
  • Sparta - from Greek spartē, a cord or rope made from the shrub spartos, a type of broom

Germany

India

The element Pradesh appears in the names of many Indian states. It means "land" or "province" in Sanskrit.

  • Andhra Pradesh: Land of the Andhras. Andhra also denotes "south" in Sanskrit - the equivalent of Australis in Latin.
  • Arunachal Pradesh: In Sanskrit, aruna means "dawn-lit" and anchal "mountains"
  • Bihar - from vihara ("Buddhist monastery"). Foreign invaders often used abandoned viharas as military cantonments; the word Bihar may have come from the large number of viharas thus employed in the area that later became Bihar.
  • Chandigarh - "Chandi's fort". No actual fort ever existed; a large Chandi temple "protected" the locals, hence the name. The goddess Chandi is a form of Kali or Parvati.
  • Chandigarh - "Chandi's citadel". A large Chandi temple has long existed in the area, hence the name. The goddess Chandi represents a form of Kali or Parvati.
  • Chhattisgarh - "36 forts". Originally Many-towns land of Dasarana (ten cities) which over time changed to Dahala and, after the Muslim conquest as the region atrophied with no connections to the rest of India, reverted to forest and to tribal ways. The name Chhatisgarh preserves the memory of the many cities.
  • Haryana - The word "hari" means "green" in Hindi. The Green revolution reached its peak in the mid-1960s at the time of the setting up of this state. People of the area take pride in their bountiful agriculture, and caused the state to receive this name.
  • Himachal Pradesh: In Sanskrit, hima means "snow" and anchal "mountains" (referring to the Himalayas). Anchal in Sanskrit means "mountain". Himanchal, Himachal, Himalaya, Himaratta, Himapradesh are all synonyms.
  • Karnataka: from Karu + Naad = Karnaad, which means "lofty + land" in ancient classical Tamil. "Karnatik", also spelt "Carnatic", the adjectival form of "Karnaad", means "of Karnaad". The term "Carnatic Music" also shares this etymology. Two other (probably erroneous) proposed etymologies suggest:
    • "Karnaad" as from "Kari + Naad", "kari" in Sanskrit meaning "elephant"; hence: "Land of Elephants";
    • Even more unlikely: "Karnaad" as "Kara + Naad", from "Kaaraa", the Turkic/Mongol/Urdu/Hindi word for "black", hence "Black Land". Champions of this etymology believe it refers to the black cotton soil of central Maharashtra, which however quickly turns red as one moves southward.

These latter two etymologies also share a common flaw in that they combine the Dravidian word "Naad" for "country" with Turkic "Kaaraa" or Sanskrit "Kari".

Reference: [1]

Iran

Italy

  • Campania - from the Latin campania (countryside, plain, battlefield). Compare Champagne in France.
  • Latium (in modern Italian: Lazio) - land of the early Italic inhabitants known as Latins, in their turn popularly associated with the mythological King Latinus [in turn, "Latins" (in Latin, Latīnī) -- as well as the name of King Latīnus (simply the singular of the same name) -- clearly derived their names from Latium by means of the ethnic suffix -īnus, with the obvious meaning of "inhabitant(s) of Latium", which makes this etymology ridiculously circular, but let that serve as a warning to the reader as to the quality of this and other etymologies on this page]. Ovid hints at perhaps a slightly more sophisticated folk etymology, with a legend of the naming of Latium after Saturn latente deo (as a god in hiding) after he allegedly fled to Italy following his expulsion by Jupiter. - Modern linguists postulate origins in a Proto-Indo-European language (PIE) root *stela- (to spread, extend), expressing the idea of "flat land" (in contrast to the local Sabine high country). But the name may originate from an earlier, non Indo-European one. See the Online Etymological Dictionary.
  • Lombardy - from the Germanic tribe of the Lombards (literally "long-beards" or "long-bearded axe people", or, according to another theory, "long-halberds"), who invaded Italy in the 6th century. Note: After the Lombard invasion, the name "Longobardia" or "Langobardia" applied to the whole of Italy for about two centuries, throughout Europe and also in Arabic (al-Ankubardiya). The name Italia did not return into wide use until the late 8th century
  • Marche - literally. "marches", "borderlands". In the Middle Ages the region lay on the boundaries between imperial lands and the more independent areas of southern Italy. The March of Ancona became the best-known of such marches
  • Sardinia - speculatively linked with the Shardana people and/or with Sardis
  • Sicily - island settled by the Sicels

Korea

Mexico

See Mexican state name etymologies

Netherlands

  • Holland (part of the Netherlands; but the term often refers to the country as a whole): Germanic "holt (i.e. wooded) land" (often incorrectly regarded as meaning "hollow [i.e. marsh] land")
  • Batavia (Germanic): "arable land" (derived from the regional name "Betuwe", as opposed to the other regional name "Veluwe" meaning "fallow" or "waste" land)
  • Amsterdam: from Amstelredam , which means 'dam over the Amstel' (the river which flows through present-day Amsterdam)
  • Rotterdam: meaning 'dam over the Rotte' (the river flowing through through present-day Rotterdam)
  • Alkmaar: from Aelcemaer , meaning 'lake of auks', due to the fact that lakes formerly surrounded the core of Alkmaar -- all of them now drained and thus turned into dry land

New Zealand

See also List of New Zealand place names and their meanings.

Pakistan

Papua New Guinea

Poland

Romania

See: Etymological list of counties of Romania

  • Bessarabia - from Basarab I, Wallachian king who led some expeditions in this land
  • Bukovina - (in German: "Buchenland") = "beech land"
  • Dobrogea - "good land"
  • Haţeg - "Terra Herzog" = Duke's land
  • Muntenia - from muntean = man of the mountains, from Romanian munte=mountain
  • Oltenia - from the river Olt, called Alutus by the Romans, possibly from Latin lutum, meaning "mud" or "clay".
  • Transylvania - "beyond the woods"
    • Ardeal - "wooden hill" - arde expresses an Indo-European root meaning forest, the same as in English Forest of Arden and Belgian Ardennes Woods; Deal means hill in Romanian.
  • Wallachia - "land of the foreigners".

Russia

  • Amur River -- Amur is the Manchu for "serene, placid".
  • Grozny or Groznyy -- Russian for "threatening" or "terrible" or "dread" or "severe"
  • Novaya Zemlya-- Russian for "new land"
  • Novgorod -- from Russian roots meaning "new city"
  • Novosibirsk -- roughly means "new Siberian city"
  • Sakhalin -- derived from misinterpretation of a Manchu name "sahaliyan ula angga hada" (peak of the mouth of Amur River). "Sahaliyan" means "black" in Manchu and refers to the Amur River (sahaliyan ula).
  • Siberia -- from a Tatar word meaning "sleeping land"
  • Vladikavkaz -- Russian for "ruler of the Caucasus" or "rule the Caucasus"
  • Vladivostok -- Russian for "ruler of the East" or "rule the East"
  • Volgograd -- Russian for "city of the Volga" or "Volga city"

Spain

  • Andalusia -- from the Arabic name (Al-Andalus, with several suggested etymologies) formerly applied to the whole Iberian peninsula
  • Asturias -- the land of the Astures, an early people of north-west Spain

Switzerland

Republic of China (Taiwan)

Ukraine

United Kingdom

See also British toponymy, List of generic forms in British place names, Etymological list of counties of the United Kingdom)

  • England - from Engla-lond, the land settled in the early 6th century by various peoples from Low Germany, among them the Angles (Latin Anglii) who originally inhabited the fish-hook shaped territory known as Angeln situated in present-day Schleswig. See Anglo-Saxons.
  • Gibraltar - from Arabic "jabal Tāriq" -> "Tarik's rock" because the Arab general Tarik-ibn-Ziyad started his conquest of the Iberian peninsula from here in 711.
  • Northern Ireland - from Old Irish Eriu. Precise meaning uncertain, though it could derive from the name of a prehistoric fertility goddess.
  • Scotland Literally 'land of the Scots'. The Scottish people, originally from Ireland, settled parts of western Scotland in the 5th century, although the name "Scotland" did not come into use until after the 9th Century. Alba, the Gaelic name for Scotland means 'highlands': compare the Latin albus - 'white' (describing the mountains). Caledonia, the Latin name, means forested highlands
  • Wales - "land of the foreigners", from the Germanic 'wealas' the term used by Anglo-Saxon invaders of the British Isles for the native Celts they encountered. The Welsh native toponym "Cymru" means "fellow countrymen". Ancient Germanic tribes named several areas in Europe in a similar way, using their term for places inhabited by peoples of Celtic or Latin descent, including "Wallonia" in Belgium, Wallachia in Romania, "welsche Schweiz" (French-speaking Switzerland) and the archaic "Welschenland" (a term for Italy).

United States

See also

Retrieved from "http://en.freepedia.org/List_of_subnational_name_etymologies.html"


Views
Personal tools
Similar Links