In most cases the change is a translation of the original name into another language (for example, the change from Hrvatska to Croatia or Croatia) or simply a disagreement about the characteristic that justifies the name. To make it clearer, a good example of both cases is Germany. The original name, Deustchland, means «land of the people». In Lithuania, Germany is called Vokietija, which doesn’t seem to have anything to do with Deustchland, but is also based on the word «people». In Finland, Germany is Saksa, which has nothing to do with “people”, but with the Saxons, former inhabitants of the Germania region – and hence Germany, used in the English language.
Russians (who use Nemtsy), Poles (Niemcy), Czechs and Slovaks (Nemecko) make yet another connection: their names for the country refer to the word “mute”, which can be understood as “people who do not speak our language”. . Finally, Alemania, in Portuguese, and Allemagne, in French, refer to the land of the Alemanni, a tribe that inhabited the region of present-day Germany around the 3rd century.
polyglot atlas
There is a region that changed its name for pure marketing
CROATIA
Original name: Hrvatska
Why it has different names – Croatia came about as an attempt to translate “Hrvatska” into Latin. Interestingly, the Croatian name inspired the word tie, which came from the French cravate, which in turn came from hravat. During the 30 Years’ War (in the 13th century) the troops of French King Louis 13 relied on Croatian mercenaries, who wore a cloth around their necks. Fashion caught on in France and the name of the prop paid homage to its creators.
CHINA
Original name: zhongguo
Why it has different names – China means “land of the Chin (or Qin)”, in honor of the Qin dynasty, which unified Chinese territory in the 3rd century BC The Han dynasty, which replaced the Qin, instituted the name Zhongguo (“central country”) ”), but by the 13th century, when the traveler Marco Polo passed through China, the country had reverted to its original name. Zhongguo was only resumed in the 20th century, when the world already knew China as China.
GREECE
Original name: Hellas
Why it has different names – Greece comes from Graecus, the name of one of the original tribes of Greece, which would have emerged to honor Graecus, the son of Pandora. Foreigners, who took the name of the country to the world, certainly had more contact with this tribe than with the rest of the Greeks, who called the country Hellas, in reference to Hellen (or Helenus), son of Deucalion and patriarch of the Hellenes.
KOREA
Original name: Hanguk for South Koreans and Choson for North Koreans
Why it has different names – Korea comes from Goryeo, the name of the dynasty that ruled the region between the 10th and 14th centuries. Marco Polo also passed through there and brought to the West a pronunciation of “Goryeo” that sounded like “Cauli” and , somehow, became Korea. But Koreans continued with their original names: in the south, Hanguk, and in the north, Choson, referring to the dynasty of the same name, which reigned between 1392 and 1910.
LITHUANIA
Original name: Lietuvos
Why it has different names – The original name, Lietuvos, was adapted by the Romans to the Latin Litus. In Latin, litus means “pipes”, which suggests that the translation may refer to the wind instruments – similar to trumpets, but made of wood – played by some native tribes in the region. In any case, this association does not yet have much evidence in favor of
NORWAY
Original name: Norge
Why it has different names – This is the easiest one to explain. The original name was formed by the ancient words nordr and vegr, which together mean “northern way” (northern Europe, of course). In English, the name was literally translated and, joining the words north (north) and way (way), Norway was arrived at. But, in Portuguese, Norway came from the pronunciation of the primitive word – nordrvegr
GREENLAND
Original name: Kalaallit Nunaat
Why it has different names – The original version Kalaallit Nunaat (“land of humans” in a native dialect) has nothing to do with the Greenland or Greenland (in English) that the rest of the world knows. That’s because the Viking Erik, the Red, who «discovered» the region, carried out a marketing coup: to attract residents, he named the icy place «green land», although, until today, the region, which belongs to Denmark, is totally white
JAPAN
Original name: Nihon (informal version) and Nippon (formal)
Why it has different names – The Portuguese, during the navigations, arrived in Malaysia and there they found that, when referring to Japan, they pronounced something like “Cipangu” (which, supposedly, came from the Chinese name, which means “origin of the sun ”, and is pronounced as “Riben”). Trying to transfer the sound they heard to paper, they arrived at Japan, in Portuguese, which later became Japan, in English.