The Name of Your Country

[Veles]

Perhaps a weird question, but are you happy with the name your country bears? I mean, say, America is named after some cartographer dude, who wasn't even that great, and he never even been there. It should have been "Colombia", ffs.

Shouldn't countries be named after really cool stuff or cool dudes ? Like United States of Awesomia, or Kickassian Federation etc ?

Countries' names are pretty random. Or so they start, at least. Then they grow some history around them, and voila, you got something people are willing to die for.

Seriously, what names are suitable for representing a huge congregation of people? Looking at how it is, it's pretty much any names, with some history associated. Or is it?

 

[bathsheba666]

A savvy race, knowing all the angles.

 

[Lillefix]

I kinda like Norway. Many other European countries are named after some ancient tribe nobody's ever heard of. While Norway means the way to the north.

 

[Veles]

I kinda like Norway. Many other European countries are named after some ancient tribe nobody's ever heard of. While Norway means the way to the north.

Yep, Noway is pretty accurate and descriptive. I always forget is it NO-reg or NOR-geh in your language? Here in Garda-rike of Austrvegr we call it Norvegia, after Latin fasion.

 

[bathsheba666]

I kinda like Norway. Many other European countries are named after some ancient tribe nobody's ever heard of. While Norway means the way to the north.

You would rather be a signpost than a community ?

 

[emzie]

Obligatory:

When it came to naming Canada, letters of the alphabet were drawn from a bag. It went as follows:

I got a... C, eh? And an N, eh? And lastly a D, eh?

"Kanata" which is an Iroquoian word for "settlement"

 

[Quackers]

Our official name is "The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northen Ireland", it is a big of a mouthful but it represents our political settlement quite well. I like to refer to it as "Great Britain", I do like the word "Britain"

 

[Lillefix]

Yep, Noway is pretty accurate and descriptive. I always forget is it NO-reg or NOR-geh in your language? Here in Garda-rike of Austrvegr we call it Norvegia, after Latin fasion.

Both actually. But the last one is the most common.

You would rather be a signpost than a community ?

I just like to think we're nonconformists.

 

[Ziggy Stardust]

Low countries. What you see is what it's called.

Fine by me.

 

[Veles]

Low countries. What you see is what it's called.

Fine by me.

As opposed to those up in Deutschland. By the way, if they invited you in their federation, would you accept that?

 

[W|M]

Screw your obscure references to tribes or geographical locations, my country is named after a tree.

 

[Traitorfish]

My country is named after the Irish. Not the most intuitive approach, but if would seem to fulfil the "awesome dudes" criterion pretty neatly.

 

[JohnRM]

Pennsylvania, or Penn's Woods, is pretty accurate and descriptive of the landscape and the place that I love.

 

[aimeeandbeatles]

Canada, or "Kanata" means something like "village" or "settlement." A very big settlement now.

Nova Scotia is French for "New Scotland." I'm not sure how similar we are to Old Scotland though.

 

[Veles]

My country is named after the Irish. Not the most intuitive approach, but if would seem to fulfil the "awesome dudes" criterion pretty neatly.

Fair enough.

Though, I thought there's no non-disputable etymology for either 'Scot' or 'Alba'. Just like with the Rus'.

 

[Evie]

Obligatory:

When it came to naming Canada, letters of the alphabet were drawn from a bag. It went as follows:

I got a... C, eh? And an N, eh? And lastly a D, eh?

"Kanata" which is an Iroquoian word for "settlement"

It's also been translated to "A cluster of dwellings" or "A cluster of homes". Perhaps more accurately given the original context (the inhabitant of STadacona talking about that place to Cartier) to translate it to "Our place", "Where our dwelling(s) are".

For our dysfunctional little federation that tries to be home to everyone no matter how they view "home", "Our cluster of homes" is actually a pretty good description.

Nova Scotia is French for "New Scotland." I'm not sure how similar we are to Old Scotland though.

Latin, actually. It's Nouvelle Écosse (same meaning) in French.

 

[Traitorfish]

Fair enough.

Though, I thought there's no non-disputable etymology for either 'Scot' or 'Alba'. Just like with the Rus'.

Yes and no. We're pretty sure that "Scotia" originally denoted Ireland; the question is how it came to denote Ireland in the first place., and why it later became applied exclusively to Scotland. Don't really know the details with "Alba", though.

 

[holy king]

the eastern empire.

not much of an empire, though.

 

[Winner]

Weird name?

Czech.

 

[Veles]

...We're pretty sure that "Scotia" originally denoted Ireland; the question is how it came to denote Ireland in the first place., and why it later became applied exclusively to Scotland.

We'll most likely never know for sure, so this is the point where we can make up some beautiful legend

...Don't really know the details with "Alba", though.

They say it's cognate to some of the common indo-european variants for 'white'. Btw, somehow "Misty Albion" is common poetical reference to the British Isles in Russian litterature.