List of etymologies of administrative divisions


This article provides a collection of the etymology of the names of administrative divisions. This page generally only deals with regions and provinces; cities and other localities and features may appear listed under the individual country, with a link [|below].

Australia

States

Territories

Mainland

External

Austria

States

Belgium

Regions

  • Brussels, Dutch Brussel, French Bruxelles : medieval Dutch broek 'bog' + zele
  • Flanders, Dutch Vlaanderen, French Flandre: plural of a terrain type; or "flooded land"; or a compound Flemish vlakte "plain" and wanderen "to wander". The name extended from the historical county to the whole Dutch-speaking, majority part of Belgium
  • Wallonia, French Wallonie: from the Walloon people: as in many European countries, so named by Germanic neighbours; meaning: "strangers". Compare "Wales" below.

Provinces

  • Antwerp: from the city of Antwerp, the province's capital, which may derive from the Frankish anda and a noun derived from the verb werpen.
  • Brabant : The name in Carolingian times appeared in Latinised form as pagus Bracbatensis, from bracha "new" and bant "region". See also under the Netherlands.
  • East and West Flanders; see Flanders, above.
  • Hainaut: after the river Haine.
  • Liège: of disputed etymology. The name Liège may have 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". Another suggestion derives the names from Latin Lætica, "colony", or Leudica, "free". Alternatively, the Latin Leudica meaning "public place" may have given rise to the Walloon Lîdje and thence to Liège. Note that the name appeared in written form as Liége until the 1950s.
  • Limburg: Derived from the castle-fortified town of Limbourg, which in turn was derived from "lint" "dragon" and burg "fortress". See also under the Netherlands.
  • Luxembourg: identical with the independent country of the same name to the east. See List of country name etymologies#Luxembourg for the etymology of "Luxembourg".
  • Namur: after the city of Namur, the province's capital, of uncertain etymology.

Cambodia

Cameroon

Regions

Canada

Historical regions

Acadia : origin disputed:
  • * # Credited to Italian navigator Giovanni da Verrazzano, who first named a region around Chesapeake Bay Archadia 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. The -r- also began to disappear from the name on early maps, resulting in the current Acadia.
  • * # Possibly derived from the Míkmaq word akatik, pronounced roughly "agadik", meaning "place", which French-speakers spelled as -cadie in place names such as Shubenacadie and Tracadie, possibly coincidentally.Nunatsiavut: Inuktitut, meaning "our beautiful land".

Chile

Regions

Roman numerals originally identified the regions in order from north to south. With the establishment of Arica-Parinacota and Los Ríos Region in 2007 the numbers no longer reflect the regions' positions.Maule Region : named after the Maule River.Biobío Region : named after the Bío-Bío River.Los Ríos Region : refers to the river systems of Valdivia and Bueno and to the nickname of the city of Valdivia. The name may also reflect the name of Los Lagos Region from which Los Ríos split away.Aisén Region, sometimes also spelled Aysén : The name Aisén may come from the Huilliche word achen, meaning "to crumble". Another theory suggests that the Chonos culture used the word to mean "going more to the interior", in reference to the Fjord of Aisén that stretches east from the Moraleda strait.Magallanes y Antártica Chilena Region : named in honour of Ferdinand Magellan, the Strait of Magellan and the city of Punta Arenas, formerly called Magallanes.

China

Provinces

Special administrative regions

Czech Republic

Historical regions

Denmark

;Autonomous territories and geographic regions are:
  • Bornholm: The Old Danish form, Burghændeholm shows derivation with the suffix -und from burgh "fortress": "provided with a fortress", later combined with holm, "island". The similarity with the Germanic Burgundian tribe whose name has the same etymology and which may or may not have originated in Scandinavia, can be purely coincidental since the derivation is quite basic in meaning.
  • Copenhagen : The Old Danish form, Køpmannæhafn shows the older genitive plural køpmannæ of køpman, "merchant", coupled with hafn, "harbor", producing the meaning "merchants' harbour". It has entered English via the German Kopenhagen.
  • Danish Virgin Islands, a former territory: See British Virgin Islands below.
  • Faroe Islands : From Old Norse Færeyjar – literally, "Sheep Islands", from their dense population of sheep. Another theory suggests that the lexeme fær instead derives from Celtic and means "distant".
  • Greenland : From Old Norse 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"
  • Jutland : From Old Danish Jutland, derived from the tribal name of the Jutes, combined with land "land".
  • Zealand : Old Icelandic Selund, Latin rendering Selon, Old Danish Sialand. A somewhat later form, now poetic, is Sjølund. The oldest forms with the single l and the original vowel reveal that the name is derived with the suffix -und from Old Danish *sial meaning either "seal" or "furrow": "provided with seals" or "provided with furrows", referring either to populations of seals or inlets from the sea. The suffix has later been reinterpreted as the lexeme land "land.
;Present administrative regions of Denmark are:
  • Region Hovedstaden – "Capital City Region"
  • Region Midtjylland – "Mid Jutland Region", see above for "Jutland"
  • Region Nordjylland – "North Jutland Region", see above for "Jutland"
  • Region Sjælland – "Region Zealand", see above for "Zealand"
  • Region Syddanmark – "Region of Southern Denmark"

Estonia

Note: Estonian maakond means "county" and maa means "land". Counties given here without the suffix -maa take their names from their capitals.

Finland

  • Helsinki: The Swedish name Helsingfors represents the original official name of the city of Helsinki. The Finnish language form of the city's name probably originates from 'Helsinga' and similar names used for the river currently known as Vantaanjoki, as documented as early as the 14th century. Helsinki, refers to the city in all languages except Swedish and Norwegian. Helsingfors comes from the name of the surrounding parish, Helsinge and the rapids, which flowed through the original village. The name Helsinge possibly originated with medieval Swedish settlers who came from Hälsingland in Sweden. Another possible derivation looks to the Swedish word hals, referring to the narrowest part of the river, i.e. the rapids.
  • Ostrobothnia – "Eastern Bothnia". Bothnia is a Latinization of Old Norse botn, meaning "bottom". The name botn was applied to the Gulf of Bothnia as Helsingjabotn in Old Norse, after Hälsingland, which at the time referred to the coastland west of the gulf. Later, botten was applied to the regions Västerbotten on the western side and Österbotten the eastern side. The Finnish name of Österbotten, Pohjanmaa, or "Pohja"-land, gives a hint as to the meaning in both languages: pohja means both "bottom" and "north".
  • Åland – "Waterland", from the proposed Germanic root *ahw-, cognate with Latin aqua and meaning "water". Ahvenanmaa, its Finnish name means "Land of Perch" and is partially borrowed, partially folk-etymologized from Germanic.
  • Finland Proper: The first part of Finland to be colonised by Swedes, therefore called Finland, later the name Finland was extended to all the country.
  • Uusimaa : means New Land, reflects the colonisation around the 13th-14th century.
  • Lapland: land of the Lappi, same word as Lapland (Sweden)

France

Historic regions

Most modern French départements take their names from local geographical features: usually rivers, occasionally mountain ranges or coasts. Thus most such names have a self-evident immediate origin. The traditional provinces and regions often bear names with richer but more obscure histories.
  • Alsace – from Latin Alsatia, a Latinised form of the Germanic name that also yields Old High German El-sasz, allegedly meaning "foreign settlement" ; or "settlement on the Ill River"
  • Artois – from Latin Atrebatensis, adjectival form derived the Belgic tribe Atrebates, whose name comes from *ad-treb-ates, meaning 'inhabitants', based on the Celtic root treb- 'building', 'home'. According to Alexander MacBain, the name Atrebates parallels the Irish aitreibh, 'building,' Early Irish aittreb, 'building,' and Welsh adref, 'homeward'. McBain states that the Celtic root treb corresponds to Latin tribus, 'tribe', and to English thorpe, 'village'. MacBain reconstructs *ad-treb- as the Proto-Celtic form of Early Irish aittreb. The name of the main city of Artois, Arras derives directly from the tribe's name Atrebates, so Artois properly means "territory of Arras".
  • [Northern Basque language|Basque Country|Basque Country] – derived from the ancient tribe of the Vascones via the medieval Duchy of Vasconia and a County of Vasconia, split from it. The Basque name derives from Euskara.
  • * Labourd : from the Roman city of Lapurdum.
  • * Lower Navarre. From the medieval Kingdom of Navarre, itself of disputed etymology + herri ). Compare Kingdom of Navarre#Etymology
  • * Soule: deformation of the original Basque name Zuberoa or Xiberue
  • Brittany (Bretagne) – area occupied by refugee Britons from Roman Britain 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. Speakers of Old Norse knew the island as Borgundarholm, and in ancient Danish especially the island's name appears as Borghand or Borghund; these names relate to Old Norse borg "height" and bjarg/berg "mountain, rock", as the island rises high from the sea. Other names known for the island include Burgendaland, Hulmo / Holmus, Burgundehulm, and Borghandæholm. Alfred the Great uses the form Burgenda land. Some scholars believe that the Burgundians take their name from the island of Bornholm; they comprised a Germanic tribe which moved west when the western Roman Empire collapsed, and occupied and named Burgundy in France in the 5th century CE.
  • Champagne – from the Latin campania. Compare "Campania", below.
  • 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
  • Gascony (Gascogne) – from the Duchy of Vasconia, itself derived from the ancient tribe of the Vascones. In Latin and Romance languages in medieval times, Vascones came to apply to all the Basque-speaking peoples.
  • Languedoc – the region speaking the langue d'oc
  • 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
  • Maine, from the Maine River, considered a variant/continuation of the Mayenne River, whose early French name suggests "middle river"
  • Normandy (Normandie) – land settled by Viking Northmen in the early 10th century
  • Occitania, from Occitània in Occitan. From medieval Latin Occitania. The first part of the name, Occ-, is from Occitan òc or Italian oc, a name given to the Occitan language by Dante according to its way of saying "yes". The ending -itania is probably an imitation of the old Latin name itania.
  • Provence – from Latin provincia, 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

Territories

Germany

States

Historic regions

Greece

  • Arcadia: from Arcas, the legendary eponymous leader of early Hellenic settlers
  • Sparta: from Greek Σπάρτη spartē, a cord or rope made from the shrub spartos, a type of broom
  • Macedonia, from Greek mak- —'highland'.

Indonesia

  • Aceh: name of the coastal people of the area.
  • Banten: named in the honor of the former Banten Sultanate, which ruled over the region from 16th to the 18th centuries and became one of the main fronts of opposition against the colonial might of the Dutch East India Company.
  • Bengkulu: named after the Bengkulu river, which passes through the area of the province. The name of Bengkulu itself comes from the Malay word bangkai meaning "corpse", and hulu meaning "river-source"—it refers to the story that in the past the area near the source of the river Bengkulu had often served as a battlefield—tribes and clans battled each other on the river banks leaving them full of corpses and blood.
  • Gorontalo: from the Dutch version of the local phrase hulontalo, meaning "lands surrounded by water" due to the many lakes and rivers formerly in the area
  • Irian Jaya: The name Irian is said to come from the Biak language. An alternative etymology for Irian stems from the acronym Ikut Republik Indonesia, Anti Nederland . The word jaya means "victory" or "glorious" in Indonesian, referring to the Indonesian victory over the colonisers who controlled the area both militarily and diplomatically, a sign of pride as the Indonesians showed themselves capable not only of defending their lands from the Dutch attempt to reestablish colonial rule after World War II, but also of taking over lands not included in the 1945 proclamation or the 1950 reunification, specifically Irian Jaya or the province of Papua.
  • Jakarta: from the Javanese words jaya and karta, which make up the phrase "victorious & glorious; this refers to the victory of Prince Pati Unus of the Demak Sultanate in his campaign to defeat the rival Malacca Sultanate of the Malay Peninsula and Samudera Pasai Sultanate of Aceh region in the mid-16th century. The "glorious victory" also refers to the event of Indonesian Proclamation of Independence on 17 August 1945 which took place in the city.
  • Jambi: the province takes its name from the historical Jambi Sultanate which ruled over the area from the 17th to the 19th centuries
  • Lampung: From the word "Lambung" in the Old Malay phrase anjak Lambung, which means "descended from the heights". This refers to the ancestral riddle of the Lampung people, who allegedly had ancestors "descended from the heights". The "heights" reference the southernmost part of the Barisan mountain range that runs through all the western part of the Lampung province.
  • Nusa Tenggara: from Nusa meaning "islands" and tenggara meaning "south-east".
  • Sumatra: from Ibn Battuta's 14th-century pronunciation of the name of the Samudra Kingdom
  • Yogyakarta: From 'Jogja' and 'Karta'. Jogja is a Javanised version of a Sanskrit word, 'Ayodhya', the prefix A- meaning 'not' and 'Yodhya' is synonymous to Hindi 'Yuddha', meaning battle, combat, fight, or war. Thus Ayodhya, which later Javanised into Jogja, meant 'The place of no fight' or in simpler interpretation, peaceful. This may refer to the geographic location of Jogjakarta, being fortified naturally by the Java Sea to the South, the Merapi Mountain to the north, the Gunung Sewu Karst Mountains to the east and Progo River to the west where it would be the perfect fortress of peace, and even more supported as a breeding place of peaceful life with its rich and fertile volcanic land and rivers, sourcing up to the majestic Merapi. The word 'Karta' means glory, referring to a hope that this city would bring glory to its people.

Iran (Persia)

  • Lorestan: land of the Lurs
  • Mazendran: its combination of 3 words: Mad and Zainthi Eran, Both MAD and Eran is either suffix or prefix of many places in greater Iran or Persia Europeans called + upper India

Iraq

Ireland (Éire)

  • Connacht: Connachta in Irish. "Descendants of Conn". From the Irish Connachta people, who all claimed descent from the High King Conn Cétchathach, Conn of the Hundred Battles.
  • Leinster: Laighin in Irish. From the Irish Laigin people, named after láigne, the broad blue-grey iron spearheads they carried, and Old Norse staðr, meaning place or territory.
  • Munster: Mhumhain in Irish. From the Gaelic goddess Muman and the old Norse staðr, meaning place or territory.
  • Ulster: Ulaidh in Irish. From the Irish Ulaid people, whose name probably comes from Old Irish ul, "beard", and old Norse staðr, meaning place or territory.
  • Meath: Mide in Irish. "Middle" in Old Irish. No longer a province of Ireland.

Italy

  • Abruzzo: Aprutium in medieval Latin, a name by which the "County of Teramo" was known; in turn, Aprutium perhaps derives from the ancient people of Praetutii, who inhabited the territory in pre-Roman times.
  • Aosta Valley : From the valley where Aosta rises, which owes its name to its ancient Latin name of Augusta Pretoria.
  • Apulia : From Apulia, a toponym used in pre-Roman times to indicate a territory corresponding to the current north-central Apulia. In turn, Apulia derived from the indigenous toponym "Japudia", with a passing from D to L, typical of italic languages or, more precisely, Osco-Sabellic.
  • Basilicata: From the Greek basilikos, appeared during the 7th century and used to designate Bizantine Themi governors. Basilikos means "King official", being adjective of basileus, "king"; Basilicata is a term referred to the period when the region belonged to the Eastern Roman Empire. In ancient times it was also known as "Lucania", a term that either originated from the pre-Romani people named Lucani or by the Greek for wolf: lykos. Another supported theory indicates that the term may have originated from the ancient Anatolian people of Lici, which would be established in the area of their original land: Licia.
  • Calabria: a Roman times toponym at the time referred to the Salentine Peninsula, now part of Apulia, that may be originated from a pre-Indo-European mediterranean root cal-/cala- or calabra/galabra-, meaning "rock", "calcareous concretion".
  • Campania: From the homonymous Latin name, coming from the Campanians people, the ethnonym would come from campus, "open field, countryside", since this people was completely dedicated to agriculture; the first meaning of the Region name was the equivalent of "Land of Work", a name that was given to it for the same reason. Compare "Champagne", above.
  • Emilia-Romagna: Emilia derives from the Via Aemilia, a main trading route, that takes its name from its builder, Marco Emilio Lepido, from the Aemilia gens. Romagna derives from Romania.
  • Friuli-Venezia Giulia; Friuli derives from Latin Forum Iulii "Forums of Giulio", name of Cividale del Friuli, in honour of Julius Caesar; Venezia Giulia was instead proposed by Graziadio Isaia Ascoli, to identify all the areas inhabited by Italian people but still in the hands of the Austro-hungarian empire after 1866.
  • Lazio: From Latin "Latium", given to the Region by the Latins (Italic tribe); in turn the toponym may be deriving from the size of their territory, being it wide, flat or large. Ovid hints at perhaps a slightly more sophisticated folk etymology, with a legend of the naming of Latium after Saturn latente deo after he allegedly fled to Italy following his expulsion by Jupiter. Modern linguists postulate origins in a Proto-Indo-European language root *stela-, expressing the idea of "flat land". But the name may originate from an earlier, non-Indo-European one. See the .
  • Liguria: From the homonymous Latin toponym, the ancient pre-Romani people of Ligures, in greek Λιγυες, Ligues and in Latin Ligures, of uncertain origin, mentioned from the 7th century BC to the 5th century BC.
  • Lombardy: from the medieval Latin "Langobardia", Land of the Lombards, a germanic population that invaded the Italian peninsula in 568, making Pavia its own reign capital.
  • Marche: from the plural of Marca, identifying a frontier territory, developed to designate the territory on a political and administrative level during the early Middle Ages, referring to the period in which the Region was at the border of Charlemagne Empire during the 8th century.
  • Molise: Derives from a toponym registered for the first time during the early Middle Ages, indicating a Normans' county, like "Castello di Molise", which name may be originated from the Latin "Molensis".
  • Piedmont: From the expression that alludes to the Region morphology, at the foot of the mountains, particularly at the foot of the Western Alps.
  • Sardinia: From the Latin Sardinia and the name of its ancient inhabitants, Sardi. It is unclear how those populations did define themselves, while it is possible that the etnonym derived from Sherden people.
  • Sicily: From the Latin Sicilia and the Greek Sikelia, by the name of the people who inhabited the island, Sicels, who may had originated from the centre of Italy but moved then to the eastern side of Trinacria. Yet since the 2nd century BC, the Latin term Siculus has lost every ethnolinguistic connotation, indicating who is born or lives on the island.
  • Trentino-Alto Adige/Südtirol: Trentino derived from the Latin Tridentinus, adjective of Tridentum, Trento, identifying the area of its Autonomous province. Alto Adige alludes to the upper course of the river Adige and identifies the area of Bolzano's Autonomous province.
  • Tuscany: From the medieval Latin "Tuscania", having as an adjective Tuscanus, from the late Latin Tuscia, from the adjective Tuscus, plural Tusci, in turn from a previous Truscus, shortening of Etruscus, plural Etrusci, Etruscan civilization, the inhabitants of the Region during the pre-Roman times.
  • Umbria: From the Latin Umbria, from the ancient Umbri people; it's unclear the provenance of their etnonym. An hypothesis was proposed by Pliny the Elder in the "Natural History (Pliny)": "The umbrian population is estimated to be the most ancient of Italy; in facts, we believe that Umbri have been called Ombrii by the Greeks, since they may be survived to the rains when their land was flooded by the Flood". "Ombros" in Greek and "Imbris" in Latin means "rain, downpour".
  • Veneto; From the ancient pre-Roman Adriatic Veneti, also known as Paleoveneti, mentioned by some main historical figures like: Julius Caesar, Tacitus and Pliny the Elder; the Indo-European root detected at the origin of this name is wen, to love, so Veneti may be the "lovely and friendly ones''".

Japan

Main Islands

Korea

Laos

Malaysia

  • Alor Star – alor in Malay means "furrow", while star refers to a kind of tree that bears small, sour fruit known as kundang or remia in Malay
  • Cyberjaya – Malay: "cyber excellence", a reference to the city's designation as the "Silicon Valley of Malaysia"
  • Ipoh – named after the ipoh tree whose poisonous sap the Orang Asli used to coat their blowpipe darts with
  • Johor – from Arabic jauhar, or "precious stones"
  • Kangar – named for the Malay 'kangkok', a kind of hawk
  • Kelantan – said to be a corruption of gelam hutan, the Malay name for the Melaleuca leucadendron tree, also possibly derived from kilatan
  • Klang – possibly from Mon-Khmer klong or Malay kilang
  • Kota Bharu – Malay: "new town/fort"
  • Kota Kinabalu - The word of "kota" means city in Malay while the word of "kinabalu" derived from the Kadazandusun aki nabalu
  • Kuala Lumpur – Malay: "muddy confluence", a reference to the founding of the city at the confluence of Gombak River and Klang River
  • Kuching - Malay: "cat", but probably a corruption of the Indian cochin or a reference to the mata kucing trees that used to proliferate where the city grew subsequently
  • Labuan – derived from the Malay labuhan
  • Langkawi – Malay for "eagle island", but possibly related to Langkasuka, an ancient Hindu kingdom founded in Kedah in the 1st century CE
  • Malacca – named by the founder of Malacca, Parameswara, after the Melaka tree under which he sheltered
  • Negeri Sembilan – Malay: "nine states", a reference to the nine original districts settled by the Minangkabau
  • Penang – named after the Pinang tree
  • Perak – Malay: "silver", from the silvery colour of tin for which the area is known or possibly from the "glimmer of fish in the water"
  • Putrajaya – Malay: literally: "the son's victory"; but taken to mean "princely excellence". Named after the first Prime Minister of Malaysia, Tunku Abdul Rahman Putra, possibly with reference to the planned city's status as the new administration centre for the Federal Government
  • Selangor – possibly from the Malay selangau due to the abundance of flies along the Selangor River
  • Sungai Petani – literally "farmer river" in Malay, said to originate from the concentration of paddy-fields and farmers in the state
  • Taiping – Chinese: "great peace"

Mongolia

Morocco

  • Western Sahara, claimed territory: After its geographic position. "Sahara" derives from the Arabic aṣ-Ṣaḥrā', meaning "desert". The area is also claimed by the Sahrawis.

Kingdom of the Netherlands

Constituent countries

Provinces

  • Drenthe : first mentioned in a Latin document of 820 as pago Treanth. Treanth probably finds its origin in the number three, as the area was then divided in three jurisdictions.
  • Flevoland: from Latin Lacus Flevo, a name used in Roman sources to refer to a body of water at what would later become known as the Zuiderzee. The Netherlands government established the province in 1986 on lands reclaimed from the Zuiderzee in the 1950s and 1960s.
  • Friesland : land of the Frisians.
  • Gelderland : Named after the modern city of Geldern, Germany.
  • Groningen. Named after its capital city. The origin of the city name is uncertain; theories include an original meaning of "people of Groni" or "green fields".
  • Limburg: Derived from the castle-fortified town of Limbourg which in turn was derived from "lint" "dragon" and burg "fortress". See also under Belgium.
  • North Brabant. The name in Carolingian times appeared in Latinised form as pagus Bracbatensis, from bracha "new" and bant "region". See also under Belgium.
  • North Holland : Northern part of the region of Holland. See List of country name etymologies#Netherlands for the etymology of "Holland".
  • Overijssel: Dutch for " across the IJssel river"
  • South Holland : Southern part of the region of Holland. See List of country name etymologies#Netherlands for the etymology of "Holland".
  • Utrecht: named after the city of Utrecht, the name of which derives from Latin Ultraiectum ad Rhenum, meaning "place to cross the Rhine river".
  • Zeeland : Dutch for "sea land".

Other names

  • 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
  • Amsterdam: from Amstelredam, which means "dam over the Amstel"
  • Batavia : "arable land". Alternatively: the people known as the Batavians inhabited the island of Betawe between the Waal and the Rhine. The name of the island probably derives from batawjō, referring to the region's fertility.
  • Bonaire: Uncertain, but thought to have been originally derived from the Caquetio word bonay. Later Dutch and Spanish colonists modified it, first to Bojnaj and finally to its current name of Bonaire.
  • Holland : Germanic "holt land"
  • Netherlands Antilles, a territory: From their Dutch owners and from a mythical land or island, west of Europe, or a combination of two Portuguese words ante or anti and ilha, currently the name for these Caribbean Islands.
  • Rotterdam: meaning 'dam over the Rotte'
  • Stad en Ommelanden for the province of Groningen, meaning "city and surrounding lands" and referring to the city of Groningen and the medieval Frisian lordships west, north and east of the city.
  • Twente : from Latin tvihanti; or after the Germanic tribe the Tubantii as described by Tacitus; or an early form of the current Twents-language word for a 2-year-old horse: Tweanter.

New Zealand

Provinces

Other categories

  • Cook Islands, a territory: In honor of British captain James Cook, who discovered the islands in 1770.
  • Levin: from a director of the railway company that established the town to help boost its railway
  • Niue, a territory: Niu probably means "coconut", and é means "behold". According to legend, the Polynesian explorers who first settled the island knew that they had come close to land when they saw a coconut floating in the water.
  • 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.
  • Tokelau, a territory: From the Tokelauan "North" or "Northern", in reference to their position relative to Samoa. The Tokelauan people traditionally suppose themselves to have originated from settlers from Samoa.
  • Waikato: Named after the Waikato River. The hydronym is a Māori-language word meaning "flowing water".

Nigeria

States

  • Adamawa: the state occupies most of the territory of the defunct 19th-century Adamawa Emirate, which stretched from northeastern Nigeria to northern Cameroon. The word Adamawa derives from the name of the founder of the emirate, Modibbo Adama. The original name for the emirate was Fombina, named by the founder of the Sokoto Caliphate, Usman dan Fodio. However, it later came to be known as Adamawa, meaning "the people of Adama" in the Hausa language. The suffix -wa is appended in Hausa to signify the collective identity of 'people of' that place, so, Adamawa means "the people of Adama".

Norway

Counties

Territories

Pakistan

Papua New Guinea

Poland

Portugal

Romania

  • Bessarabia – from Basarab I, Wallachian prince who led some expeditions in this land
  • Bukovina – = "beech land"
  • Dobruja – from Dobrotitsa, ruler of the region in the 14th century
  • Hațeg – "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"—i.e., from Hungary
  • * Ardeal – possibly a borrowing of the Hungarian name Erdély, like the Romani name Ardyalo—speakers of old Hungarian pronounced Erdély as Erdél. The initial Hungarian "e-" occasionally changes to "a-" in Romanian. The ending '-eal' in Romanian does not suggest a Romanian borrowing from Hungarian. In parallel examples, Hungarian -ely becomes -ei in Romanian. But when Hungarian adopts a word from Romanian, "a" usually becomes "e": Andreas becomes Endre, the Latin ager becomes eger, etc. Thus the word Ardeal could become Erdély. The linguist Josep Lad Pic determined that the word "Ardeal" has an Indo-European origin, while the words Erdely and Erdo do not. The Proto-Indo-European root *arde manifests itself in the Old Indian árdhuka, and in Latin arduus. In Celtic Gaul, Arduenna silva parallels the English "Forest of Arden" and the Ardennes Woods in Belgium. In Romanian, deal means "hill" and ardica "to grow, high, prosperous".
  • Wallachia – "land of the Romance-speaking people"

Russia

Slovakia

  • Banská Bystrica: The name includes two distinct roots: the adjective Banská and the name of the local river Bystrica. Its name in has the same semantic origin. The name literally means "mining creek".
  • Bratislava: The first written reference comes from the Annales Iuvavenses, which calls the locality Brezalauspurc, in relation to the battles between the Bavaria and Hungary, which took place before the walls of Bratislava Castle in 907. The castle got its name either from Predslav, third son of King Svatopluk I or from the local noble Braslav. This former variant reappears as "Braslav" or "Preslava" on coins minted by King István I of Hungary, dating to about the year 1000 and in which appeared the motto "Preslavva Civitas". At the end of the Middle Ages, the name took its final German form Pressburg: Slovak of Prešporok derived from this. Although Pressburg remained the official name until 1919, the Hungarians use and used the name Pozsony. Bozan could result from a ruling of the Bratislava Castle from the eleventh century. The name Posonium Latin derives from Hungarian. In addition to these names, documents of the Renaissance call the city 'Ιστροπόλις' Istropolis which means "City of the Danube" in Ancient Greek. The current name, Bratislava, dates from 1837 when the Slavist scholar Pavel Jozef Šafárik reconstructed a variant of the name, Břetislaw a from old names, believing that these derived from the name of the ruler Bretislaus I of Bohemia.
  • Košice: The first written mention of the city as "villa Cassa" dates from 1230. The Slovak name of the city comes from the Slavic personal name "Koša" with the patronymic slavic suffix "-ice". According to other sources the city name probably stems from an ancient Hungarian first name which begins with "Ko" such as Kokos-Kakas, Kolumbán-Kálmán, or Kopov-Kopó. Historically, the city has been known as Kaschau in German, Kassa in Hungarian, Cassovia or Caschovia in Latin, Cassovie in French, Caşovia in Romanian, Кошицы in Russian and Koszyce in Polish.
  • Nitra: The first mention of Nitra dates back to 880. The name of the city derives from the river Nitra. The name originates in the Germanic word Nitrahwa: in the Indo-European languages nid means "flow" while ahwa means "water".
  • Prešov: The city name originates in the Hungarian word eper which means "strawberry". The city's historic coat of arms contains strawberries. Historically, the city has been known as Eperjes in Hungarian, Eperies or Preschau in German, Fragopolis in Greco-Latin, Preszów in Polish, Peryeshis in Romany, Пряшев in Russian and Пряшів in Rusyn and Ukrainian.
  • Trenčín: Trenčín first appeared under Greek name Leukaristos , depicted on the Ptolemy world map around 150 CE. In 179 CE, during the Marcomannic Wars between the Roman Empire and Germanic Quadi, the Romans carved an inscription on the rock under the present-day castle, mentioning the place as Laugaricio. The first written mentions in the Middle Ages date from 1111 and from 1113. The name became Trentschin in later German and Trencsén in Hungarian.
  • Trnava: The name of the city derives from the Slovak word tŕnie which characterized the river banks in the region. The Hungarian name Nagyszombat originates from the Hungarian word szombat, referring to the weekly market fairs held on Saturdays.
  • Žilina

South Africa

Before 1994

After 1994

Spain

  • Andalusia: from the Arabic name formerly applied to the whole Iberian Peninsula
  • Aragon: from the Aragon River, that gave its name to the county of Aragon, one of the little Christian polities that resisted Islamic rule in Spain during its greatest extent
  • Asturias: the land of the Astures, an early people of north-west Spain
  • Basque Country : from the ancient tribe of the Vascones, whose name became an ethnonym in the Middle Ages. The Basque name derives from Euskara.
  • * Álava : of uncertain etymology. Various theories see it deriving from a Roman town called Alba, from several prossible Basque etymologies or from Arabs. A chronicle of 905 uses the form Arba, but later the word commonly appears as Alaba or Alava.
  • * Biscay : variant of bizkarra
  • * Gipuzkoa : of unknown etymology. Old documents sometimes use the variant Ipuscoa.
  • Cantabria: from the Cantabri, a mountain people defeated by the Romans only after a great military effort. Celtologists have suggested a derivation from the Celtic root cant-, meaning "rock" or "stone", and from the suffix -abr, used frequently in Celtic regions. From this we can deduce that the word "cantabrus" means "dwelling in the mountains", referring to the rugged terrain of Cantabria. Another suggestion derives Cantabria from the Celtic Kant and Iber, thus "The Mountains of the Ebro". Spaniards also call this region La Montaña, but usually call the Bay of Biscay the Cantabrian Sea.
  • Castile: the Spanish/Castilian name Castilla reflects the Spanish castillo and the Latin castellum with reference to numerous forts or castles erected by King Alfonso I for the defence of the area
  • Catalonia: from the castlà class who governed the nascent feudal Catalonia from their castles in the 11th and 12th centuries. Other parallel theories exist: Lafont says Catalunya could come from Arabic Qalat-uniyya because medieval Catalonia formed a border country with a lot of castles in front of the Muslim and Arabized zone of the Iberic peninsula. Some texts suggest that the name Catalunya derives from "Gauta-landia": land of the Goths, or "Goth-Alania" meaning "Land of the Goths and Alans" through Arabian *Cotelanuyya, as the Visigoths and Alans invaded and divided Iberia between themselves, agreeing to rule some parts together, with the region of Catalunya going to the Visigoths. Additionally, the Visigothic kingdom of Catalonia may have taken its name from that of the original homeland of the Visigoths, "Gotland". Coromines suggests an Iberian origin: Laietani > *laketani > laketans > metathesized as catelans > catalans, re-inforced by castellani. Another theory suggests *kaste-lan as the Iberian name, later Latinized as castellani ; then the name would have evolved into *catellani > *catelans > *Catalans.
  • Extremadura: from Medieval Latin Extrema Dorii, referring to the territories south of the Douro basin; or from an Old Castilian word used to designate the further territories controlled by the Christians
  • Galicia: from Latin Gallaecia, the name of the province created in Roman Hispania by Diocletian in 298 CE. It derives from gallicoi or callicoi,.
  • 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
  • Navarre : from the Kingdom of Navarre. Navarra has been argued to have either a Basque or Romance etymology. In the first case it would come from nabar, in the second from nava.
  • Rioja: speculatively interpreted as "red" from the redness of a prominent soil type in the area.

Sweden

Historical Provinces

Sweden formerly consisted of historical provinces, and the province-names still often serve to describe locations in Sweden. Their names often date from before the year 1000. Officially Sweden now subdivides into counties, introduced in 1634.
Historical provinces:

Present counties

Switzerland

  • Aargau: German name labelling the district of the River Aar.
  • Appenzell: from Latin abbatis cella, meaning "land of the abbot", referring to the fact that Appenzell originally belonged to the Abbey of St. Gall.
  • Basel: traditionally associated with the Greek basileus or basileos : the city saw itself as preserving the Imperial Roman heritage of its parent settlement, the Roman town of Augusta Raurica. Note the use of the basilisk as a Basler icon.
  • Bern: German Bärn : reflected in the capital city's bear-pits, foundation-legend and coat-of-arms
  • Graubünden: —from the Grey League, a grey-clad organisation started in 1395.
  • Jura: after the Jura Mountains.
  • Neuchâtel: French for "new castle"; Neuenburg in German
  • Schwyz: named after the town of Schwyz; the origin of the town name is unknown.
  • St Gallen: from Saint Gall, traditionally the Irish founder/namesake of the Abbey of St. Gall which came to dominate the area.
  • Solothurn: the city of Solothurn, capital of the Canton of the same name, first appears under the Celtic name Salodurum.
  • Thurgau: an early medieval Gau county named after the River Thur.
  • Ticino: from the principal river of the canton, the Ticino, a tributary of the Po River.
  • Uri: from the older German Aurochs, a wild ox ; or from the Celtic word ure, a bull.
  • Valais, Wallis : from the Latin word vallis, meaning "valley"; the canton consists mainly of the Rhone valley.
  • Zürich: after the city of Zürich, called Turicum in 2nd-century Latin; the origin of the Latin name is unknown.

Syria

Taiwan

  • Changhua : "Manifest Influence" in Chinese in 1723
  • Chiayi : "Commend Righteousness" in 1787
  • Hsinchu : Literally "New Bamboo", renamed from "Bamboo Fortress" in 1878
  • Hualien : Literally "Lotus Flower" in Chinese, shortened from, renamed by 1920 from Kiray, previously "Whirling Waves"
  • Kaohsiung : literally "High Grandeur", from Japanese Takao, renamed in 1920 from Takau, "Bamboo Forest" in a Formosan language
  • Keelung : Literally "Prosperous Base" in Chinese, renamed in 1875 from "Chicken Cage", possibly derived from the Ketagalan people
  • Kinmen : "Golden Gate", 1387. When a fortress was built to defend the coast of Fujian, Kinmen was described as being "as secure as a metal moat, proudly safeguarding the gate of the sea"
  • Miaoli : Renamed in 1889 from /, from the Bari Settlement of the Taokas Tribe, meaning "Plains"
  • Nantou : 1695, after the Ramtau settlement of the Arikun Tribe
  • Penghu : "Splashing Lake" in Chinese,
  • Pingtung : East of Banpingshan, from Japanese in 1920
  • Tainan : 1887 creation of Tainan Prefecture, "Southern Taiwan " in Chinese
  • Taipei : "Northern Taiwan " in Chinese, 1875 creation of Taipeh Prefecture
  • Taichung : "Central Taiwan " in Chinese, from Japanese created 1896
  • Taitung : "Eastern Taiwan " in Chinese. Creation of Taitung Prefecture in 1888
  • Taoyuan : "Peach Orchard" in Chinese, officially, 1909
  • Yilan : Literally "Suitable Orchid" in Chinese, 1878 creation of Gilan Hsien, derived from the Kavalan people
  • Yunlin : Literally "Clouded Woods" in Chinese, created in 1887

Thailand

Ukraine

Most of Ukraine's oblasts take their names from their principal city; but Volyn Oblast, Zakarpattia Oblast, the Crimean Autonomous Republic, and since 2016, Dnipropetrovsk and Kirovohrad oblasts, offer exceptions to this rule. See also subdivisions of Ukraine.

United Kingdom

Constituent countries

British Crown Dependencies

British Overseas Territories

United States

Territories

Venezuela