Names of Germany


There are many widely varying names of Germany in different languages, more so than for any other European nation. For example:
Often language lags behind the changing society and names tend to retain references to first encounters: the Finnish first and foremost met the Saxons while the French faced the Alamanni. Comparable tendencies appear elsewhere, e.g. in names for Russia.
Each of the names for Germany has been adapted into other languages all over the world. After an overview of variants this article presents etymological and geographic context for the forms and their worldwide usage as well as names used in bureaucracy.

List of area names

In general, the names for Germany can be arranged in six main groups according to their origin:

From [Old High German] ''diutisc'' or similar

  • Afrikaans: Duitsland
  • Chinese: wikt:德意志, commonly wikt:德國 or wikt:德国
  • Danish: Tyskland
  • Dutch: Duitsland
  • Faroese: Týskland
  • German: Deutschland
  • Icelandic: Þýskaland
  • Japanese: wikt:ドイツ
  • Kinyarwanda: Ubudage
  • Korean: wikt:독일 or wikt:도이췰란드
  • Kven: Tyskä
  • Lojban: dotygu'e
  • Low German/Low Saxon: Düütschland/''Duutslaand
  • Luxembourgish: Däitschland
  • Medieval Latin: Teutonia, regnum Teutonicum
  • Nahuatl: Teutōtitlan
  • Norwegian: Tyskland
  • Northern Sami: Duiska
  • Northern Sotho: Tôitšhi
  • Swedish: Tyskland
  • Tamil: இடாய்ச்சுலாந்து
  • Vietnamese: Đức
  • West Frisian: Dútslân''
  • Yiddish: דײַטשלאַנד

    From the [Latin] ''[Germania]''

  • Acehnese: Jeureuman
  • Albanian: Gjermania
  • Aramaic: ܓܪܡܢ
  • Armenian: Գերմանիա
  • Bengali: জার্মানি
  • Bulgarian: Германия
  • Burmese: ဂျာမနီ
  • Modern English: Germany
  • Esperanto: Germanio
  • Friulian: Gjermanie
  • Georgian: გერმანია
  • Greek: Γερμανία
  • Gujarati: જર્મની
  • Hausa: Jamus
  • Modern Hebrew:
  • Hindustani: जर्मनी / جرمنی
  • Ido: Germania
  • Pashto: جارمنی/jarmani
  • Indonesian: Jerman
  • Interlingua: Germania
  • Irish: An Ghearmáin
  • Italian: Germania
  • Hawaiian: Kelemania
  • Kannada: ಜರ್ಮನಿ
  • Lao: ເຢຍລະມັນ
  • Latin: Germania
  • Macedonian: Германија
  • Malay : Jerman
  • Malayalam: ജർമനി
  • Manx: Yn Ghermaan
  • Maltese: Ġermanja
  • Māori: Tiamana
  • Marathi: जर्मनी
  • Marshallese: Jāmne
  • Mongolian: Герман
  • Nauruan: Djermani
  • Nepali: जर्मनी
  • Panjabi: ਜਰਮਨੀ
  • Romanian: Germania
  • Rumantsch: Germania
  • Russian: Германия
  • Samoan: Siamani
  • Sardinian: Germania
  • Scottish Gaelic: A' Ghearmailt
  • Sicilian: Girmania
  • Sinhala: ජර්මනිය
  • Somali: Jarmal
  • Sundanese: Jérman
  • Swahili: Ujerumani
  • Tahitian: Heremani
  • Tamil: செருமனி, ஜெர்மனி
  • Thai: เยอรมนี, เยอรมัน
  • Tongan: Siamane
  • Urdu: آلمانیہ/جرمنی
  • Uyghur: گېرمانىيە

    From the name of the [Alamanni] tribe

  • Arabic: ألمانيا
  • Asturian: Alemaña
  • Azerbaijani: Almaniya
  • Basque: Alemania
  • Breton: Alamagn
  • Catalan: Alemanya
  • Cornish: Almayn
  • Extremaduran: Alemaña
  • Filipino: Alemanya
  • Franco-Provençal: Alemagnes
  • French: Allemagne
  • Galician: Alemaña
  • Guarani: Alemáña
  • Kazakh: Алмания, not used anymore or used very rarely, now using Russian "Германия".
  • Khmer: អាល្លឺម៉ង់
  • Kurdish: Elmaniya
  • Ladino: Almania
  • Latin: Alemannia
  • Mirandese: Almanha
  • Occitan: Alemanha
  • Ojibwe ᐋᓂᒫ
  • Persian: آلمان
  • Piedmontese: Almagna
  • Portuguese: Alemanha
  • Quechua: Alimanya
  • Spanish: Alemania
  • Tajik: Олмон
  • Tatar: Алмания Almania
  • Tetum: Alemaña
  • Turkish: Almanya
  • Welsh: ''Yr Almaen''

    From the name of the Saxon">Saxon people">Saxon tribe

  • Finnish: Saksa
  • Livonian: Saksāmō
  • Romani: Ssassitko temm
  • Tornedalian: Saksa, also called Tyskä, influenced by the Swedish Tyskland.
  • Veps: Saksanma
  • Võro: ''S'aksamaa''

    From the [Proto-Slavic] *''němьcь''

  • Belarusian: Нямеччына
  • Bosnian: Njemačka
  • Bulgarian: Немско
  • Croatian: Njemačka
  • Czech: Německo
  • Hungarian: Németország
  • Kashubian: Miemieckô
  • Montenegrin: Njemačka
  • Ottoman Turkish: نمچه, meaning all Austrian – Holy Roman Empire countries
  • Polish: Niemcy
  • Serbian: Немачка
  • Silesian: Ńymcy
  • Slovak: Nemecko
  • Slovene: Nemčija
  • Lower Sorbian: Nimska
  • Upper Sorbian: Němska
  • Ukrainian: Німеччина

    From the name of [Prussia]

  • Limburgish: Pruses
  • informal Luxembourgish: Preisen
  • informal Twents: De Pruus
  • Silesian: Prusacy
  • Tahitian: ''Purutia''

    Unclear origin

  • Kursenieki: Vāce Zėm
  • Latgalian: Vuoceja
  • Latvian: Vācija
  • Lithuanian: Vokietija
  • Samogitian: ''Vuokītėjė''

    Other forms

  • Medieval Greek: Frángoi, frangikós – after the Franks.
  • Medieval Hebrew: , from biblical Ashkenaz, son of Japheth and grandson of Noah, thought to be the ancestor of the Germans.
  • Lower Sorbian: bawory or bawery – from the name of Bavaria.
  • Silesian: szwaby from Swabia, bambry used for German colonists from the area around Bamberg, krzyżacy referring to Teutonic Order, Rajch or Rajś resembling German pronunciation of Reich.
  • Old Norse: Suðrvegr – literally south way, describing Germanic tribes which invaded continental Europe.
  • Kinyarwanda: Ubudage, Kirundi: Ubudagi – thought to derive from the greeting guten Tag used by Germans during the colonial times, or from deutsch.
  • Navajo: , in reference to Stahlhelm-wearing German soldiers.
  • Lakota: Iyášiča Makȟóčhe.
  • Plains Cree: pîwâpiskwastotininâhk or mâyakwêsinâhk
  • Sudovian: guti, Old Prussian miksiskai
  • Polish : Erefen from R.F.N. = F.R.G.
  • Polish : Rajch from German ''Reich''

    Discussion of name origins

Names from ''Diutisc''

The name Deutschland and the other similar-sounding names above are derived from the Old High German diutisc, or similar variants from Proto-Germanic *Þeudiskaz, which originally meant "of the people". This in turn comes from a Germanic word meaning "folk", and was used to differentiate between the speakers of Germanic languages and those who spoke Celtic or Romance languages. These words come from *teuta, the Proto-Indo-European word for "people".
The Italian for "German", tedesco, comes from the same Old High German root, although not the name for "Germany". In the standardised Romansh language, Germania is the normal name for Germany but in Sursilvan, Sutsilvan and Surmiran it is commonly referred to as Tiaratudestga, Tearatudestga and Tera tudestga respectively, with tiara/teara/tera meaning land. French words thiois, tudesque, théotisque and Thiogne, and Spanish tudesco, share this etymology.
The Germanic language which diutisc most likely comes from is West Frankish, a language which died out long ago and has hardly left any written evidence today. This was the Germanic dialect used in the early Middle Ages, spoken by the Franks in Western Francia, i.e. in the region which is now northern France. The word is only known from the Latin form theodiscus. Until the 8th century the Franks called their language frengisk; however, when the Franks moved their political and cultural centre to the area where France now is, the term frengisk became ambiguous, as in the West Francian territory some Franks spoke Latin, some vulgar Latin and some theodisc. For this reason a new word was needed to help differentiate between them. Thus the word theodisc evolved from the Germanic word theoda with the Latin suffix -iscus, to mean "belonging to the people", i.e. the people's language.
In Eastern Francia, roughly the area where Germany now is, it seems that the new word was taken on by the people only slowly, over the centuries: in central Eastern Francia the word frengisk was used for a lot longer, as there was no need for people to distinguish themselves from the distant Franks. The word diutsch and other variants were only used by people to describe themselves, at first as an alternative term, from about the 10th century. It was used, for example, in the Sachsenspiegel, a legal code, written in Middle Low German in about 1220: Iewelk düdesch ''lant hevet sinen palenzgreven: sassen, beieren, vranken unde svaven. In the Carion's Chronicle, the German reformator Philip Melanchthon argued the Germans were descendants of the biblical Ashkenaz, the son of Japheth. They shall have called themselves the Ascenos, which with time derived into Tuiscones.
The Teutoni, a tribe with a name which probably came from the same root, did, through Latin, ultimately give birth to the English words "Teuton" for the adjective German, and "Teuton", attested from 1833. "Teuton" was also used for Teutonisch Land, its abbreviation Teutschland used in some areas until the 19th century and its currently used official variation Deutschland.
In the northern French language area, the neighboring Germanic dialects, areas and inhabitants of Flanders to Alsace are sometimes referred to as Thiois, most likely still for the area between Maastricht and Aachen and for the traditional German speaking part of Lorraine, The term is obsolete or colloquial and derives from theodisc''. It remains in a more or less distorted form in the name of one of each of the following pairs of villages, separated by a present or past language barrier: