Buzz
Reader Jonathan reached out with this question: 'Why do we refer to other countries by names they don’t use themselves? Where did these names originate from, and why do we continue using them?'
To Americans, the European nation known for its Volkswagens, the Scorpions, and World War II is called Germany. However, in Germany, it’s referred to as Deutschland. The Spanish call it Alemania, the Poles call it Niemcy, and the Thai refer to it as ???????. Each of these countries, in turn, uses a unique name for itself – an endonym - that differs from what we use in the U.S. and what other countries call it – an exonym. Why such a variety of names when it’s the same country we’re talking about?
Although we often treat place names as special in English by capitalizing them—something not all languages do—place names are really just words. Without a universal language, each language has its own word for a particular part of the world. These names are simply words, each with its own history, baggage, and subject to the whims of linguistic evolution, and occasionally even the less-than-friendly intentions of those who use them.
Certain place names are derived from the people who once lived there. Take Germany, for instance. It was referred to as Germany by some long before the country unified and adopted the name Deutschland. Positioned centrally in Western Europe, Germany has historically bordered many different groups, and many languages use the name of the first Germanic tribe encountered as a label for the entire region. The Romans called a region east of the Rhine River and north of the Danube River Germania after the first Germanic tribe they heard about from the Gauls nearby. The name comes from the Gauls, who referred to the tribe across the river as Germani, likely meaning 'neighbor' or perhaps 'men of the forest.' English later borrowed the name and modified the ending to form Germany.
At the same time, the Alemanni, a southern Germanic tribe living near present-day Switzerland and Alsace, influenced the French and Spanish to call the land Allemagne and Alemanía, respectively. Similarly, the Turkish term for Greece, Yunanistan, comes from the Ionians, the Greek tribe that established settlements in Asia Minor and had early interactions with the Turks.
Global "Telephone"
For many place names, the global game of cultural 'telephone' explains their evolution over time. As explorers ventured around the world and encountered new lands, they often didn’t know what to call them, so they turned to the locals for answers. The names traveled along trade routes or through diplomatic channels, spoken and understood by people who didn’t share a common language. Along the way, some names became distorted, misunderstood, or intentionally altered to fit the phonetics of different languages.
That’s how Nipon eventually became Japan. When Marco Polo visited China, he learned of an island called Cipangu in one of the Chinese dialects. He brought the name back to Italy, where it was altered into Giappone. Portuguese traders in Asia heard about the same island from the Malay, who called it Japang or Jepang. They brought the word back to Europe, adapting it into Japao. Eventually, one or both of these variations found their way into English as Japan.
Some place names arise from perception. For example, nearly every Slavic-speaking country uses a variation of the term nemtsi or nemetes to refer to Germany. Linguists believe this stems from the Slavic word nemy, meaning 'mute,' as ancient Slavs referred to the nearby Germanic tribes as 'mutes' because they couldn’t understand their language. Similarly, the name Macedonia, which can refer to the former Yugoslav republic or other regions, comes from the ancient Greek term Makedones, used by southern Greeks to describe the northern part of the area. Derived from makednos (meaning 'long' or 'tall'), it likely refers to the area's towering mountains or the height of its people.
These are just a few of the common ways exonyms are created. The origins of every place name would take too long to explore, so if you have specific names in mind, the Online Etymology Dictionary is a great resource for a quick and straightforward explanation.
