Your country's name origin: aka why is you country called "........"

[Solo]

you're CANADIAN?

Always have been!

Canada = a pussified name for pussies who were too chickenshit to fight for independence like our southern brothers. Now, when we swear new citizens in, they have to take the oath of that old cunt sitting in Buckingham Palace as our supreme ruler.

Hey now, lest we forget that we DID set fire to the White House at one point in time. Go Canada!

[Unlimited4s]

the romans pretty much called everyone non roman barbarians

True, but the belgae were the worst according to him

[Napoleonthechimp]

Always have been! Hey now, lest we forget that we DID set fire to the White House at one point in time. Go Canada!

The Burning of Washington took place in 1814, during the Anglo-American War of 1812. British forces occupied Washington, D.C. and set fire to many public buildings. The facilities of the U.S. government, including the White House, were largely destroyed, though strict discipline and the British commander's orders to burn only public buildings are credited with preserving most residences. Legend says the attack was in retaliation for the American looting of York, Upper Canada (now Toronto, Ontario) after the Battle of York in 1813, and the burning down of the Parliament Buildings of Upper Canada.

Oh well... At least we did it on your behalf.

[Peru]

Norway,
that is NORGE / NOREG

""the northward route" (the way north), which in Old Norse would be nor veg or *norð vegr."

[Myke Greywolf]

Country: Portugal

Origin: Comes from "Portus Cale", the name of a settlement by the river Douro, on the same place where the city of Oporto now lies. The name of the city also has the same origin.

The name is a hybrid language expression, with "Portus" coming from latin and meaning "port" or "harbour". As for "Cale", there are many theories, but the one most believed has "Cale" coming from the greek "kalós", meaning "beautiful". Therefore, "beautiful harbour".

After Portus Cale was claimed for the kingdom of Galicia, it became the basis for the Portucalense County, which split from Galicia in 1143 to become the kingdom of Portugal.

[Chojin]

America/Philippines

Philippines because of Prince Philip II of Spain. We were "discovered" by Portuguese but because of a cartography error we ended up on "Spain's side of the map."

For years I've been asking my mom and relatives what it was called before the Philippine Islands but they have no clue. Flips aren't interested in History.


Edit: Further detail. My Grandmother is from Cebu which makes her Visayan a "tribe" if you will. The Philippines had a ton of kingdoms and weren't united much like Japan or Germany back in the day. I dunno where the name Visaya comes from or what it means. I'm guessing it means "People" like Deustche or like how Sioux meant "alliance of friends".

My Grandfather was Kapampangan and in the Pampango region it means "River Bank". Wikipedia says it was once called the Lesser Song region. But screw the chinese telling us what to call us, if I had a say it in I'd call us the Democratic Republic of Awesome Foods because we make badass food unlike Visayans.

[NetMapel]

Oh well... At least we did it on your behalf.

Fuck, the Americans burned down our Parliament building too ? Guess we're only even at best now :(

[shagg_187]

Though I'm a Canadian, I'll use my dual-nationality pokeball.

Country: Pakistan
Origin: The name Pakistan means Land of (the) Pure in Urdu and Persian ("Pak" means pure and "istan" means land). It was coined in 1934 as Pakstan by Choudhary Rahmat Ali, who published it in his pamphlet Now or Never. The name represented the "thirty million Muslims of PAKISTAN, who live in the five Northern Units of British Raj — Punjab, Afghania (also known as North-West Frontier Province), Kashmir, Sindh, and Baluchistan."

[btkadams]

Country: Canada
Origin: name evolved from Kaneda. KANEDA!!!!! TETSUO!!!!!!

[adelante]

Country: Singapore (English)/Singapura (Malay)

Origin: Some Indonesian prince dude came to this island, went hunting and stumbled into what he thought was a lion roaming in the jungle.

Singa = Lion
Pura = City

So LionCity. The island has since developed into modern city-state populated with of lions coexisting with humans.

[Foster]

Don't get me started on that. We've had many historical figures who have done more - and I stress, MUCH MORE to EARN the right to be on our currency. Al least we don't have the union jack in our flag anymore.

you don't sound to happy

[Cyan]

Hey now, lest we forget that we DID set fire to the White House at one point in time. Go Canada!

Say what? That was the Brits, in the War of 1812.

[Solo]

Canadians, Brits - in 1812, location aside, whats the difference?

[fmcato]

It's a fucking mess, like most of Spain's history. It could come from "Land of the hares" in Phoenician or "City of the west" in a Celtic-derived language or God knows what:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hispania#Name

[Sol..]

United States

It's origin comes from the great time of the 16th century when a few great men got together and united the three states of leguardia in order to build a new land, a new nation where one can feast on hamburgers and watch Michael Rapaport movies.

LEEEEEGUARRRRDIAAAAA OUR NATION STANDS SO TAAAALL

[DarkJediKnight]

Gretzky?

I'm talking politically. I don't mind Gretzky stamps, but not on currency.

[Sanjay]

Though I'm a Canadian, I'll use my dual-nationality pokeball. Country: Pakistan Origin: The name Pakistan means Land of (the) Pure in Urdu and Persian ("Pak" means pure and "istan" means land). It was coined in 1934 as Pakstan by Choudhary Rahmat Ali, who published it in his pamphlet Now or Never. The name represented the "thirty million Muslims of PAKISTAN, who live in the five Northern Units of British Raj — Punjab, Afghania (also known as North-West Frontier Province), Kashmir, Sindh, and Baluchistan."

My land get off my lawn

[Jocchan]

My country is called Italy because of our typeface style. Or vice versa, I can't remember now.

[Botolf]

Holy crap, you guys have the Queen on your money? Never knew that.

We have many people on our money.

Canadians, Brits - in 1812, location aside, whats the difference?

We've inherited a lot from the Americans and French, for starters ;)

[Karakand]

Haha, yeah, Sherman's March, wooo, !1~!

His heart was in the right place.

[btkadams]

We have many people on our money. We've inherited a lot from the Americans and French, for starters ;)

our bills are so pretty :)

[whytemyke]

Holy crap, you guys have the Queen on your money? Never knew that.

They were big Freddie Mercury fans... then some asshole at the printing press thought he'd play a practical joke after he was up against the deadline and his boss asked if he was under pressure.

[icarus-daedelus]

We have many people on our money.

So, the queen of England and a bunch of dudes I don't recognize? At least y'all have some crazy colors on yer paper money.

[Trevor360]

so whats with Germna/Deutchland/Almania?

[FromTheFuture]

So, the queen of England and a bunch of dudes I don't recognize? At least y'all have some crazy colors on yer paper money.

Yeah, sounds about right.

[Botolf]

So, the queen of England and a bunch of dudes I don't recognize? At least y'all have some crazy colors on yer paper money.

4/5 of the people on those bills are Canadian. Prime Ministers, I should add.

And our money is pretty, I'll have you know >:(

[Hive]

We have many people on our money.

it's so colorful and beautiful

I can use it for monopoly when i'm running out of currency!

[GalacticAE]

I'm American but since that's been done, I'll do Mexico.

Mexico: A country named after its capital city - México-Tenochtitlan. It came from Mextli who was a god of war to the Aztecs. Mexico is said to mean "the place where Mextli lives in Nahuatl. The Spaniards pronounced México with the phonetics of Spanish at the time and that's how we got the pronunciation. Now the country is formally known as the United Mexican States or Los Estados Unidos Mexicanos.

[Halycon]

China I have no clue why its English name is China, but its Chinese name (aka the REAL name) means Middle Kingdom. Why ? Because we thought we kicked global asses back in time and we were the centre of universe. Boy were we wrong !

Wiki to the rescue!

English and many other languages use various forms of the name "China" and the prefix "Sino-" or "Sin-". Although the concept of "China" has roots in ancient Roman terms such as Sinae or Sina, the modern term 'China' most likely evolved after the 17th century, when the "Qing" Dynasty was established.[6] The Qin Dynasty unified the written language in China and gave the supreme ruler of China the title of "Emperor" instead of "King," thus the subsequent Silk Road traders might have identified themselves by that name.

[icarus-daedelus]

I'm American but since that's been done, I'll do Mexico. Mexico: A country named after its capital city - México-Tenochtitlan. It came from Mextli who was a god of war to the Aztecs. Mexico is said to mean "the place where Mextli lives in Nahuatl. The Spaniards pronounced México with the phonetics of Spanish at the time and that's how we got the pronunciation. Now the country is formally known as the United Mexican States or Los Estados Unidos Mexicanos.

You guys are named after the god of war and you lost like half your country in the Mexican-American War? Ouch.

[shagg_187]

My land get off my lawn

[Threi]

New Canadian bills >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>> Old Canadian bills

[Kodiak]

COUNTRY: Westeros, AKA The Five Kingdoms

REASON: Westeros used to be five separate kingdoms that were completely independent from each other. There was a loose union among the kingdoms concerning the invading "Others" from the north in which a unified force called the Night Watch was established to protect the people of the Five Kingdoms. Eventually, the Dragons flew across the ocean, ridden by house Targareyn. After a total stomping of the Five kingdoms, the Targareyns basically said STFU or GTFO. Most everyone STFU. The Five Kingdoms retained their individuality to a large degree, but there officially became one king whose Seat is in the city of King's Landing. The Five Kingdoms officially became known as the nation of Westeros, however in recent times the country has begun to fracture into individual Kingdoms due to war.

[Ikael]

LOL @ Westeros XD

Now, mine:

Spain: One of the few European countries that retains its Roman name (albeit a bit modified due to the language evolution). Spain was called "hispania" by the Romans, and it was its "official" name during all the centuries while it was a province of the Roman empire. It means "land of the rabbits" due to the massive population of rabbits that used to inhabit the peninsulae back in the day until their populations became decimated by the Romans.

[Saerk]

http://canadaonline.about.com/od/his...namecanada.htm Basically, biggest village on the planet.

They should have gone with Superior to go with their mindset to the US

[icarus-daedelus]

4/5 of the people on those bills are Canadian. Prime Ministers, I should add.

Yeah, but who? I can name probably seven or eight English PMs off the top of my head, but the only Canadians I can think of are, like, Tommy Douglas and... Celine Dion?

that's prolly cause i'm a dumb american, tho :(

[Karakand]

Yeah, but who? I can name probably seven or eight English PMs off the top of my head, but the only Canadians I can think of are, like, Tommy Douglas and... Celine Dion? that's prolly cause i'm a dumb american, tho :(

I heard Stephen Harper speak deliberate French on the news when I was in Quebec!

[JayDubya]

His heart was in the right place.

Yes, he raped and pillaged with love.

[Karakand]

Yes, he raped and pillaged with love.

It was mercy... MERCY!!!

[Botolf]

Yeah, but who? I can name probably seven or eight English PMs off the top of my head, but the only Canadians I can think of are, like, Tommy Douglas and... Celine Dion? that's prolly cause i'm a dumb american, tho :(

Wilfred Laurier
John A. MacDonald
Mackenzie King

The last guy's name escapes me at the moment.

[Roude Leiw]

Luxembourg in luxembourgish Lëtzebuerg

wiki:

The history of Luxembourg properly began with the construction of Luxembourg Castle in the Middle Ages. It was Siegfried I, Count of Ardennes who traded some of his ancestral lands with the monks of the Abbey of St. Maximin in Trier in 963 for an ancient, supposedly Roman, fort by the name of Lucilinburhuc. Modern historians explain the etymology of the word with Letze, meaning fortification which might have referred to either the remains of a Roman watchtower or to a primitive refuge of the early Middle Ages.

and Buerg means castle. thats it i guess. ;P

[Napoleonthechimp]

LOL @ Westeros XD Now, mine: Spain: One of the few European countries that retains its Roman name (albeit a bit modified due to the language evolution). Spain was called "hispania" by the Romans, and it was its "official" name during all the centuries while it was a province of the Roman empire. It means "land of the rabbits" due to the massive population of rabbits that used to inhabit the peninsulae back in the day until their populations became decimated by the Romans.

That's pretty interesting, I guess that's the origin of the term hispanic.

[subrock]

The name Canada comes from a St. Lawrence Iroquoian word, kanata, meaning village or settlement. In 1535, indiginous inhabitants of the present-day Quebec City region used the word to direct French explorer Jacques Cartier towards the village of Stadacona.[8] Cartier later used the word Canada to refer not only to that particular village, but also the entire area subject to Donnacona (the chief at Stadacona); by 1545, European books and maps had begun referring to this region as Canada.

canada, the worlds best spelling mistake

[Jason's Ultimatum]

Gobble gobble:

The name of Turkey, Türkiye in the Turkish language, can be divided into two words: Türk, which means "Strong" in Old Turkic and usually signifying the inhabitants of Turkey or a member of the Turkish or Turkic peoples,[11] a later form of "Tu–kin", a name given by the Chinese to the people living south of the Altay Mountains of Central Asia as early as 177 BCE;[12] and the abstract suffix –iye (derived from the Arabic suffix –iyya, but also associated with the Medieval Latin suffix –ia in Turchia, and the Medieval Greek suffix –ία in Τουρκία), which means "owner" or "related to". The first recorded use of the term "Türk" or "Türük" as an autonym is contained in the Orkhon inscriptions of the Göktürks (Sky Turks) of Central Asia (c. 8th century CE). The English word "Turkey" is derived from the Medieval Latin "Turchia" (c. 1369).[12]

[icarus-daedelus]

canada, the worlds best spelling mistake

I think not.

[westical]

Canada are ripoff merchants.

[Napoleonthechimp]

Canada are ripoff merchants.

[Variable]

you're CANADIAN? i trusted you!

We tend to do that a lot. WW3 between America and Canada is going to be tough. As we will just blend in with you American folks. Just don't ask us to say anything, eh?

[whytemyke]

Yes, he raped and pillaged with love.

he didn't really rape. just pillaged. most first hand accounts say that he had all the villages civillian populations evacuated before he burned it down.

[Solo]

The last guy's name escapes me at the moment.

Robert Borden