Where do the names of the countries come from?

All of us live in some country .Sometimes it is the one of our birth and other times the host, however: have you asked yourself why it is called like that ? You may know the origin of the name of your country, but do you know where the country names come from ? We have chosen a dozen to investigate its etymology; some because they are where they live more Lifestyles and others because we have found them interesting.We must not forget that the etymology is not an exact science and, in some cases, there are several possible origins .We have collected the most common ones.

Where do the names of the countries come from?

Spain

The name of Spain comes from the Latin voice Hispania and is in turn the name of the merchants Phoenicians: «Ish Fannim» , which means "island of rabbits" .The peninsula is also known as Iberia that comes from the Greek Hesperia and this was the garden that inhabited the Hesperides, nymphs of fruit trees.Hesperia would be something similar to the earthly paradise.

Mexico

Surely comes from "Mexica" , which is how the Aztecs called themselves in honor of Huitzilopochtli, his god , who was also called "Mexi" or "Mexicali" ; although there are many authors who propose a much more poetic origin .It will come from nahuatl , and it would be the union of metz (-tli) which means moon , xic (-tli) which means navel and-co which would be in , therefore «in the navel of the moon» .name would make reference to the lake in which the islets that constituted the capital of the Aztec empire were and had the shape of a rabbit, the same shape that has the shadow that is seen inside the full moon.

There are many other possible interpretations for this origin.The Spaniards Castilianized the name and called it Mexico or Mexico.

Chile

It is the most enigmatic of the names of the countries we will deal with.Since the end of the 16th century the name comes from.It is known that before the discovery , the They already called "Chili" to the area that remained by under the Atacama Desert .It seems that in Quechua "chili" means "confin" and so the Incas called the part that was further south of the empire."Chili" derived in Chile.

Peru

The natives who inhabited in the land that is below Panama , they were interrogated by the Spanish conquerors about the name the area received.They answered by calling it «Biru» that it was actually the name of the cacique that dominated those lands, they were the domain of Biru, from there derived to «Piru» and finally took the name of Peru .

Venezuela

There are two different versions for the origin of «Venezuela«.On the one hand it seems that the name was given by Americo Vespucio himself , at that the area of ​​Lake Maracaibo, with its rooms built gone on stilts, I remind you of the city of Venice .I call it Venezziola, a small Venice.On the other, some historians believe that can come from a settlement at the entrance from the lake that was called Venezuela, and that would mean "big water" in one of the languages ​​of the area.

Argentina

Simplifying the story, which has a lot and varied documentation, Argentina comes from the Latin word "argentum" which means "silver" .Among the conquerors the rumor spread that following the great river you would reach some incredible deposits of silver.The river was called Rio de la Plata and the area around it, Argentine land or land of silver .It is stated in the documentation and literature since 1587.

Philippines

Philippines owes its name to King Philip II .This was the king of Spain when the conquest and subsequent colonization of the islands took place.

France

France is the "land inhabited by the Franks" and the Franks were the Germanic people that in the fifth century invaded Gaul."Franco" would be related to the German word "frei" which means "free", since that tribe considered not subject to other peoples.

Ireland

In English, Ireland is Ireland and comes from Gaelic Eireann, that has its root in the voice Eire.Eire would mean "fertile place" or place where the goddess Eriu lived.

Portugal

It comes from Latin « Portus Cale » and possibly the name of « Cale » refers to the town that lived near what is now Porto which means« the port ».The name of "port of Cale" was not limited to that settlement and soon designated the entire region between the Mino and the Douro. "Porto Cale" derived in Portugal .

Yes you like the etymology and you have been interested to know where the names of the countries come from, maybe you want to know where the names of the colors come from.