AALST (Settlement) DutchPossibly from Germanic
alhust meaning
"living place". This is the name of various towns in Belgium and the Netherlands.
AARLE (Settlement) DutchMeaning unknown. This is the name of various towns in the Netherlands.
ACHTHOVEN (Settlement) DutchMeans
"eight gardens" in Dutch. This is the name of various towns in the Netherlands.
ADRICHEM (Settlement) DutchMeans
"Adrik's home". This was the name of an estate and castle (demolished in 1812) that was formerly in North Holland, the Netherlands.
AFGHANISTAN (Country) Pashto, Arabic, Urdu, Indian, Hindi, English, German, Dutch, French, ItalianFrom Pashto
افغانستان (Afghanistan), from the Persian ethnic name
افغان (Afkhan) meaning "Afghan, Pashtun" combined with the Persian suffix
ستان (stan) meaning "land of". This is the name of a country in central Asia.
ALTENA (Settlement) DutchPossibly means
"close, near" in Dutch. This is the name of a town in the Netherlands.
AMERSFOORT (Settlement) DutchMeans
"ford of the Amer (Eem) River" in Dutch. This is the name of a city in Utrecht, the Netherlands.
AMSTEL (River) DutchMeans
"water place" in Dutch. This is the name of a river in the Netherlands, which lent its name to
Amsterdam.
ANDEL (Settlement) DutchPossibly means
"upper forest" in Old Dutch. This is the name of a town in North Brabant in the Netherlands.
ANGOLA (Country) Portuguese, English, Spanish, French, Italian, German, Dutch, Polish, Croatian, SerbianPortuguese form of
Ngola, the royal title of the kings of Ndongo, an African kingdom that was conquered by the Portuguese in the 17th-century. It was a Portuguese colony until 1975, when it became an independent country.
ANTWERPEN (Settlement) Dutch, German, Luxembourgish, Swedish, Norwegian, Danish, Icelandic, Finnish, Hungarian, Slovene, Croatian, BosnianDutch form of
ANTWERP, as well as the form in several other languages.
APELDOORN (Settlement) DutchMeans
"apple tree" in Dutch. This is the name of a city in the Netherlands.
ARENDONK (Settlement) DutchDerived from Dutch
arend "eagle" and
donk "hill". This is the name of a city in northern Belgium.
ASCH (Settlement) DutchFrom Old Dutch
aska meaning
"ash tree". This is the name of a town in the Netherlands.
ASSENDORP (Settlement) DutchFrom Dutch
es meaning "ash tree" (plural
essen) and
dorp meaning "village". This is the name of a city in the Netherlands.
BABYLON (Settlement) English, German, Dutch, Biblical, Ancient Roman, Biblical Latin, Ancient Greek, Biblical GreekGreek form of Akkadian
𒆍𒀭𒊏𒆠 (Babili), which appears to mean
"gateway of God", from Akkadian
𒆍 (babu) meaning "gate" and
𒀭 (ilu) meaning "God", though it may in fact derive from a non-Semitic language. This was the name of a major city in ancient Mesopotamia, the capital of the Babylonian Empire. It was located in present-day Iraq.
BEERS (Settlement) DutchPossibly from Dutch
baar meaning
"bar". This is the name of a town in the Netherlands (plus a smaller one in Frisia).
BELIZE (Country & River) English, Italian, Portuguese, German, DutchFrom Spanish
Belice, earlier
Balis, from the name of the Belize River, which may itself be from Mayan
beliz meaning
"muddy water". This is the name of a country on the Atlantic coast of Central America.
BETHLEHEM (Settlement) English, German, Dutch, BiblicalMeans
"house of bread" in Hebrew, from the roots
בַּיִת (bayit) meaning "house" and
לֶחֶם (lechem) meaning "bread". This is the name of a city in Palestine. It appears in the both the Old Testament and the New Testament, notably as the town where
Jesus is born.
BUREN (Settlement) DutchFrom Old Dutch
bur "house, dwelling". This is a small town on the island of Ameland in the north of the Netherlands, as well as a small city in Gelderland.
CANADA (Country) English, French, Italian, Dutch, Danish, NorwegianDerived from the Iroquoian word
kanata meaning
"village". This word was used by Native Americans to direct French explorer Jacques Cartier to Stadacona. Cartier used the word to refer to the region.
CYPRUS (Island & Country) English, DutchFrom Greek
Κυπρος (Kypros), which may get its name from the cypress tree (Greek
κυπαρισσος). This is the name of an island country in the eastern Mediterranean. Although considered one nation by most other countries, the northern part of the island is occupied by Turkish forces and claims independence.
GHANA (Country) English, French, German, Dutch, Italian, Spanish, Polish, Czech, SlovakFrom the name of the Ghana Empire, which was located in the southwestern Sahara and existed up to the 13th century.
Ghana, meaning
"warrior" in Mande, was actually the title of the rulers, while the empire itself was more properly known as
Awkar. In 1957 this was adopted as the name of the newly independent country of Ghana, formerly the British colony Gold Coast, despite the fact that the country lies outside the empire's territory.
HAANRADE (Settlement) DutchFrom Dutch
haan "rooster" and
raad "advice". This is the name of a small village in the south of the province of Limburg in the Netherlands.
HOFWEGEN (Settlement) DutchFrom Dutch
hof meaning "garden, courtyard" and
weg meaning "way, path, road". This is the name of a town in the Netherlands.
HOLLAND (1) (Political Subdivision & Country) Dutch, English, GermanFrom Old Dutch
holt "forest" and
lant "land". This is the name of two provinces (North and South Holland) in the Netherlands. It is sometimes used to refer to the entire country of the
Netherlands.
HOLSTEIN (Political Subdivision & Region) German, English, DutchFrom the name of a Saxon tribe, derived from Old Saxon
holt meaning "wood" and
sat meaning "inhabitant". This is the name of a historical region in Germany, near the Danish border. It forms part of the name of the modern German state of Schleswig-Holstein.
IRAK (Country) German, French, Spanish, Dutch, Swedish, Danish, Norwegian, Finnish, Hungarian, Polish, Russian, Bulgarian, Croatian, Serbian, SlovakForm of
IRAQ.
KANNE (Settlement) DutchMeaning unknown. This is the name of a town in the province of Limburg in Belgium.
KONGO (Region, River & Country) Central African, Kongo, German, Dutch, Swedish, Finnish, Polish, Russian, Croatian, SerbianForm of
CONGO.
KOREA (Country) English, German, Dutch, Finnish, CzechFrom medieval Latin
Corea, itself derived from
GORYEO, the name of a kingdom that ruled most of the Korean Peninsula from the 10th to 14th centuries. This is the name of two countries, North and South Korea.
Hanguk and
Joseon are the Korean names for the countries.
MOZAMBIQUE (Island & Country) English, French, Spanish, DutchFrom the name of an island off the southeastern coast of Africa, named
Moçambique by the Portuguese after the 15th-century local sultan
موسى بن بيك (Musa bin Bik). This island became the region's Portuguese colonial capital in the 16th century, and the name was eventually applied to a large area of mainland Africa. Mozambique gained independence from Portugal in 1974.
NEPAL (Country) Nepali, Indian, Hindi, English, German, Dutch, Italian, Spanish, Portuguese, Polish, SanskritFrom Sanskrit
नेपाल (Nepal), of unknown meaning. This is the name of a landlocked country in south Asia.
NIFTRIK (Settlement) DutchMeaning unknown. This is the name of a town in the province of Gelderland in the Netherlands.
NIGER (River & Country) English, French, Italian, German, Dutch, Swedish, Croatian, Serbian, Late RomanMeaning unknown, possibly of Berber origin, though influenced by Latin
niger "black". This is the name of a river in western Africa (and a country that is named after it).
OIRSCHOT (Settlement) DutchPossibly from Dutch
oeros meaning "aurochs" and
schoot meaning "projection (of land)". This is the name of a town in the province of Noord-Brabant in the Netherlands.
PADUA (Settlement) English, German, Spanish, DutchFrom Italian
Padova, Latin
Patavium, of unknown meaning. This is the name of a city in northern Italy.
PAKISTAN (Country) Urdu, Punjabi, English, Italian, French, German, Dutch, Swedish, Norwegian, Danish, Finnish, Polish, Slovak, Russian, Bulgarian, Croatian, SerbianFrom Persian
پاک (pak) meaning "pure" and the suffix
ستان (stan) meaning "land of". The name was coined in 1933 by the Pakistani nationalist Choudhry Rahmat Ali who justified it as an acronym of Punjab, Afghania, Kashmir and Sindh, plus the final three letters of Baluchistan.
PEKING (Settlement) German, Dutch, Luxembourgish, Swedish, Czech, Slovak, Slovene, Serbian, Croatian, Bosnian, English (Archaic)Form of
BEIJING in various languages, as well as an older English form.
PERU (Country) English, Portuguese, German, DutchFrom Spanish
Perú, older
Birú, which was possibly derived from the name of a chieftain (who nevertheless resided in modern-day Panama).
PEY (Settlement) DutchMeaning unknown. This is the name of a town in Limburg in the Netherlands.
PORTUGAL (Country) Portuguese, English, French, Spanish, Galician, Catalan, German, Dutch, Luxembourgish, Swedish, Norwegian, Danish, Estonian, Croatian, Serbian, BosnianFrom
Portugale, which was derived from
PORTUS CALE, the old name of the city of Porto. The name of the city was later applied to the entire country.
ROME (Settlement) English, French, DutchMeaning uncertain, from Latin
Roma. This is the name of the capital city of Italy, formerly the capital of the Roman Kingdom, Republic and Empire. According to legend the city was named for
ROMULUS.
ROSSUM (Settlement) DutchFrom the older
Rotheheim, derived from Dutch
rothe "cleared area in a forest" and
heim "home". This is the name of a town in Gelderland in the Netherlands.
SCHOORL (Settlement) DutchFrom older
Scoronlo, meaning
"forest by the shore" in Dutch. This is the name of a town in the province of Noord-Holland in the Netherlands.
TEHERAN (Settlement) German, Dutch, Italian, Swedish, Norwegian, Danish, Finnish, Polish, Romanian, Croatian, SerbianForm of
TEHRAN in several languages.
WIEREN (Settlement) DutchMeans
"seaweed" in Dutch. This is the name of towns in Frisia and other parts of the Netherlands.