A Country By Any Other Name: How Some Places Got Theirs

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Even though Shakespeare always said that “a rose by any other name may swell as sweet”, there’s no accounting for smells or anything else for that matter when an innocent country is either relabeled from it’s original name or burdened with an odd one from the onset. In fact, it’s downright confusing. Below are some places whose names have been exposed for what they really are, namely, other names, or something like that.

Spain means “land of rabbits.” So why are there people there, you might ask? I know not the answer except to say that the name dates back to the days of the ancient Phoenicians, who found such an abundance of hares on the land that they named it after them. The only problem is that they mistook the hares for African animals known as hyraxes, and named the country in a Canaanite dialect. This word Latin-speaking Romans turned into Hispania. Down through the age it changed into the Norman French word, Spagne, and then finally to Spain.

Coney island in Brooklyn New York was an unlikely place for an amusement part when the Dutch first settled it in the 16th century. It was so named because of the abundance of wild hares (Coney is an archaic word for rabbit) that populated the tiny island.


France was so named by the Franks, a West German tribe who originally settled the region. The word literally means, “the land of free men.” Some say that Britain was a name derived from make-up. The original inhabitants of the islands were known to wear elaborate face paint, for which the word Pritani, provided a place name. Other schools of thought maintain that the name came from the Celtic goddess, Brigid.

The name, America is actually derived from that of a little known explorer of the same period as Columbus, who went unnoticed until after his death in 1512. Americus Vespucci was actually the first explorer to reach the Americas (North and South). This fact is documented by two letters, Mundus Novus (New World), and Lettera (Four Voyages), which detail those trips. This knowledge is said to have inspired historian/mapmaker Martin Waldseemuller, to name the country by the feminized Latin version of the explorer’s name.

Canada derives from the Algonquin word, k’anata, meaning a cozy little village. It was first noted by explorers who visited a community near present day Stradacona, in the province of Quebec.

What’s in a name?

You got me.

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