AFGANISTAN (Country) Russian, Polish, Slovak, Slovene, Croatian, Bulgarian, Finnish, Estonian, Icelandic, Greek, IndonesianForm of
AFGHANISTAN in several languages.
AMERIKA (Region & Country) German, Dutch, Danish, Norwegian, Swedish, Luxembourgish, Latvian, Lithuanian, Russian, Czech, Slovak, Croatian, Serbian, Slovene, Bulgarian, Macedonian, Hungarian, Hebrew, Albanian, Armenian, Georgian, Tatar, Bashkir, Chechen, Kazakh, Uzbek, Indonesian, MalayForm of
AMERICA, used to refer to the continents and sometimes to the United States of America.
ANGOLA (Country) Portuguese, English, Spanish, French, Italian, German, Dutch, Swedish, Norwegian, Danish, Finnish, Estonian, Latvian, Lithuanian, Russian, Polish, Czech, Slovak, Hungarian, Romanian, Slovene, Croatian, Serbian, Bosnian, Albanian, Bulgarian, Macedonian, Turkish, GeorgianPortuguese 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.
BELIZE (Country & River) English, Italian, Portuguese, French, German, Dutch, Swedish, Norwegian, Danish, Finnish, Estonian, Polish, Hungarian, Romanian, Czech, Slovak, Slovene, Croatian, Serbian, MacedonianFrom 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.
BENIN (Settlement, Body of Water & Country) English, Italian, German, Dutch, Swedish, Norwegian, Danish, Finnish, Estonian, Russian, Ukrainian, Polish, Czech, Slovak, Hungarian, Slovene, Serbian, Croatian, Bulgarian, Macedonian, Romanian, Indonesian, MalayFrom Portuguese
Benim, derived from Itsekiri
Ubinu, the name of the capital city of the historical Benin Kingdom (present-day Benin City in Nigeria). Allegedly it was initially named
Ile-Ibinu meaning
"land of anger" because of disputes between different factions. The Bight of Benin (a large bay) was named after the Benin Kingdom, and the modern country of Benin, west of Nigeria, was named after the bay in 1975 (formerly named
Dahomey).
ČAD (Body of Water & Country) Czech, Slovak, Serbian, Croatian, Bosnian, Macedonian, SloveneCzech, Slovak, Serbian, Croatian, Bosnian, Macedonian and Slovene form of Arabic
تشاد (see
CHAD).
ČECHY (Region) Czech, SlovakFrom the name of the Slavic tribe of the Czechs, probably derived from the Slavic root
čelo meaning "family, tribe". This is the Czech name of
Bohemia, while the Czech Republic is called
Česko.
ČESKO (Country) Czech, SlovakFrom the name of the Slavic tribe of the Czechs (see
ČECHY). This is the Czech name for the Czech Republic.
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.
INDIA (Country) English, Italian, Spanish, Dutch, Norwegian, Estonian, Slovak, Hungarian, Romanian, Albanian, Greek, Indonesian, Malay, Thai, Ancient Roman, Ancient GreekDerived from the name of the
INDUS River. In many languages of India, the name
Bharat is used to refer to the country. However, some southern Indian languages use spellings based on English
India.
IRAK (Country) German, French, Spanish, Dutch, Swedish, Danish, Norwegian, Finnish, Hungarian, Polish, Russian, Bulgarian, Croatian, Serbian, Slovak, IndonesianForm of
IRAQ in several languages.
KANADA (Country) German, Swedish, Icelandic, Finnish, Estonian, Lithuanian, Polish, Czech, Slovak, Hungarian, Russian, Slovene, Serbian, Croatian, Bosnian, Bulgarian, Turkish, Azerbaijani, GeorgianForm of
CANADA in several languages.
KONGO (Region, River & Country) Central African, Kongo, German, Dutch, Swedish, Norwegian, Finnish, Estonian, Latvian, Polish, Czech, Slovak, Russian, Bulgarian, Slovene, Croatian, Serbian, Bosnian, Macedonian, Turkish, GeorgianForm of
CONGO in many languages.
LITVA (Country) Russian, Czech, Slovak, Croatian, Slovene, Bulgarian, GeorgianRussian, Czech, Slovak, Croatian, Slovene, Bulgarian and Georgian form of
Lietuva (see
LITHUANIA).
MAROKO (Country) Polish, Estonian, Czech, Slovak, Slovene, Croatian, Serbian, Bosnian, Bulgarian, Macedonian, Greek, Georgian, IndonesianForm of
MOROCCO in several languages.
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, Dutch, Swedish, Norwegian, Danish, Finnish, Russian, Ukrainian, Latvian, Lithuanian, Polish, Czech, Slovak, Slovene, Hungarian, Croatian, Serbian, Bulgarian, Macedonian, Turkish, Azerbaijani, Georgian, Indian, HindiFrom Spanish
Perú, older
Birú, which was possibly derived from the name of a chieftain (who nevertheless resided in modern-day Panama).
SENEGAL (River & Country) Portuguese, English, Spanish, Italian, German, Swedish, Dutch, Norwegian, Danish, Icelandic, Finnish, Estonian, Russian, Polish, Czech, Slovak, Slovene, Croatian, Serbian, Bosnian, Bulgarian, Macedonian, Romanian, TurkishFrom Portuguese, possibly from the name of the Berber Zenaga people of northern Senegal. This is the name of a river in western Africa, and a country named after it. It gained independence from France in 1960.
SLOVENSKO (Country) Slovak, CzechFrom medieval Slavic
slovene referring to the tribe of the Slavs. This is the Slovak name for Slovakia.
UGANDA (Country) English, Eastern African, Ganda, Swahili, German, Italian, Spanish, Portuguese, Swedish, Norwegian, Danish, Finnish, Estonian, Latvian, Lithuanian, Hungarian, Romanian, Russian, Polish, Czech, Slovak, Slovene, Croatian, Serbian, Bulgarian, Macedonian, Turkish, Georgian, Indonesian, Japanese, Korean, MalayFrom
Buganda, the name of a kingdom within Uganda, which means
"land of the Ganda" in the Luganda language. The
Ganda are an ethnic group, their name possibly deriving from a Bantu word meaning "family". Uganda is a landlocked country in eastern Africa.
UZBEKISTAN (Country) English, Russian, Slovak, Serbian, Croatian, Bulgarian, SwedishFrom Uzbek
O'zbekiston, derived from the ethnic name
O'zbek (which is probably in part from Turkic
beg meaning "chieftain, master") combined with the Persian suffix
ستان (stan) meaning "land of". This is the name of a country in central Asia.
VENEZUELA (Country) Spanish, Portuguese, Italian, French, English, German, Dutch, Swedish, Norwegian, Danish, Finnish, Estonian, Czech, Slovak, Hungarian, Romanian, Slovene, Croatian, Albanian, Turkish, Indonesian, MalayPossibly from Italian
Veneziola meaning
"little VENICE". This is the name of a country on the northern coast of South America. The region was supposedly named this in 1499 by a Spanish expedition (which included Amerigo Vespucci) because an indigenous town on Lake Maracaibo was built on stilts over the water, reminiscent of the Italian city. Another theory suggests that the country's name comes from
Veneciuela, the name of a local people.
VIETNAM (Country) English, French, German, Dutch, Swedish, Norwegian, Danish, Finnish, Estonian, Italian, Spanish, Czech, Slovak, Slovene, Bulgarian, Macedonian, GreekFrom
Việt Nam, meaning
"southern Yue", derived from Sino-Vietnamese
越 (việt), referring to the Yue people, and
南 (nam) meaning "south". This is the name of a country in southeastern Asia.