How Did Each European Country Get Its Name

Did I get any country's meaning wrong? A few of them didn't have that much information available online

The fact that you can't pronounce "Montenegro" because of youtube censorship is scandalous

In Greek, France is still called Gallia.

No one:: The Greeks single handedly naming most of the countries in Europe:

1:25 The idea that a place could be named "Port Port" (each half derived from a different language) is surprisingly plausible. There are many places with names like that. The Sahara Desert is one example (sahara means "desert" in Arabic). Tom Scott discussed the phenomenon in one of his videos while visiting a place that could reasonably be translated as "Hill Hill Hill Hill."

The n-word: is literally the word for a very common color in many languages YouTube: "You can't say that."

"home of the Boii" god bless our ancestors.

For Bulgaria, there may be another explanation. In Greek, the second letter of the alphabet had phonetic value B, but later transitioned to V. Several words in south-eastern Europe can trace origin to this transition; for example, the city of Bethlehem is named in some old songs as Vitlaim. And bulgars use Cyrillic writing, derived from the Greek alphabet. So their name might very well be coming from the Volga River, where they were known to live before their migration to the Balkans.

It's worth noting that "Cymru" in Welsh is not pronounced like "simru" but "kummri". Also the term "Scotland" is (or was originally) an exonym. The name for Scotland in Scottish Gaelic is "Alba", which derives from Old Irish "Albu" or "Albain", which is believed to have been used to describe the lands of the Picts and and other Celtic territory of what is now Scotland.

"It could mean Port Port, but that makes no sense." Lake Chad visibly fuming

"port port" makes total sense in geography, trust me

About the name 'Belarus'. The name Ruscia Alba (Ruthenia Alba) was first mentioned in the 1250s in an anonymous geographical treatise originating in Ireland. Most likely, this name was not known in Rus' itself (the name Rus' itself had just begun to take hold in the territories from the Black Sea to the Baltic Sea). Therefore, it is most likely that the name White was added to Rus by medieval European cartographers. Many regions were given the name of White Ruthenia by cartographers, but it's funny, the Novgorod Republic was called White Ruthenia the most. Over time, cartographers began to come up with new names, such as Red Ruthenia, the territory of modern Ukraine, and Black Ruthenia, the land of the Balts. And here again, the same tradition of medieval cartography was at work: whichever name I want to give it and wherever place I want to put it, I do it. In 1470, the Novgorod Republic was conquered by the Moscow principality, and after that Moscovia was called White Ruthenia. To put it quite simply, Novgorod, Moscow, and the Polotsk principality were called White Ruthenia, although no one knew of any White Ruthenia in these lands. In the second half of the 16th century, maps became more and more detailed, and the term finally settled on the lands of modern Belarus. This was facilitated by the appearance of historical chronicles by Marcin Kromer, Maciej Stryjkowski, and others. This was also influenced by the Livonian War, when in 1563 the Muscovy captured Polotsk, and since Muscovy was often called White Ruthenia, and news of this war spread throughout Europe, Polotsk also began to be called White Ruthenia. In 1579 Stefan Batory expelled the Muscovites from Polotsk, but the name remained and from the end of the 16th century Belarus began to be called the land with a predominantly Orthodox population, which had previously been simply called Ruthenia or Lithuanian Ruthenia. In the early 17th century, the name Belarus became widely accepted, for example, in 1632, King Wladyslaw 4 restored the Orthodox diocese in the Grand Duchy of Lithuania and it was called White Ruthenian. At the same time, in the official documents of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth, the term white Ruthenia was increasingly used to refer to the lands of modern Belarus. Despite the fact that the state that included the lands of White Ruthenia was called Lithuania, Muscovy began to use the term White Rus more and more often, referring to the lands of Belarus and rarely Ukraine. Because, in their view, Ruthenia is theirs and they need to capture it. It didn't take long; in 1654, Muscovy troops under the leadership of Alexei Mikhailovich attacked the Belarusian lands of the GDL in order to "defend the Orthodox population," and he resumed his title of Tsar and Grand Duke of Great, Little, and White Russia. In the 18th century, the name Belarus became an authoritative term. The Belarusian nobility originating from Polotsk or Mogilev called themselves Belarusian, Jewish qahals in the east were called Belarusian synagogues, the National Education Commission had 2 districts, Lithuanian and Belarusian, and the word Belarus was often caricatured in the administrative division of representatives of Catholic institutions. As part of the Russian Empire, the Belarusian lands began to be referred to as the Northwestern Krai. In the 19th century, the name Belarus finally spread to all the lands of modern Belarus. This was facilitated by the growth of nationalism in Europe (due to the idea that every nation should have a language, land, religion, and of course, a name). Because before that, despite the fact that they spoke the same language, they often called themselves Litvins (not Lithuanians, but residents of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania), Poles (mostly Catholics), Rusyns (residents of the Rus), but most often simply Tuteishya. Why was the name Belarus chosen when Belarus was created, and not, for example, Lithuania? First of all, this name was more often used in reference to the szlachta, but the Belarusian szlachta did not care about the restoration of the Litvin state and identity, they helped Poland to advocate statehood and increasingly called themselves Poles. And the Baltic peoples, who were experiencing a rise in nationalism at the time, appropriated the name Lithuanians, and this word was already taken. As a result, the term Litva ceased to be used and was completely replaced by Belarus, first as the name of the language spoken by the Tuteishya, and then as the name of the people. There were attempts to spread the name of the language as Kryvitskaya, the people as Kryvichs, and the name of the state as Kryvia, but this name did not catch on. Only Belarus caught on. It's a good word that unites Belarus with the history of the ancient Rus, while separating us from it with the word White :)

"The origin of the word slavic is unknown" there is literally a word SŁOWO meaning WORD in polish. And all polish know that the SŁOWIANIE (slavs) means "those who speak(are understood)" in the opposite to NIEMCY (germans) which means "the unspeaking ones".

21:43 As a Slovene, my disappointment is immeasurable and my day is ruined

General Knowledge: puts "Slovakia" instead of "Slovenia" on screen when talking about Slovenia Me: Not you too 😩😩💀

I can add that the region of Scandinavia got it's name from Sweden's southernmost province Scania (thought to be an island by the romans), because this was the place settlers first arrived to the region. The name is possibly derived from the Germanic root Skaðin-awjã, which appears in Old Norse as Skáney. The Germanic stem can be reconstructed as Skaðan- meaning "danger" or "damage" (English scathing, German Schaden, Swedish skada). The second segment of the name has been reconstructed as awjō, meaning "land on the water" or "island". The name Scandinavia would then mean "dangerous island", which is considered to refer to the treacherous sandbanks surrounding Scania.

I appreciate your hard work and a clear, warm presentation. I love geography, history and language so this hit all my sweet spots.

Youtube seriously can't handle "Montenegro"?? FFS, a beginner level programmer could code an exception for that in the algorithm. It's a whole damn country.

In Greek we call Portugal “Porto-Gallia” and France is “Gallia”, so it literally translates to Port of the Gauls, aligning with the third theory more

Bulgaria has many other meanings that you definitely miss bro. BULG/VOLG according to some derrives from the river VOLGA or VULGUS/VULGAR or FOLK in Latin means People. (In Bulgarian meaning VULK (Wolf), White or Bright) & Aria (Arian simply reffering to Arian race, Tall or also Aristocratic). Another meaning is Five Arrows but nobody knows its origin couse it's very ancient. In other words nothing to do with the turkic meaning Mixed let alone with Revolt or Disorder. :D