Meaning
|
Country
|
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
|