Southern African Place Names

Southern African names include those from Botswana, Eswatini, Lesotho, Malawi, Namibia, South Africa, Zambia, and Zimbabwe. See also about African names.

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the letters in the pattern are compared to the letters in the name * is a wildcard that matches zero or more letters example: oo matches names which contain oo _ is a wildcard that matches exactly one letter example: __z matches names which have two letters and then z

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separate search terms with spaces search for an exact phrase by surrounding it with double quotes this field understands simple boolean logic force a term to be included by preceding it with a + sign force a term to be excluded by preceding it with a - sign expand search to include grammatical forms: attempt to include grammatical forms of the meanings example: speak includes spoke expand search to include close synonyms: attempt to include synonyms of the meanings example: brave includes courageous expand search to include search narrower synonyms: attempt to include subclasses of the meanings example: reptile includes turtle expand search to related names: allow related names to inherit the meaning of the main form
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the "relationship" is how the name relates to its parent name example: searching for diminutive matches Betsy because it is a diminutive of its parent Elizabeth selecting *(all core forms)* excludes peripheral forms such as diminutives, short forms, and combinations expand search to ancestral names: relationships between names further up the family tree are included

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Antarktika (Region) German, Norwegian, Afrikaans, Hungarian, Slovene, Croatian, Arabic, Turkish, Indonesian
Form of Antarctica in various languages.

Athene (Settlement) Dutch, Afrikaans
Dutch and Afrikaans form of Athens.

Bolivië (Country) Afrikaans
Afrikaans form of Bolivia.

Botswana (Country) Tswana, English, Shona, German, French, Italian, Catalan, Dutch, Swedish, Norwegian, Danish, Finnish, Estonian, Polish, Czech, Slovak, Hungarian, Romanian
Means "place of the Tswana people" in the Tswana language, from the locative prefix bo- combined with the name of Tswana people, itself of uncertain origin, possibly from tswa "to go out" or tshwana "to resemble". This is the name of a country in Southern Africa. During the British colonial period the region was called Bechuanaland, which was more accurately rendered as Botswana when the country achieved independence in 1966.

Brasilië (Country) Afrikaans
Afrikaans form of Brazil.

Bulgarye (Country) Afrikaans
Afrikaans form of Bulgaria.

Chili (Country) French, Dutch, Afrikaans, Greek, Russian, Bulgarian, Kazakh, Kyrgyz, Uzbek, Tajik, Mongolian, Indonesian, Thai
Form of Chile in several languages.

Denemarke (Country) Afrikaans
Afrikaans form of Denmark.

Egipte (Country) Afrikaans, Catalan
Afrikaans and Catalan form of Egypte or Aegyptus (see Egypt).

Frankryk (Country) Afrikaans
Afrikaans form of Frankrijk.

Gaboen (Country) Afrikaans
Afrikaans form of Gabon.

Hongarye (Country) Afrikaans
Afrikaans form of Hungary.

Jemen (Country) German, Swedish, Norwegian, Icelandic, Dutch, Afrikaans, Finnish, Hungarian, Polish, Czech, Slovak, Slovene, Croatian, Serbian, Bosnian, Macedonian
Form of Yemen in several languages.

Jerusalem (Settlement) English, German, Swedish, Norwegian, Danish, Finnish, Luxembourgish, Afrikaans, Catalan, Bosnian, Biblical
From Hebrew יְרוּשָׁלַיִם (Yerushalayim), from an earlier Canaanite form like Urushalim, probably meaning "established by (the god) Shalim". This is the name of a city in Israel and Palestine. Originally a Canaanite city, it was conquered by the Israelites under King David at the beginning of the 10th century BC. It is now regarded as a holy city by Jews, Christians and Muslims.

Kroasië (Country) Afrikaans
Afrikaans form of Croatia.

Libië (Country) Dutch, Afrikaans
Dutch and Afrikaans form of Libya.

Malawi (Country) Chewa, English, Swahili, French, Italian, Portuguese, Catalan, German, Dutch, Danish, Swedish, Norwegian, Finnish, Estonian, Polish, Czech, Slovak, Hungarian, Romanian, Turkmen, Arabic
Possibly from Chewa malawi meaning "flame, fire". This is the name of a landlocked country in Southern Africa. It was renamed from Nyasaland when the country gained independence from Britain in 1964. Hastings Banda, the country's first president and the man who chose the name, claimed to have seen it on an old map in the form Maravi, referring to a lake.

Maleisië (Country) Dutch, Afrikaans
Dutch and Afrikaans form of Malaysia.

Mali (Country) Manding, Fula, Arabic, French, Portuguese, Italian, Catalan, English, German, Dutch, Afrikaans, Danish, Norwegian, Swedish, Finnish, Estonian, Latvian, Polish, Czech, Slovak, Romanian, Hungarian, Russian, Ukrainian, Bulgarian, Macedonian, Slovene, Croatian, Serbian, Bosnian, Albanian, Greek, Hebrew, Armenian, Georgian, Turkish, Azerbaijani, Kazakh, Kyrgyz, Tajik, Uzbek, Persian, Urdu, Sinhalese, Hindi, Chinese, Mongolian, Burmese, Thai, Lao, Indonesian, Malay, Tagalog
A landlocked country in Western Africa, named after an empire that lasted until the 17th century. The empire's name is possibly from a dialectal variant of the name of the Mande peoples. Alternatively, it could be from the name of the empire's capital (which has not been located) or from a Mande word meaning "hippopotamus".

Meksiko (Country & Settlement) Finnish, Croatian, Serbian, Bulgarian, Macedonian, Afrikaans, Hindi, Bengali, Nepali, Indonesian
Finnish, Croatian, Serbian, Bulgarian, Macedonian, Afrikaans, Hindi, Bengali, Nepali and Indonesian form of Mexico. In Finnish it refers only to the country, not the capital city.

Namib (Region) Khoekhoe, English
Means "desert, vast place" in Khoekhoe. This is the name of a desert in southwestern Africa, mainly in the country of Namibia.

Namibië (Country) Dutch, Afrikaans
Dutch and Afrikaans form of Namibia.

Noorweë (Country) Afrikaans
Afrikaans form of Norway.

Oekraïne (Country) Dutch, Afrikaans
Dutch and Afrikaans form of Ukraine.

Oesbekistan (Country) Afrikaans
Afrikaans form of Uzbekistan.

Oostenryk (Country) Afrikaans
Afrikaans form of Austria.

Persië (Country) Afrikaans
Afrikaans form of Persia.

Pretoria (Settlement) Afrikaans, Dutch, English
From the surname Pretorius. This is the name of a city in South Africa, named after the 19th-century Boer leader Andries Pretorius.

Serwië (Country) Afrikaans
Afrikaans form of Serbia.

Sirië (Country) Afrikaans
Afrikaans form of Syria.

Slowakye (Country) Afrikaans
Afrikaans form of Slovakia.

Slowenië (Country) Afrikaans
Afrikaans form of Slovenia.

Tsjeggië (Country) Afrikaans
Afrikaans form of Tsjechië.

Turkye (Country) Afrikaans
Afrikaans form of Turkey.

Zambezi (River) Chewa, Bemba, Tonga, Shona, English
The name of a river in Southern Africa, of uncertain meaning. It could possibly be from the name of the Bisa people of Zambia. According to the explorer David Livingstone it meant "great river".

Zambia (Country) Chewa, Bemba, Tonga, English, Italian, Spanish, Dutch, Swedish, Norwegian, Danish, Polish, Slovak, Hungarian, Romanian
From the name of the Zambezi River. It was adopted as the name of the African country of Zambia, formerly called Northern Rhodesia, when it became independent of the United Kingdom in 1964.

Zimbabwe (Country & Settlement) Shona, Ndebele, English, French, Italian, Dutch, Swedish, Norwegian, Danish, Finnish, Estonian, Polish, Czech, Slovak, Hungarian, Romanian
From the Shona language, possibly from dzimba "houses" and ibwe "stone". Great Zimbabwe was an ancient city, falling into ruin in the 15th century. It was located in the country of Zimbabwe, which was named after the ancient city in 1980 when it gained independence from the United Kingdom. It was formerly called Southern Rhodesia by the British.

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