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Countries by Namesake

Guess the English-language name of the country based on its name's derivation.
Quiz by kalbahamut
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Last updated: December 10, 2018
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First submittedJanuary 27, 2014
Times taken1,823
Average score65.0%
Rating3.15
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Named for this...
Answer
The Qin Dynasty
China
Amerigo Vespucci
USA
Simon Bolivar
Bolivia
Chinese pronunciation of words meaning "sun origin"
Japan
Christopher Columbus
Colombia
The Angles (people)
England
Iroquoian word for "village"
Canada
Medieval state of Rus
Russia
Words meaning "the northward route"
Norway
The ruling family
Saudi Arabia
Named for this...
Answer
Word meaning "island"
Iceland
The Aryans (people)
Iran
King Philip II
Philippines
The equator
Ecuador
"White Russia"
Belarus
A tree whose name means "red" in Portuguese
Brazil
Latin/French/Greek corruption of words meaning "land of the soul"
Egypt
Jacob (of the Bible)
Israel
"Land of high mountains" in Taíno
Haiti
Latin for "citizens of Rome"
Romania
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23 Comments
hwes
+1
Level 86
Jan 27, 2014
Both this quiz and the one on American states are interesting. I didn't get Haiti and Egypt but I'm surprised only a third were able to guess Saudi Arabia.
kalbahamut
+3
Level 81
Jan 27, 2014
Haiti would be pretty impossible to guess unless you know where the Tai'no people/language come from. There aren't really any high mountains there. At least not by international standards.

The clue for Saudi Arabia I would have made more specific but I think that it actually is the only country in the world named for its ruling family.

kalbahamut
+1
Level 81
Mar 21, 2014
Unless you count full names and not just short or conventional ones- in which case there is The Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan and possibly some others.
kalbahamut
+1
Level 81
Apr 14, 2014
I just read that apparently the traditional version of the etymology of China is false. Yet that's the most-guessed answer here. The English name for China apparently comes from some ancient Sanskrit word whose meaning has been lost to antiquity.

The Chinese name for China translates into "Middle Kingdom," I'm sure most people would probably get that. Maybe I'll do a follow-up to this quiz about country name namesakes in their native language.

kalbahamut
+1
Level 81
May 7, 2014
Maybe this would make a good hint for the next April Fool's Day Quiz: "Country named for the Qin Dynasty"
englishsystem
+1
Level 68
Nov 18, 2014
Zhongguo is "China" in Mandarin. It's comprised of two characters, "middle/inside" and "country". China believed they had all the resources needed to sustain life within their borders and were therefore the center of civilization. This is the origin of the name as far as I can remember (BA in Chinese History from way back when...)
kalbahamut
+1
Level 81
Nov 18, 2014
Yes I know the Chinese name for China translates to "Middle Kingdom," though unless new evidence has surfaced regarding the etymology of the English name for the country, I'm pretty sure it's still in dispute. Nobody really knows for sure, though the most commonly known theory, that it was named after the Qin Dynasty, is usually not accepted by academics.
beetboy12
+2
Level 37
Aug 5, 2014
I'm having trouble verifying your Egypt etymology. I'm seeing that it comes from "Hwt-ka-ptah" in an ancient tongue meaning 'house of the god Ptah". source: http://www.touregypt.net/featurestories/kmt.htm As for the saudi question I was completely thrown. I thought I was looking for a country's name meaning "ruling family." Maybe you could say "ruling family's name"? Either way, great quiz. Maybe you could do a Part 2 sometime?
kalbahamut
+1
Level 81
Aug 6, 2014
Thought about it but I think I've already got most of the good ones. I may delve a little deeper at some point and see if I can come up with more.
kalbahamut
+1
Level 81
Sep 26, 2019
Whomever I was responding to before about the Egypt etymology above must have been purged, as those comments are now lost. I remember someone (plattitude?) saying it was the best comment he'd read on the site or something like that.
plattitude
+1
Level 96
Aug 23, 2020
Hmm, several years on, can't remember what that might have been.
jriddycuz
+7
Level 67
Feb 4, 2015
The Icelandic word for Iceland, Ísland, may look like "island", but it actually just means "ice land." The most credible explanation is that it was named for drift ice in a fjord. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_country-name_etymologies#I Also, the word "island" only has that silent s in there because 15th century scholars thought it should be associated with the similar but etymologically unrelated word "isle." Spellings truer to the word's origin include "iland" and "ighland".
kalbahamut
+1
Level 81
Feb 4, 2015
Interesting. But I wasn't just making things up. It looks like you're right about the etymology is the Icelandic word Island (accent above I), but then this page lists several other Icelandic names for the country including one that does in fact mean "island" and is similar. Maybe that's where the alternate explanation came from. But since the Latin name is based on the old Norse for ice + land you're probably right. But could have made it's way into English a variety of different ways given England's history.
Arii78
+8
Level 45
Sep 29, 2019
But despite those other names, 'Iceland' has nothing to do with 'island'. Could you change the clue to make it not completely wrong ?
kalbahamut
+1
Level 81
Sep 29, 2019
Could you read more carefully to avoid being completely obnoxious? It's not so clear cut. Like many of these etymologies the name for the country in English predates modern dictionaries and we're speculating on how they got there.
Hampus
+8
Level 56
Nov 16, 2020
It's clear cut enough to correct it.
cosmokim
+3
Level 67
Mar 28, 2015
You should also accept Equatorial Guinea for the "equator"one. I never guessed Ecuador
kalbahamut
+3
Level 81
Mar 28, 2015
But the Equatorial part of Equatorial Guinea is just an adjective modifying the name Guinea, to differentiate the country from Guinea, Guinea-Bissau, Guiana, Guyana, New Guinea, and so on. Because Europeans love naming things Guinea.
Hampus
+4
Level 56
Nov 16, 2020
Why not accept both?
RobertoCF
+4
Level 77
Nov 18, 2015
The clue for Saudi Arabia also works for Luxembourg
kalbahamut
+1
Level 81
Nov 19, 2015
You appear to be correct. I wasn't aware. If I ever get around to updating this I might add a second answer or fix the clue.
Djilas
+1
Level 83
Oct 3, 2016
and Liechtenstein !
jpcol
+2
Level 57
Nov 14, 2017
I second Liechtenstein, but not Luxembourg. I believe The ruling house of Luxembourg is Nassau.
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