|
Meaning
|
|
Country
|
|
AMERICAS
|
|
Land beside the Silvery River
|
|
Argentina
|
|
Land of Bolivar
|
|
Bolivia
|
|
Land of Columbus
|
|
Colombia
|
|
Equator
|
|
Ecuador
|
|
Derived from the Italian for "Little Venice"
|
|
Venezuela
|
|
Likely from "baja mar" ("low" or "shallow sea")
|
|
Bahamas
|
|
Bearded Ones – the name may derive from the appearance of the island's fig trees or from the beards of the indigenous people
|
|
Barbados
|
|
Sunday Island
|
|
Dominica
|
|
"Forest", from the Nahuatl "Cuauhtēmallān" (lit. "Place of Many Trees")
|
|
Guatemala
|
|
From the Taíno/Arawak Indian 'Xaymaca', "Land of wood and water". Clue: read the local name carefully
|
|
Jamaica
|
|
Rich Coast
|
|
Costa Rica
|
|
The Savior
|
|
El Salvador
|
|
From the Iroquoian word for "village". Clue: small name for a big country.
|
|
Canada
|
|
EUROPE
|
|
Land of the Aesti
|
|
Estonia
|
|
From the German meaning "eastern borderland"
|
|
Austria
|
|
White Russia
|
|
Belarus
|
|
Land of the Franks
|
|
France
|
|
From the Turkic 'on-ogur', "(people of the) ten arrows".
|
|
Hungary
|
|
From the German "light stone" ("light" as in "bright").
|
|
Liechtenstein
|
|
Little Castle. Clue: small but very luxurious
|
|
Luxembourg
|
|
From the Greek "Melita" (Μελίτη) meaning "honey"
|
|
Malta
|
|
"Black Mountain" in the Venetian dialect of Italian
|
|
Montenegro
|
|
Low Lands
|
|
Netherlands
|
|
Northern Way
|
|
Norway
|
|
Roman Realm
|
|
Romania
|
|
"Island of Hyraxes" (a kind of rabbit), derived from the Punic ʾÎ-šəpānîm (אי שפנים). Clue: Not an island (!), and read the Punic carefully
|
|
Spain
|
|
"Edge, borderland" from the Slavic "kraj" or "okraina"
|
|
Ukraine
|
|
MIDDLE EAST
|
|
"Land of the Aryans" or "Land of the Free"
|
|
Iran
|
|
El(God) Persists / Rules
|
|
Israel
|
|
From the Hebrew and Canaanite root "ירד yrd" – "descend" (into the Dead Sea).
|
|
Jordan
|
|
From the Arabic diminutive form of "كوت" (Kut or Kout), meaning "fortress built near water"
|
|
Kuwait
|
|
AFRICA
|
|
Country of the Tswana
|
|
Botswana
|
|
From the Arabic "al-Jazāʼir" (الجزائر, "the Islands"), a truncated form of "Jazā’ir Banī Māzġānna" (جزائر بني مازغان, "Islands of the sons of Mazġannā")
|
|
Algeria
|
|
Land of the Rundi Speakers
|
|
Burundi
|
|
Green Cape
|
|
Cape Verde
|
|
From the Kanuri word "tsade" ("lake")
|
|
Chad
|
|
"Cloak", from the Portuguese 'Gabão', bestowed on the Komo River estuary for its supposed resemblance to a gabão, a kind of pointy-hooded overcoat
|
|
Gabon
|
|
"Land of the Red Sea" from the Greek Erythrá Thálassa (Ἐρυθρά Θάλασσα, "Red Sea").
|
|
Eritrea
|
|
From the Kikuyu "Kere Nyaga" ("White Mountain")
|
|
Kenya
|
|
"Country of the Free", so named because the country was established as a homeland for freed (liberated) African-American slaves.
|
|
Liberia
|
|
Land of the Moors
|
|
Mauritania
|
|
Probably from the Berber "mur [n] akush" (ⵎⵓⵔ ⵏ ⴰⴽⵓⵛ, "Land of God")
|
|
Morocco
|
|
Probably comes from the name of a previous Arab ruler, the sheik Mussa Ben Mbiki
|
|
Mozambique
|
|
From the Nama language meaning "Area where there is nothing"
|
|
Namibia
|
|
From a native term meaning "River Gir" or from Tuareg "n'eghirren" ("flowing water")
|
|
Niger
|
|
"Lion Mountains", adapted from the Spanish
|
|
Sierra Leone
|
|
Land of Tanganyika and Zanzibar
|
|
Tanzania
|
|
Land of the Zambezi
|
|
Zambia
|
|
"House of Stones", "Dzimba-dze-mabwe" in the Shona language
|
|
Zimbabwe
|
|
ASIA
|
|
Country of the Bang
|
|
Bangladesh
|
|
Land of the Kambojas, from Sanskrit "Kambojadeśa"
|
|
Cambodia
|
|
Sun Origin
|
|
Japan
|
|
From the Sanskrit "maladvipa" (मालदीव), meaning "garland of islands".
|
|
Maldives
|
|
"Land of the Pure" in Urdu and Persian
|
|
Pakistan
|
|
"Lion City", derives from Sanskrit word simhapura (सिंहपुर)
|
|
Singapore
|
|
OCEANIA
|
|
Southern Land
|
|
Australia
|
|
An adaptation of "Gilbert", from the former European name the "Gilbert Islands". Clue: begins with 'K'
|
|
Kiribati
|
|
Indigenous name is Aotearoa meaning "Land of the Long White Cloud". Clue: named after a Dutch province
|
|
New Zealand
|
