- (German ''Karantanien''); a suggested etymology references a Celtic term for "stone" or "crag", while tradition holds that the name means "land of friends"
- Lower Austria , German ''Nieder-Österreich'': the lower part (lower in height) of the original territory of Austria ('the eastern country'), as opposed to Upper Austria; also called ''Österreich unter der Enns'' 'Austria below the (river) Enns'
- (literally "salt castle"), which takes its name from the Salt Mine s that existed there during the Middle Ages
- ; in the high Middle Ages, it formed a March of the Holy Roman Empire , hence ''-mark''
- near Meran
- Upper Austria , German ''Ober-Österreich'': the upper (physically higher) part of the original territory of Austria, as opposed to Lower Austria; also called ''Österreich ob der Enns'' 'Austria above the (river) Enns'
- Vienna , German ''Wien'': from Celtic ''Vindobona'' (''vindo'' "white" + ''bona'' "foundation, fort")
- ".
- Brussels , Dutch ''Brussel'', French ''Bruxelles'' (the capital city, outside any province; also Belgium's third region): medieval Dutch ''broek'' 'bog' + ''zele'' (in many place names in the Low Countries) 'habitation using thatching'
- Flanders , Dutch ''Vlaanderen'', French ''Flandre(s)'': plural of a terrain type; extended from the historical county (about half lost to French and Dutch neighbours; the rest roughly made up two administrative provinces, East Flanders and West Flanders; in French ''les Flandres'', plural) to the whole Dutch-speaking, majority part of Belgium (French ''la Flandre'', singular)
- Liège – Etymology is disputed. It is possible that the name ''Liège'' has the same origin as the ancient name of Paris , i.e. Lutetia ; the German form, ''Lüttich'', suggests this. Liège and Lutetia would both derive from Latin ''lucotætia'', "marsh" or "mud". It is also suggested the names derive from Latin ''Lætica'', "colony", or ''Leudica'', "free". Another origin forwarded is the Latin ''Leudica'', "public place", from which the Walloon ''Lîdje'' is derived, and thence ''Liège''. It should be noted that the name was written ''Liége'' (with an acute accent) until the 1950s.
- Wallonia , French ''Wallonie'': from the (Romanized (Germano-)Celtic, now Francophone) Walloon people, as in many European countries, so named by Germanic neighbours; meaning: 'strangers'
:See Canadian Provincial Name Etymologies
- ( French ''Acadie'') – Origin disputed:
:# Credited to Italian Navigator Giovanni Da Verrazano , who first named a region around Chesapeake Bay ''Archadia'' ( Arcadia ) in 1524 because of "the beauty of its trees", according to his diary. Cartographers began using the name ''Arcadia'' to refer to areas progressively farther north until it referred to the French holdings in maritime Canada (particularly Nova Scotia ). The ''-r-'' also began to disappear from the name on early maps, resulting in the current ''Acadia''. {Link without Title}
:# Possibly derived from the Mi'kmaq word ''akatik'', pronounced roughly "akatie", meaning "place", which was rendered into French as ''-cadie'' in place names such as Shubenacadie and Tracadie , possibly coincidentally. {Link without Title}
Most of the names of the modern Administrative Regions appeared as coinages in the Ming Dynasty and in the Qing Dynasty in Ancient China . The Republic Of China (ruling all of China from 1911 to 1949) and the People's Republic Of China (ruling Most Of China after 1949) inherited most of them, and each made modifications and innovations. This list only includes the subnational entities under the effective control of the People's Republic of China.
The Republic of China governed all the territory of China from 1911 to 1949, and retreated to Taiwan after the Chinese Civil War (1927 - 1949). The list below includes only the subnational entities under the effective control of the Republic of China.
- version of the name, ''Burgundarholm'', suggests connections with the Burgundians
- ''Kopenhagen''.
- : ''Føroyar'') - literally, "Sheep Islands", from its dense population of sheep
- ''Grœnland'', literally, "green land"; so named by Erik The Red to induce settlement there. Greenlandic -speakers use the name ''Kalaallit Nunaat'', meaning "Land of the Greenlanders"
-
- s found on the coasts of the island
- Helsinki - from Old Norwegian ''Helsingfors'' (''Helsing'', a local tribe, plus ''fors'' meaning "waterfall")
- Ostrobothnia (or in Swedish : ''Österbotten'') - "Eastern Bothnia"
Note that most modern French can deduce them with a minimum of geographical knowledge. The traditional provinces and regions (of any period) often bear names with more obscure and superficially richer histories.
- Alsace - from Latin ''Alisatia'', a Latinised form of the Germanic name that also yields Old High German ''El-sasz'', allegedly meaning "foreign settlement"
- Artois - from Latin ''Atrebatensis'', adjectival form derived the Belgic tribe Atrebates ; the name of its main city Arras (''Atrecht'' in Dutch) derives directly from the tribe's name Atrebates , so ''Artois'' properly means "territory of Arras"
- Brittany (''Bretagne'') - area occupied by refugee Briton s from Roman Britain ('' Britannia '') ''circa'' 500 AD
- Burgundy (''Bourgogne'') - part of the land settled by the East Germanic Burgundians , who possibly originated on the island now known as Bornholm
- Champagne - from the Latin ''campania'' (plain, open country, battlefield)
- Corsica (''Corse'') - possibly from the Phoenician ''Korsai'', which means something like "forest-covered"
- Dauphiné - from the nickname and Coat Of Arms of former ruler Guy VIII of Vienne: "dolphin"
- Franche-Comté - in French , literally the "Free County " of Burgundy (as opposed to the Duchy Of Burgundy )
- Gascony (''Gascogne'') - from the Latin word ''Vasco'', term used to label a Vascon (or Basque )
- Languedoc - the region speaking the '' Langue D'oc '' (as opposed to the regions whose language ( Langue D'oïl ) developed into modern French )
- Limousin - from an adjective referring to the local centre, Limoges
- Lorraine - from the Mediaeval Latin coining '' Lotharingia '', meaning the lands granted as a kingdom in 855 AD to Lothair , son of the Holy Roman Emperor Lothair I
- Normandy (''Normandie'') - land settled by Viking ''Northmen'' in the early 10th century
- Provence - from Latin ''provincia'' (province), short for ''Provincia Narbonensis'', the Roman province located in present-day southern France.
- Savoy - of unknown origin, but dating to the days of the Kingdom Of Burgundy
- , formerly ''Baden'', the name became reduplicated to distinguish it from the state (as in "Baden in Baden"). The name means "baths", after the springs in the city. Württemberg: origin unknown; ''-berg'' means "mountain"
- Bavaria ( German ''Bayern'') - the state of Bavaria developed out of the tribe of the Baiuvarii , who probably gained their name from the land of Bohemia .
- Brandenburg - after the city of Brandenburg . The earlier Slavic name of the castle (''Burg'') of Brandenburg appears as ''Branibor'' ("Branim's forest").
- Hesse - after the tribe of the Chatti .
- Lower Saxony ( German ''Niedersachsen'') - after the tribe of the Saxons . "Lower Saxony" became differentiated in modern times from the state of Saxony to its southeast. The name reflects Lower Saxony's location in the lowlands of the North German Plain
- Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania ( German) ''Mecklenburg-Vorpommern'') - created by joining Mecklenburg with the western part of Pomerania , also called ''Hither Pomerania''. Mecklenburg takes its name from a castle (''Burg'' means "castle" in German ); the meaning of the first part remains unclear. ''Pomerania'' comes from Slavic roots meaning "near the ocean"
- Munich ( German ''München'') - from German ''Mönch'' "monk"
- North Rhine-Westphalia ( German ''Nordrhein-Westfalen'') - created by joining the northern part of the Rhineland (after the River Rhine ) with Westphalia . Westphalia formed the westernmost subdivision of the Saxon tribe; the origin of the second part (''-falen'' in German) remains unknown.
-
- Rhineland-Palatinate ( German ''Rheinland-Pfalz'') - created by joining parts of the Rhineland (after the River Rhine ) with the Rhenish Palatinate , formerly a '' Palatine '' county located near the Rhine, meaning that its count administered a palace of the Holy Roman Emperor . The word derives from Latin ''palatinus'' "imperial", from ''palatium'' "palace", after the location of the palace of the Roman Emperor Augustus on the Palatine Hill in Rome
- Saarland - after the Saar river
- Saxony ( German ''Sachsen'') - land of the Saxons (possibly the "sword-folk"). The state of Saxony developed out of the Saxon tribe, which principally inhabited present-day Lower Saxony ; during the Middle ages and early modern times, the name migrated to the current location of the state of Saxony
- Saxony-Anhalt ( German , ''Sachsen-Anhalt'') - created by joining the Prussian Province Of Saxony (named after the tribe of the Saxons ) with Anhalt
- Schleswig-Holstein - created by joining Schleswig and Holstein . Schleswig takes its name from the City Of Schleswig , which in turn derives its name from the Schlei bay and the Low German word ''wig'' for "trading place". The name "Holstein" comes from a Saxon subtribe named, in Latin, Holcetae
- Thuringia ( German ''Thüringen'') - after the tribe of the Thuringii
- Arcadia - from Arcas , the legendary eponymous leader of early Hellenic settlers
- Sparta - from Greek ''spartē'', a cord or rope made from the shrub ''spartos'', a type of broom
The element ''Pradesh'' appears in the names of many Indian states. It means "land" or "province" in Sanskrit .
- Andhra Pradesh : Land of the Andhras. ''Andhra'' also denotes "south" in Sanskrit - the equivalent of ''Australis'' in Latin.
- , ''aruna'' means "dawn-lit" and ''achal'' "mountains"
- Bihar - from ''vihara'' ("Buddhist monastery"). Foreign invaders often used abandoned viharas as military cantonments; the word ''Bihar'' may have come from the large number of viharas thus employed in the area that later became Bihar.
- Chandigarh - " Chandi 's fort". No actual fort ever existed; a large Chandi temple "protected" the locals, hence the name. The goddess Chandi is a form of Kali or Parvati.
- Chhattisgarh - "36 forts". Originally many-towns land of Dasarana (ten cities), which over time changed to Dahala and, after the Muslim conquest as the region atrophied with no connections to the rest of India, reverted to forest and to tribal ways. The name ''Chhattisgarh'' preserves the memory of the many cities.
- Gujarat - Land of the "Gurjars", a "kshatriya" tribe or warrior-class.
- Haryana - The word "hari" means "green" in Hindi . The Green Revolution reached its peak in the mid-1960s at the time of the setting up of this state. People of the area take pride in their bountiful agriculture, and caused the state to receive this name.
- , ''hima'' means "snow" and ''achal'' "mountains" (referring to the Himalayas ). Himanchal, Himachal, Himalaya, Himaratta, Himapradesh are all synonyms.
- Karnataka : from Karu + Naad = Karnaad, which means "lofty + land". "Karnatik", also spelt "Carnatic", the adjectival form of "Karnaad", means "of Karnaad". The term "Carnatic Music" also shares this etymology. Two other (probably erroneous) proposed etymologies suggest:
- --- "Karnaad" as from "Kari + Naad", "kari" in Sanskrit meaning " Elephant "; hence: "Land of Elephants";
- --- Even more unlikely: "Karnaad" as "Kara + Naad", from "Kaaraa", the Turkic/Mongol/Urdu/Hindi word for "black", hence "Black Land". Champions of this etymology believe it refers to the black cotton soil of central Maharashtra , which however quickly turns red as one moves southward.
These latter two etymologies also share a common flaw in that they combine the Dravidian word "Naad" for "country" with Turkic "Kaaraa" or Sanskrit "Kari".
- ; hence, "Land of coconut trees".
- 's land". ''Mer'' means "mountain" in Sanskrit .
- Lakshadweep - "Hundred Thousand Islands". In Sanskrit , ''laksha'' means "a hundred thousand" and ''dweep'' means "island".
- Madhya Pradesh - "Central Province"
- Maharashtra - "Great State". ''Maha'' means "great" or "big" and ''rashtra'' means "nation" or "state".
- Manipur - "Jeweled land"
- words for "new" and "settlement" or "camp"
- Punjab - Persian for "five rivers"
- Rajasthan - Raja 's land ('' -sthan '') - Land of Kings
- Tamil Nadu - Tamil country (''Nadu'' in the Tamil Language means "country" or "homeland")
- Uttar Pradesh : in Sanskrit, ''uttar'' means "north", ''pradesh'' means "province"
- (1955 - 1971), became the present country of Bangladesh.
Reference: {Link without Title}
- Campania - from the Latin ''campania'' (countryside, plain, battlefield). Compare Champagne in France .
- Friuli - from the Latin ''Forum Julii'' (The market of Julius), which at the beginning referred only to the city of Cividale , founded by Julius Caesar and then extended to the whole region
- inhabitants known as Latins , in their turn popularly associated with the mythological King Latinus turn, "Latins" (in Latin, ''Latīnī'') -- as well as the name of King ''Latīnus'' (simply the singular of the same name) -- clearly derived their names from ''Latium'' by means of the ethnic suffix ''-īnus'', with the obvious meaning of "inhabitant(s) of Latium", which makes this etymology ridiculously circular, but let that serve as a warning to the reader as to the quality of this and other etymologies on this page . Ovid hints at perhaps a slightly more sophisticated Folk Etymology , with a legend of the naming of Latium after Saturn ''latente deo'' (as a god in hiding) after he allegedly fled to Italy following his expulsion by Jupiter . - Modern linguists postulate origins in a Proto-Indo-European Language (PIE) root ''---stela-'' (to spread, extend), expressing the idea of "flat land" (in contrast to the local Sabine high country). But the name may originate from an earlier, non Indo-European one. See the Online Etymological Dictionary .
- Lombardy - from the Germanic tribe of the Lombards (literally "long-beards" or " Long-bearded Axe people", or, according to another theory, "long- Halberds "), who invaded Italy in the 6th century. Note: After the Lombard invasion, the name "Longobardia" or "Langobardia" applied to the whole of Italy for about two centuries, throughout Europe and also in Arabic (''al-Ankubardiya''). The name ''Italia'' did not return into wide use until the late 8th century
- Marche - literally. " Marches ", "borderlands". In the Middle Ages the region lay on the boundaries between imperial lands and the more independent areas of southern Italy. The March of Ancona became the best known of such marches
- Sardinia - speculatively linked with the Shardana people and/or with Sardis
- Sicily - island settled by the Sicels
:See Mexican State Name Etymologies
- Holland (part of the Netherlands; but the term often refers to the country as a whole): Germanic "holt (i.e. wooded) land" (often incorrectly regarded as meaning "hollow marsh land")
- Batavia (Germanic): "arable land" (derived from the regional name "Betuwe", as opposed to the other regional name "Veluwe" meaning "fallow" or "waste" land)
- ' (the river which flows through present-day Amsterdam)
- Rotterdam : meaning 'dam over the Rotte' (the river flowing through present-day Rotterdam)
- Alkmaar : from Aelcemaer , meaning 'lake of auks', due to the fact that lakes formerly surrounded the core of Alkmaar -- all of them now drained and thus turned into dry land
See also List Of New Zealand Place Names And Their Meanings .
- Auckland - in honour of George Eden, 1st Earl Of Auckland , a patron of William Hobson , who founded and named the city of Auckland. The Earl took his sobriquet from Auckland in Durham , United Kingdom , possibly deriving from the Celtic ''Alclet'' or ''Aclet'', or "Cliffs of the Clyde". Although nowhere near the River Clyde , the locality may have had connections with the Celtic kingdom of Strathclyde ; it may have borrowed the name of the Clyde for aesthetic or prestige reasons, as Alclet's river - the Gaunless - means "useless" in Old Norse ; or a nearby river may have had the name "Clyde" — history does not record the name of the river Gaunless before the Norse named it
- Hawke's Bay - in honour of Edward Hawke, 1st Baron Hawke Of Towton
- Levin - from a director of the railway company that created the town to help boost its railway
- Marlborough - to commemorate John Churchill, 1st Duke Of Marlborough
- Nelson - in honour of Horatio Nelson, 1st Viscount Nelson
- Otago - anglicised from the Maori name ''Otakou'', a ''kainga'' east of present-day Otago Harbour, originally meaning "one isolated village" or "place of red earth"
- Plimmerton - from John Plimmer, Wellington pioneer, director of the railway company that created the seaside resort to help boost its railway; central Wellington has Plimmer's Steps.
- Tasman - district named from the bay name, in honour of Dutchman Abel Tasman , commander of first European expedition to sight the country; also a Mountain and Glacier name. Abel Tasman National Park bears a fuller version of his name.
- Waikato - Named after the river Waikato, which itself means "flowing water"
- Wellington - in honour of Arthur Wellesley, 1st Duke Of Wellington
''See: Etymological List Of Counties Of Romania ''
- Bessarabia - from Basarab I , Wallachian king who led some expeditions in this land
- Bukovina - (in German : "''Buchenland''") = "beech land"
- Dobrogea - "good land"
- Haţeg - "''Terra Herzog''" = Duke's land
- Muntenia - from ''muntean'' = man of the mountains, from Romanian ''munte''=mountain
- Oltenia - from the river Olt , called ''Alutus'' by the Romans, possibly from Latin ''lutum'', meaning "mud" or "clay".
- Transylvania - "beyond the woods"
- --- ''Ardeal'' - "wooden hill" - ''arde'' expresses an Indo-European root meaning forest, the same as in English ''Forest of Arden '' and Belgian '' Ardennes Woods''; ''Deal'' means hill in Romanian .
- Wallachia - "land of the foreigners".
- Amur River -- ''Amur'' comes from the Tungus ''amor'' for "great or big river".
- Grozny or Groznyy -- Russian for "threatening" or "terrible" or "dread" or "severe"
- Novaya Zemlya -- Russian for "new land"
- Novgorod -- from Russian roots meaning "new city"
- Novosibirsk -- roughly means "new Siberian city"
- Sakhalin -- derived from misinterpretation of a Manchu name "sahaliyan ula angga hada" (peak of the mouth of Amur River). "Sahaliyan" means "black" in Manchu and refers to the Amur River (''sahaliyan ula'').
- Siberia -- from a Tatar word meaning "sleeping land"
- Smolensk -- from the river Smolnya
- Vladikavkaz -- Russian for "ruler of the Caucasus " or "rule the Caucasus"
- Vladivostok -- Russian for "ruler of the East" or "rule the East"
- Volgograd -- Russian for "city of the Volga " or "Volga city"
- Andalusia -- from the Arabic name ( Al-Andalus , with several suggested etymologies) formerly applied to the whole Iberian Peninsula
- Asturias -- the land of the Astures , an early people of north-west Spain
- León -- the ancient kingdom and subsequent Province Of León take their name from the city of León , whose name derives from its position as the base of a Roman Legion (Latin ''legio'')
Most of Ukraine's Oblast s take their names from their principal city; but Volyn Oblast, Zakarpattia Oblast, and the Crimean Autonomous Republic provide exceptions to this rule. See also Subdivisions Of Ukraine .
- Cherkasy Oblast — from the city Cherkasy
- Chernihiv Oblast — from the city Chernihiv
- Chernivtsi Oblast — from the city Chernivtsi
- Crimea — from the Crimean Tatar name: ''Qırım''
- Dnipropetrovsk Oblast — from the city Dnipropetrovsk (named in 1926), ''Dnipro'' (" Dnieper River ") and Soviet Bolshevik leader '' Grigory Petrovsky ''
- Donetsk Oblast — from the city Donetsk , after the Donets river, in turn diminutively named after and tributary of the Don
- Ivano-Frankivsk Oblast — from the city Ivano-Frankivsk , named after literary hero Ivan Franko in 1962
- Kharkiv Oblast — from the city Kharkiv
- Kherson Oblast — from the city Kherson
- Khmelnytskyi Oblast — from the city Khmelnytskyi , named in 1954 on the 300th anniversary of the Treaty Of Andrusovo , after Leader Bohdan Khmelnytsky
- City Of Kiev — ancient name (Ukrainian: ''Kyiv'')
- Kiev Oblast — from the city Kiev
- Kirovohrad Oblast — from the city '' Kirovohrad '' ("Kirov City"), after Sergey Kirov (named Kirovo in 1934, Kirovograd in 1939)
- Luhansk Oblast — from the city Luhansk
- Lviv Oblast — from the city of Lviv , founded 1256 by King Danylo Of Halych , and named after his son Lev Danylovich
- Mykolaiv Oblast — from the city Mykolaiv , after the day of Saint Nicholas (Ukrainian ''Mykolai'', Russian ''Nikolai''), December 19 , 1788 , commemorating the fall of Turkish Ochakiv to the Russians
- for some possibilities
- Poltava Oblast — from '' Ltava '', an ancient name of the city Poltava
- Rivne Oblast — from the city Rivne
-
- Sumy Oblast — from the city Sumy
- Ternopil Oblast — from the city Ternopil
- Vinnytsya Oblast — from the city Vinnytsia
- Volyn Oblast — ancient name of the region of Volyn
- Zakarpattia Oblast — "beyond the Carpathian Mountains ", Transcarpathia
- Zaporizhia Oblast — from the city Zaporizhia , in turn after Region "beyond The Rapids" (seventeenth century), downstream of the Rapid s of the River Dnieper
- Zhytomyr Oblast — from the city Zhytomyr (988), after Zhytomyr, prince of the Drevlians
See also British Toponymy , List Of Generic Forms In British Place Names , Etymological List Of Counties Of The United Kingdom )
- England - from ''Engla-lond'', the land settled in the early 6th century by various peoples from Low Germany, among them the Angles (Latin ''Anglii'') who originally inhabited the fish-hook shaped territory known as ''Angeln'' situated in present-day Schleswig . See Anglo-Saxon s.
- Gibraltar - from Arabic ''"jabal Tāriq"'' -> "Tarik's rock" because the Arab general Tarik-ibn-Ziyad started his conquest of the Iberian Peninsula from here in 711.
- Northern Ireland - from Old Irish ''Eriu''. Precise meaning uncertain, though it could derive from the name of a Prehistoric Fertility Goddess .
- ''albus'' - 'white' (describing the mountains). Caledonia , the Latin name, means ''forested highlands''
- Wales - "land of the foreigners", from the Germanic 'wealas' the term used by Anglo-Saxon invaders of the British Isles for the native Celts they encountered. The Welsh native toponym "Cymru" means "fellow countrymen". Ancient Germanic tribes named several areas in Europe in a similar way, using their term for places inhabited by peoples of Celtic or Latin descent, including " Wallonia " in Belgium, Wallachia in Romania, "welsche Schweiz" (French-speaking Switzerland) and the archaic "Welschenland" (a term for Italy).
:''See List Of U.S. State Name Etymologies
:: ''and Lists Of U.S. County Name Etymologies ''
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