Does anyone know how countries were named eg why is canada called canada. Why and when did siam become Thailand and the siamese become Thais
2007-02-21 21:59:15 · 8 answers · asked by Geoff E 4 in Society & Culture ➔ Languages
"The name of Canada itself, and the names of some provinces and territories, come from place names in Aboriginal languages.
Canada: is from Kanata, meaning "settlement" or "village" in the language of the Huron. "
2007-02-21 22:05:20 · answer #1 · answered by ladybugewa 6 · 1⤊ 0⤋
Canada is called Canada because a long time ago when one of the first French explorers came over, he tried talking with a group of local Indians. The French side tried to ask what the name of this place was, and the Indian side answered that it was "our village." Canada means "our village."
"What is this place?"
"It's our village."
And now that little miscommunication has turned into the name for a country. I think it's a very appropriate name. Sounds good.
Every country name has its own story.
How about Equador? That just means equator, where the country is, on the equator.
There's not enough space here to write about every country. Just do some searches.
2007-02-22 06:04:42 · answer #2 · answered by Anonymous · 2⤊ 0⤋
Most countries are either named after people, from a linguistic misunderstanding or from a pre-existing name that was chosen for that country. You could answer this question easily if you just googled whatever country name you wanted to know the origin of and then "name origin".
That said, if you have to use google to figure out how the United States of America, United Arab Emirates or South Africa got their name... you're a bit dull. Personally speaking, I'm rather fond of the misunderstanding that led to Sierra Leone being named. Very funny.
2007-02-22 06:22:32 · answer #3 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 0⤋
Most countries are names after a location, an linguistic misinterpretation, an explorer, or and oboriginal people.
For example, Korea is named after the Gogureyo Dynasty that dominated most of the Korean peninsula. When Europeans first arrived on the Korean peninsula, they misunderstood Gogureyo as Corea, and thus Korea. They ignored the other Korean kingdoms on the peninsula and referred to the whole by that name. Even when the Choson dynasty united the whole peninsula, it was still referred to as Corea or Korea, and the name held through even to today.
2007-02-22 08:05:06 · answer #4 · answered by Sungchul 3 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Canada is called Canada because three original settlers wanted to make up an entirely new name. The first said "Let's start the name with a C eh!" The second said "I like N eh". The third said "How about D eh?"
2007-02-24 19:34:20 · answer #5 · answered by garik 5 · 0⤊ 0⤋
i dont know about canada, how and why it got its name..i know though why philippines is name phillipines...its afte phillip, then the king of spain. Thats why the Spaniards named that island in honour of King Phillip...
2007-02-22 07:35:30 · answer #6 · answered by charnelhouse 2 · 0⤊ 0⤋
"Turkey" came from the old turkish word "turk" pronounced "tourk" which means strong and thats how the tribe in Turkey that settled there many centuries ago reffered to them selves, the turkish version of saying Turkey is "Turkiye" which means " to the strong" in the old turkish language,, hope you found that interesting
2007-02-22 11:15:02 · answer #7 · answered by Izzy10 S 3 · 0⤊ 0⤋
"thai" means "free". King Chulalongkorn (sp?) (late 1800's) wanted to change the character of the kingdom, make the king (himself!) less of a god-like figure, so he changed the name to (basically) "land of the free".
2007-02-22 06:09:35 · answer #8 · answered by dBalcer 3 · 2⤊ 0⤋