My favorite European misunderstanding place name is Yucatan. The Spanish asked the locals what the land was called, and they responded with "I don't understand you" which is what Yucatan means
This reminds me of the etymology of one state of México, when the spaniards arrived at the shores of the Yucatán peninsula they tried to speak with the native mayan, they either responded "Ci u t'ann" or "uh yu ka t'ann" which means "I don't understand you" and "hear how they speak" respectively, the spaniard thougth this was the name of the land and to this day the peninsula and the state are still called Yucatán, the corrupted castilianization of the mayan phrase.
Are you familiar with the comic Scandinavia and the World? I think you'd like it. She personifies countries based on her perspective from Denmark. Granted she depicts geography and local quirks in a comical way and not always accurate.
Places that got their names by mistake - yep, the Yarra River that goes through Melbourne, Australia. It is said that in the early days of the British establishing a colony one of the colonisers was talking to one of the Kulin National people (the Aboriginal group who are the traditional custodians of the Melbourne and Greater Melbourne area) and asking them about the area. The coloniser pointed at what is now the Yarra River and asked 'what do you call that?' The Aborigine said, 'Yarra.' So, the colonisers decided to call it the Yarra River. A bit later they came to another river and asked the Aborigine what it was called and the Aborigine replied 'Yarra' again. It was then that the British realized that 'Yarra' meant water and Yarra Yarra meant 'fast flowing water'. But by then I suspect enough maps had been made for them to decide to keep the name 'Yarra.'
Reminds me of Terry Pratchett's theory of how landmarks got named, by explorers grabbing the nearest native and pointing at local geographical features and getting the response in the local dialect of "Who is this idiot who doesn't know what a mountain is?" or "Just a river" or even "Your finger, you fool!"
There was another source of names for countries: The portuguese navigators used to name the places discovered by them acording to the most importants goods produced locally. Most of these names changed (ex. Gold Coast to Ghana) but a few remain to this day, like Ivory Coast and Brazil (brazilwood).
Nunavut, while not a country but a territory of Canada, also derives partially from a possessive determiner. Nuna means "Land" and the -vut suffix means "our", making it "Our land".
Norway from nordvegen, meaning as you said the way to the north but probably referer to the inland safe sailing up to Bergen from Boknafjorden. Where they could sail north mostly safe from open ocean. So any place with a coast going north could have ended up with the name.
This is exactly what happened to my town's old name. I am from the Philippines and as some of you might already know, we used to be a Spanish colony. The story goes that back in the day, some Spanish settlers asked a group of natives about the name of the place they were in. The natives misunderstood and thought that they were asking for the name of the tree they were resting under. So they said it's called Catmon--a local name for a tree in our country. LOL
Have you done a video about why some places have names that start with "the"? I noticed that you call Gambia, "The Gambia," which tracks with Brits calling Lebanon, "The Lebanon," but I've heard Americans call Congo both "Congo" and "The Congo". Then there's The Bronx and The Hague. So, if you haven't already done so, can you explain "The" in place names? And if you have, can you (or someone) please provide a link?
Brazil was named for the Brazil tree, known both for its seeds, called Brazil nuts, and for its very red wood, named after copper braziers. A century ago there were two countries named for elements, but one of them, upon losing its colonial overlords, changed its name from The Gold Coast to Ghana. The remaining one is Argentina, named for the Latin word for silver, argentum (from which the chemical symbol “Ag” is derived).
Actually most people in mainland subsaharan Africa speak a native African language as their mother tongue. America's and Australia's languages were indeed mostly ousted by European settlers (mostly because they were way more numerous and intermixed with the natives), but Africa's languages remain strong in basically every country of the continent. Not many countries grant them official status however. But many of them still give them some recognition, usually under the title of "national languages". Weirdly enough, Wolof doesn't have any of that in Senegal. But even as a French person, I think it honestly deserves to be straight up official.
Please make a video about how none of the brazilian states with the name Rio (river) in them (Rio de Janeiro, Rio Grande do Sul, Rio Grande do Norte) actually have a river named like that flowing through them 😂
Etimology of the Name Moldova: The nation Moldova was named after the river Moldova (which is entirely in Romania, but it used to be in the Principality of Moldavia) And according to legend, a man was hunting european bison when one beast killed his dog, and some blood fell in the river, which he named "Moldova" after his dog's name, Molda. There is no historical evidence for this but we'll go with it.
1:16 That's banned on RUclips. Any term containing the letters N-E-G in sequence followed by R and O are defined as rasist, and any video containing racism are banned on RUclips. Swapping the E for and I and switching the R and O, while swapping the O for an E, is considered an attempt at circumventing the rules about No Racism, thus your video is double banned. That's two strikes in one go
The map you showed when you were talking about nations named after people that is in North AMERICA is called The United States of America, as in the continent of AMERICA named after Amerigo Vespucci. For someone whose entire channel is about names, that is a HUGE mistake.
OMG FOR TJE LAST TIME THE ICELAND MYTH IS INCORRECT!!!!! ITS A M Y T H !!!!! A GUY LANDED ON AN ISLAND, THOUGHT IT WAS ALL ICY, AND CALLED IT ICELAND. STOP CLAIMING MYTHS AS EVERY DAY FACTS!!!!!
Wait, ok so a little controversial, but you showed Pakistan WITHOUT the part of Kashmir that is in its control like ok not the whole Kashmir but atleast show the part which is in her control.
@@aethelredtheready1739 Pakistan already has a part of Kashmir in its control, and it is shown as part of Pakistan everywhere. Excluding a whole province of a country just because some idiots think its wrong isnt right, that means you (not you but in general) are supporting wrong claims over a place that is already not only in Pakistan's control but actually a province of it, which is straight up wrong. Just pointing out a mistake, I know "Name Explain" dont want any controversy nor do I :)
Shahwaiz Ali by some idiots you are referring to one of the largest countries on the planet. When drawing an outline of a country, it is always best to remove controversial segments. For example, if I were to draw Russia, I would not include Crimea, because it is disputed. If I were to draw Serbia, I would not include Kosovo, because it is disputed. An outline of a country is meant for rapid identification, and to represent a country, not to champion the political beliefs of the country. They do not have contested or invaded areas because it is not a map. Excluding any contested areas is a simple way of dealing with contested areas, because it cannot be accused of bias. Name explained is not taking a stance on the state of Kashmir, he is just leaving it unstated, because to take any stance would be controversial. Now if he had a map of that area of the world, and he showed Kashmir entirely under the control of one of the three countries, I would take issue with that. But he hasn’t. He has shown an outline of the basic extent of the country that every other country agrees to. That is a safe and non-political way of depicting a country. Now this has some issues as a method. North and South Korea come to mind, as do China and Taiwan. But those are well defined, and have generally accepted solutions. Kashmir does not.
You, as someone who "loves" the meaning of words, had a chance to say America is the whole, but noo, you had to said freaking US is all of America and USA wasnt named after Vespucio. Pfft, thumbs down and unsubscribe. What a shame, really liked your channel
Canoe?
Canoe.
Canoe!
Canoe.
Canoe
Canoe
Just after Geography Now covered Senegal!
Name Explain/It's time to learn geography mashup, NOW! 😂
Ik right
@@PRDreams YES
69 likes
This story reminds me a lot of the origin of Canada’s name where explorers met natives who told them this was kanata, meaning village.
Yeah, I was gonna mention this!
My favorite European misunderstanding place name is Yucatan. The Spanish asked the locals what the land was called, and they responded with "I don't understand you" which is what Yucatan means
Not really true, but a fun story!
@@Hundieee14 Believing textbooks is pretty boring, isn't it?
Kangaroos have entered the chat.
This after the Geography Now video of Senegal a few days ago
This reminds me of the etymology of one state of México, when the spaniards arrived at the shores of the Yucatán peninsula they tried to speak with the native mayan, they either responded "Ci u t'ann" or "uh yu ka t'ann" which means "I don't understand you" and "hear how they speak" respectively, the spaniard thougth this was the name of the land and to this day the peninsula and the state are still called Yucatán, the corrupted castilianization of the mayan phrase.
3:49 Soviets must be proud
SOYUZ NERUSHIMY RESPUBLIK SVOBODNYKH
Are you familiar with the comic Scandinavia and the World? I think you'd like it. She personifies countries based on her perspective from Denmark. Granted she depicts geography and local quirks in a comical way and not always accurate.
Senegal?
I know about Senegal because geography now
I was about to say
Mané!!!!
Same
Places that got their names by mistake - yep, the Yarra River that goes through Melbourne, Australia. It is said that in the early days of the British establishing a colony one of the colonisers was talking to one of the Kulin National people (the Aboriginal group who are the traditional custodians of the Melbourne and Greater Melbourne area) and asking them about the area. The coloniser pointed at what is now the Yarra River and asked 'what do you call that?' The Aborigine said, 'Yarra.' So, the colonisers decided to call it the Yarra River. A bit later they came to another river and asked the Aborigine what it was called and the Aborigine replied 'Yarra' again. It was then that the British realized that 'Yarra' meant water and Yarra Yarra meant 'fast flowing water'. But by then I suspect enough maps had been made for them to decide to keep the name 'Yarra.'
This is quite a common occurrence.
There is a hill near me whose name translates as hill hill hill
Me *sees thumbail* " well thats senegal cuz u can see the gambia + senegal border thing" Me 10 minutes later "yea"
Yeah, I think anyone who knows many countries, know that there aren't tons of countries with that shape.
@@FairyCRat yeah, Senegal has a crazy border
Reminds me of Terry Pratchett's theory of how landmarks got named, by explorers grabbing the nearest native and pointing at local geographical features and getting the response in the local dialect of "Who is this idiot who doesn't know what a mountain is?" or "Just a river" or even "Your finger, you fool!"
Interesting, thank you for sharing!
The Portuguese named so many places its amazing
There was another source of names for countries: The portuguese navigators used to name the places discovered by them acording to the most importants goods produced locally. Most of these names changed (ex. Gold Coast to Ghana) but a few remain to this day, like Ivory Coast and Brazil (brazilwood).
"Senegal" means "Our boat"
USA: "Is that communism I smell?"
Of all the country names, this was the most fascinating of all.
Nunavut, while not a country but a territory of Canada, also derives partially from a possessive determiner.
Nuna means "Land" and the -vut suffix means "our", making it "Our land".
Sounds communistic to me
@AutoDriver4000 Communism=sharing,no individualism
@AutoDriver4000 technically in communism,you don't own anything. It belongs to everyone
Norway from nordvegen, meaning as you said the way to the north but probably referer to the inland safe sailing up to Bergen from Boknafjorden. Where they could sail north mostly safe from open ocean. So any place with a coast going north could have ended up with the name.
Brings a whole new meaning to the term "ship of state"
This is exactly what happened to my town's old name. I am from the Philippines and as some of you might already know, we used to be a Spanish colony. The story goes that back in the day, some Spanish settlers asked a group of natives about the name of the place they were in. The natives misunderstood and thought that they were asking for the name of the tree they were resting under. So they said it's called Catmon--a local name for a tree in our country. LOL
Have you done a video about why some places have names that start with "the"? I noticed that you call Gambia, "The Gambia," which tracks with Brits calling Lebanon, "The Lebanon," but I've heard Americans call Congo both "Congo" and "The Congo". Then there's The Bronx and The Hague. So, if you haven't already done so, can you explain "The" in place names? And if you have, can you (or someone) please provide a link?
Brazil was named for the Brazil tree, known both for its seeds, called Brazil nuts, and for its very red wood, named after copper braziers.
A century ago there were two countries named for elements, but one of them, upon losing its colonial overlords, changed its name from The Gold Coast to Ghana. The remaining one is Argentina, named for the Latin word for silver, argentum (from which the chemical symbol “Ag” is derived).
People be askin' Why Senegal is named after canoe? Or why is there a giant snake(Gambia) in Senegal? But did anyone asked
How is Senegal?
F in the replies
F
@lex mota F
Love u name explain
Actually most people in mainland subsaharan Africa speak a native African language as their mother tongue. America's and Australia's languages were indeed mostly ousted by European settlers (mostly because they were way more numerous and intermixed with the natives), but Africa's languages remain strong in basically every country of the continent. Not many countries grant them official status however. But many of them still give them some recognition, usually under the title of "national languages". Weirdly enough, Wolof doesn't have any of that in Senegal. But even as a French person, I think it honestly deserves to be straight up official.
Argentina = Argentum, or the Spanish word for silver a supposedly plentiful resource there.
Hasn't he done a video mentioning this? I could be wrong and I'm too lazy to look it up right now. Lol.
Justin Wetzel Sí por supuesto
No, silver in Spanish is Plata as in Río de la Plata. ARGENTI is Latin for silver as in ARGENTIna.
5:12 'the first to arrive and last to leave for sure'
have you never heard of the UK?!
Please make a video about how none of the brazilian states with the name Rio (river) in them (Rio de Janeiro, Rio Grande do Sul, Rio Grande do Norte) actually have a river named like that flowing through them 😂
Me: **looking at the thumbnail in my notification** Canoe? Senegal? How? Why? What?... Okay! I'll just watch that later, the class is still ongoing.
Canada is from a mistake from a native word as well.
Etimology of the Name Moldova:
The nation Moldova was named after the river Moldova (which is entirely in Romania, but it used to be in the Principality of Moldavia)
And according to legend, a man was hunting european bison when one beast killed his dog, and some blood fell in the river, which he named "Moldova" after his dog's name, Molda. There is no historical evidence for this but we'll go with it.
Your pronunciation of 'pirogue' is funny.
Geography now makes a video about Sengenal.
Then, Name Explain makes a video about Sengenal.
Coincidence? I DON'T THINK SO
What about a video on mistranslations in place names that caused confusion?? That might be interesting..
Just by the country's borders on the thumbnail, its senegal
I feel like this is a very leading question...
Nice boat
Its actually means "Their Boat", "Sene" means "Their" and Gal means Boat in the Wollof language
Judging by the thumbnail, it's Senegal. Will return when I find out.
Nice
Who ever reads this I hope you have a great 24 hours
I hope you dont
You too!
The thumbnail sightly reminds me of Beavis and Butthead
So many interesting words and names of people and places in Africa. It's a gold mine for you!
here you have another comment about how Geography Now did Senegal few days ago
I thought norway was from the norse legends, and it just kept.
I was told to leave a comment, so here you go
The North Island of New Zealand is named after a canoe in Maori.
Not so hard to guess when you show the flag and shape of the country in the thumbnail.
Mate, at 8:19 you just missed a chance to give a bombass solidarity against covid speech. Still love the video anyway!
I do not think it is a simple PacMan: it is a PacWhale!
i never knew the dutch flag was so similar to the french one...
It is just me or why is this a coincidence that Geography Now just upload almost the same week as this video was upload...also about the same country
idk if anyone has ever pointed this out to you but the word "subscribe" is misspelled at the beginning of all of your videos
how about the American states that no one knew what it was called so it was named for the answer, " I don't know"
Brazil was named after a tree species.
Canoeda? Anyone? Okay I'll show myself out
I can row a boat, canoe?
1:16 That's banned on RUclips. Any term containing the letters N-E-G in sequence followed by R and O are defined as rasist, and any video containing racism are banned on RUclips. Swapping the E for and I and switching the R and O, while swapping the O for an E, is considered an attempt at circumventing the rules about No Racism, thus your video is double banned. That's two strikes in one go
The map you showed when you were talking about nations named after people that is in North AMERICA is called The United States of America, as in the continent of AMERICA named after Amerigo Vespucci. For someone whose entire channel is about names, that is a HUGE mistake.
Jam/jelly in English. Hillo in Finnish and many different names in other languages. Why?
We're all in Senegal.
So you want that Geography Now money ;)
How come it says no views lol
The name America is a continental name, not of a country. Jeee, you should know these stuff.
Rowanda?
OMG FOR TJE LAST TIME THE ICELAND MYTH IS INCORRECT!!!!! ITS A M Y T H !!!!! A GUY LANDED ON AN ISLAND, THOUGHT IT WAS ALL ICY, AND CALLED IT ICELAND. STOP CLAIMING MYTHS AS EVERY DAY FACTS!!!!!
ta
"We're going to need a bigger boat"...
Our pirogi? 😉
Wait, ok so a little controversial, but you showed Pakistan WITHOUT the part of Kashmir that is in its control like ok not the whole Kashmir but atleast show the part which is in her control.
That area is claimed by multiple countries. The safest way to deal with it is just to exclude it.
@@aethelredtheready1739 very correct. Hopefully there's no India-Pakistan controversy starting here.
@@aethelredtheready1739 Pakistan already has a part of Kashmir in its control, and it is shown as part of Pakistan everywhere. Excluding a whole province of a country just because some idiots think its wrong isnt right, that means you (not you but in general) are supporting wrong claims over a place that is already not only in Pakistan's control but actually a province of it, which is straight up wrong.
Just pointing out a mistake, I know "Name Explain" dont want any controversy nor do I :)
Shahwaiz Ali by some idiots you are referring to one of the largest countries on the planet. When drawing an outline of a country, it is always best to remove controversial segments. For example, if I were to draw Russia, I would not include Crimea, because it is disputed. If I were to draw Serbia, I would not include Kosovo, because it is disputed. An outline of a country is meant for rapid identification, and to represent a country, not to champion the political beliefs of the country. They do not have contested or invaded areas because it is not a map.
Excluding any contested areas is a simple way of dealing with contested areas, because it cannot be accused of bias. Name explained is not taking a stance on the state of Kashmir, he is just leaving it unstated, because to take any stance would be controversial.
Now if he had a map of that area of the world, and he showed Kashmir entirely under the control of one of the three countries, I would take issue with that. But he hasn’t. He has shown an outline of the basic extent of the country that every other country agrees to. That is a safe and non-political way of depicting a country.
Now this has some issues as a method. North and South Korea come to mind, as do China and Taiwan. But those are well defined, and have generally accepted solutions. Kashmir does not.
@@aethelredtheready1739 You are right :)
yay
OUR canoe! ☭
Senegal was a part of the French empire
4:38 jews*
FIRST Y'ALL!
Not my proudest fap
I'm early
4th!
Kinda look like a woman.
You, as someone who "loves" the meaning of words, had a chance to say America is the whole, but noo, you had to said freaking US is all of America and USA wasnt named after Vespucio.
Pfft, thumbs down and unsubscribe.
What a shame, really liked your channel
Dog you good?