There are all sorts of fascinating hidden stories in the origins of country names. America, for example, comes directly from the name of the Italian explorer Amerigo Vespucci, but how many people have even heard of him? Sometimes, in light of events that have occurred since their founding (or “discovery” and naming by colonial powers), national names also contain a dark and twisted irony.
Here are 10 of the most amazing.
10. Saudi Arabia
It is no surprise that Saudi Arabia is named after those in charge, the characteristically pompous-sounding House of Saud. Even more surprising for such a corrupt and repressive regime is that the word "Saud" comes from the Arabic words "saad" which means "happy".
Few names could be more ironic for a nation so devastated by oil. Even its founder, Ibn Saud, was horrified by the cultural and moral devastation that oil wealth was causing.
Today it is fair to say that this name refers only to his spoiled descendants and not to the millions they exploit in order to be happy or, as they say,sad .
9. Antigua and Barbuda
Before the Spanish arrived with their crazy ideas, the island of Antigua was known as Wadadadli. That wasn’t old-fashioned enough for Christopher Columbus, so he renamed it after the church of Santa Maria de la Antigua (“Saint Mary of the Ancients”) in Seville. The neighboring island that, together with Antigua, makes up the present nation is believed to have been named Barbuda (“bearded”) after the natives’ beards or, like Barbados, their lichen-covered palm trees. So Antigua and Barbuda basically means “Ancient and Bearded.”
When the British colonized the islands in the 17th century, the wealthy slave-owning Codrington family established a sugar plantation and planned to turn Barbuda into a slave colony. Both islands remained under British control until November 1, 1981, when Antigua and Barbuda gained independence. But while the black on the flag evokes the African connection, Barbuda’s only town still bears the slave-trading name of Codrington.
8. Namibia
The Namib Desert is the oldest in the world, having been dry for at least 55 million years. What little moisture is needed to support life comes from dense coastal fog. It is therefore not surprising that the Namib (and Namibia) come from the wordNama ", meaning "an area where there is nothing."
The country takes its name from Mburumba Kerina, who founded several of its modern institutions. While studying in Indonesia, the Indonesian president asked Kerina the name of his country, which was then colonial South West Africa. “It’s not a name,” the president said, “slaves and dogs are called by their masters,” and “free people call themselves.”
Never mind that Indonesia retains its slave name; young Kerina was so moved by the conversation that he later renamed his home country. He also renamed himself. His birth name, which he says was “given by missionaries when [his] rights as a child were not recognized,” was Eric William Getzen.
7. Nauru
Nauru apparently derives from a local (Nauruan) term anaoero , meaning "I'm going to the beach." It's a tribute to the island nation's once stunning natural beauty. But now, given its desolation due to mining, which has left Nauruans "living on a tight ring around a plateau of jagged, spiky, razor-sharp coral and limestone pillars," its name is darkly mocking.
The story of Nauru’s fall begins in 1798, when it attracted the attention of rising capitalist powers. Captain John Fern, passing through on his way to China, was so taken with the island’s friendliness, lush greenery, pristine beaches and warm winds that he named it Pleasant Island. After a century of contact, however, the Nauruans had become gun-toting, hard-drinking, chain-smoking thugs, so much so that in 1881 a British beachcomber living there told the Royal Navy that there was nothing of value left “except pigs and coconuts.”
Unfortunately, he was wrong. There was still plenty to exploit. In 1901, when 80 percent of the island was discovered to be rich in phosphate of lime, a mining frenzy began. Over the following decades, the lush, green central plateau, along with its precious wildlife, was completely destroyed. By 1921, with exports running at 200,000 tons a year (all at a discount), it had become “a dreadful patch of land… its cavernous depths are strewn with broken corals, abandoned tram lines, discarded baskets of phosphate, and rusty American kerosene cans.” By 1968, when Nauru gained independence, more than 35 million metric tons of phosphate had been mined (enough to fill dump trucks from New York to Los Angeles and back). By now, that figure has reached 80 million (enough to fill dump trucks lined up between New York and Tokyo and back). Since then, the island has been used as a tax haven and Australia's hellish detention centre. Recently, the government has been preparing to extract the last remaining 20 million tonnes of secondary phosphate reserves.
6. Ethiopia
Until the late 19th century, there was no Ethiopia as we know it today. The lands that comprise it were forcibly conquered in the 19th century and named by the first genocidal "emperor" of the modern nation, Menelik, with the permission of Britain's Queen Victoria.
Menelik hoped that the new name he took from the Bible would give his land grab historical legitimacy. But all it means is "land of the blacks" or "burnt faces" in Greek.
It is a common and controversial misconception that Ethiopia was a rename of Abyssinia (Habesha in Amharic, from habesh , the Arabic word for "mongrel"). In fact, the conquered land of Ethiopia extends far beyond the original Abyssinia, which today is more of a northern region or province. To unite them would be to erase the brutal reality of the country's formation. Even Ethiopia's capital, Addis Ababa (meaning "new flower"), lies outside the historical borders of Abyssinia.
5. Kiribati
Despite its exotic spelling and pronunciation (kee-ree-bah-see), the name of this Pacific island nation comes from nothing more than "Gilbert." In fact, until 1979, when Kiribati finally regained independence from the equally misleadingly named "Commonwealth," it was known as the Gilbert Islands.
The eponymous Gilbert was Captain Thomas Gilbert, who arrived there in 1788 after the first convict ship was thrown off in Australia.
Kiribati is the translation of his name into Gilbertese (yes, even a language was named after him). The native language, now known as I-Kiribati, consists of 13 sounds, one of which, "ti," is pronounced "see" or "wee." Hence, one of the Gilberts, Christmas Island, was renamed Kiritimati (Ki-ree-see-ma-see).
4. Egypt
Although Egypt is now a modern Islamic country, Egypt's ancient pagan history lives on in its name. By Amarna Hikuptah , Greek Aigyptos and French Egypt, the English name Egypt ultimately derives from Ha(t)-ka-ptah , which means "temple of the soul ( ka ) Ptaha." Interestingly, it is here that we get the word "Coptic," the form of Christianity found in Egypt.
The ancient name, referring to the creator god Ptah, originally referred only to Memphis, the city where Ptah's worship was based. The Greeks took the name and applied it to the nation as a whole. The Egyptians themselves knew their land as Kemet , "black country", in reference to the rich dark soil of the Nile, or Deshret, "red country", meaning deserts on both sides.
Meanwhile, modern Egyptians call it Misr, which in Arabic simply means "country" or "fortress".
3. Cameroon
Cameroon got its name from the Wouri River that runs through it, which the Portuguese called Rio dos Camaroes, or "River of Shrimp," because of the abundance of shrimp in its waters. Without imagination, they gave the same name to the nearby mountains. In English, the river was called the Cameroon River, and the mountains were simply called the Cameroons.
When the Germans took over, they applied their version of "Cameroon" to the entire country. By 1884, the nation's name had become established, retaining its ignoble origins as little more than the shrimp aisle in the five-fingered European colonial model of discount supermarkets.
However, Cameroon is currently known for its relatively low fish production, which limits the development of fisheries.
2. Solomon Islands
This oceanic archipelago includes almost a thousand islands, only a fraction of which are inhabited, as they have been for 5,000 years. It was only in the 16th century that Europeans first saw them. And, as in the New World, they immediately began to impose their childish fantasies.
Namely, the Spanish explorer Alvaro de Menda-a-de-Neira - the first European to get there - imagined that this must have been the source of King Solomon's wealth, the source of gold for his temple. The one in Jerusalem. 15,000 kilometers away. Why? Because he saw some gold specks in the river.
Since then, generations of exploitation by European colonists and missionaries, and by Japanese and Allied forces during World War II, have irrevocably changed the traditional way of life. 95% of the population are now Christian, and the Solomon Islands are littered with warship wrecks and airstrips. Ironically, there is only one gold mine, but the government believes their economic hopes depend on it.
1. Belize
Belize didn't get its name until 1973. In early colonial times, the Central American nation was known as the Gulf of Honduras, from hondo , which means "deep" in Spanish. Later, from 1862, it was known as British Honduras.
The current name comes from the river that runs through the country. But it is unclear where the word "Belize" comes from. It may come from the Mayan word balix , meaning "muddy water", or from the word belikin , meaning "land facing the sea."
However, a more widely accepted origin is that “Belize” was originally “Wallace.” This was the name of a Scottish pirate, Captain Peter Wallace, who is credited with discovering the mouth of the river and establishing a settlement around it. According to this theory, it was the Spanish who turned “Wallace” into “Belize.” First, they replaced the W with the easier-to-pronounce V. Then, since V sounds like a B in Spanish, “Vallis” eventually became “Ballis.” Speakers of other local languages, such as Mayan, also influenced the pronunciation until the name finally settled on “Belize.”
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