African Countries by Etymology

When given the name's meaning, guess the country.

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Last updated: January 25, 2023

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First submitted	January 25, 2023
Times taken	2,244
Average score	70.4%
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Name Meaning	Country
"Soo" and "maal," or the name of the country's clans	Somalia
Portuguese for cloak, or "gabão"	Gabon
It could mean "plate," or "gabouti"	Djibouti
Named for the river going through it (bigger country of two)	Democratic Republic of the Congo
Jean Moreau de Séchelles, Louis XV's Minister of Finance	Seychelles
Possibly from Berber, meaning "Land of God"	Morocco
Name of a river in West Africa going through it (northern country of two)	Niger
One possible meaning is "person of mixed ancestry"	Guinea
"Green cape" in Portuguese	Cape Verde
Named for the river, "Kambaa," that shapes the country	Gambia
Literally "Saint Thomas and Prince" in Portuguese	Sao Tome and Principe
Means "white mountain" and namesake of Africa's second-highest peak	Kenya
"Aiguptos," ancient Greek name for Memphis	Egypt
Named for its location at the south of the continent	South Africa
Derives from the Zambezi River, which could mean "grand river"	Zambia
Ewe for "behind the river"	Togo
Prince Maurice Van Nassau of Holland	Mauritius
The oldest desert in the world, which is Nama for "vast place"	Namibia
"Red Sea" in Greek	Eritrea
"Land of the Tswana," the dominant ethnic group in the country	Botswana
Named for a medieval empire in West Africa	Ghana
Maybe Marco Polo confused the island with "Mogadishu"	Madagascar
"South" and "land of the blacks"	South Sudan
After an island named after Mussa Bin Bique, an Arab trader	Mozambique
Comes after the Buganda kingdom	Uganda
Its location near both the Equator and the Gulf of Guinea	Equatorial Guinea
Arabic for moon, "qamar"	Comoros

Name Meaning	Country
"Rio dos Camarões," Portuguese for "River of Prawns"	Cameroon
Historical trading of elephant tusks, or ivory, in the region	Cote d'Ivoire
Arabic expression for "land of the blacks"	Sudan
"Upright" in Mossi, and "fatherland" in Dioula	Burkina Faso
Derived from an Egyptian word for people living west of the Nile	Libya
The republic's location in the central part of the continent	Central African Republic
Its name could mean "houses of stones" in a Shona dialect	Zimbabwe
Literally means "the islands," which are off the coast of its capital	Algeria
"Serra Lyoa," the original Portuguese name for "Lion Mountains"	Sierra Leone
Named after its capital, and the Berber word for "encampment"	Tunisia
Combined Tanganyika and Zanzibar, the kingdoms that formed the country	Tanzania
Its name comes from a lake in the country that literally means "lake"	Chad
"Ngola," an iron object symbolizing kingship	Angola
"Land of the Basotho"	Lesotho
Name of a river in West Africa going through it (southern country of two)	Nigeria
"Land of the Swazis"	Eswatini
"Free" and "place" in Latin	Liberia
A former empire's name, which is Bambara for "hippopotamus"	Mali
The French term "Ruanda" was likely used for its indigenous people	Rwanda
Greek for "burnt face"	Ethiopia
It could be a Portuguese transliteration of "Zenaga"	Senegal
Possibly derives from the Ha people's origin, called "Buha"	Burundi
"Maravi," an old name for the country's inhabitants, or Chewa	Malawi
"The country of the Mauri"	Mauritania
"Person of mixed ancestry" + the name of its capital city	Guinea Bissau
Comes from the Bini people	Benin
Named for the river going through it (smaller country of two)	Republic of the Congo

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