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This article provides a collection of the etymology of the names of country subdivisions . 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.
Roman numerals originally identified the regions in order from north to south (except Santiago). With the establishment of Arica-Parinacota and Los Ríos Region in 2007 the numbers no longer reflect the regions' positions.
Note: Estonian maakond means "county" and maa means "land". Counties given here without the suffix -maa take their names (and etymologies as given here) from their capitals.
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 (of any period) often bear names with richer but more obscure histories.
See List of Indian state and union territory name etymologies.
Sweden formerly consisted of historical provinces (Swedish: landskap), 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 (Swedish: län), introduced in 1634.
Historical provinces:
Main article : Toponyms of Turkey
Most of Ukraine's oblasts take their names from their principal city; but Volyn Oblast, Zakarpattia Oblast, and the Crimean Autonomous Republic offer exceptions to this rule. See also subdivisions of Ukraine.
1791 The bay was named 'Jervis Bay' by Lieutenant Bowen of the Atlantic in honour of Admiral Sir John Jervis under whom he had served.
The first confirmed sighting of Heard Island was made on 25 November 1853 by Captain John Heard on the merchant vessel Oriental. Earlier sightings of land in the area in the 1830s are considered doubtful.
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: CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link)probably a compound of roots represented by Flemish vlakte 'plain' + wanderen 'to wander.'
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: CS1 maint: bot: original URL status unknown (link)[L. form of El-sasz, i.e. foreign settlement, Fr. Alsace.]
Contrary to popular belief, the Orange River was not named after the reddish orange colour of its silt-laden water. It was in fact named in 1779 by Colonel Robert Gordon, the commander of the garrison of the Dutch East India Company (Cape Town) during a reconnaissance into the interior, in honour of the Dutch House of Orange (DWAF, 2005).
Krajina is a Slavic toponym, meaning 'frontier' or 'march'. The term is related to kraj or krai, originally meaning 'edge' and today denoting a region or province, usually remote from urban centers.
A sampan is a relatively flat-bottomed Chinese and Malay wooden boat. Some sampans include a small shelter on board and may be used as a permanent habitation on inland waters. The design closely resembles Western hard chine boats like the scow or punt. Sampans are generally used for transportation in coastal areas or rivers and are often used as traditional fishing boats. It is unusual for a sampan to sail far from land, as they do not have the means to survive rough weather.
Lenapehoking is widely translated as 'homelands of the Lenape', which in the 16th and 17th centuries, ranged along the Eastern seaboard from western Connecticut to Delaware, and encompassed the territory adjacent to the Delaware and lower Hudson river valleys, and the territory between them.
An okrug is a type of administrative division in some Slavic states. The word okrug is a loanword in English, alternatively translated as area, district, or region.
Placenames in the German language area can be classified by the language from which they originate, and by era.
Transylvania has had different names applied to it in several traditions.
The word Japan is an exonym, and is used by many languages. The Japanese names for Japan are Nihon and Nippon. They are both written in Japanese using the kanji 日本.
The name France comes from Latin Francia.
Because of Germany's long history before 1871 as a non-united region of distinct tribes and states, there are many widely varying names of Germany in different languages, more so than for any other European nation. For example, in the German language, the country is known as Deutschland from the Old High German diutisc, in Persian as ‘’Alman’’ (آلمان), in Arabic as Almania (ألمانيا), in Spanish as Alemania and in French as Allemagne from the name of the Alamanni tribe, in Italian as Germania from the Latin Germania, in Polish as Niemcy from the Proto-Slavic nemets, and in Finnish and Estonian as Saksa and Saksamaa respectively from the name of the Saxon tribe.
The ethnonyms for the Poles (people) and Poland include endonyms and exonyms. Endonyms and most exonyms for Poles and Poland derive from the name of the West Slavic tribe of Polans (Polanie), while in some languages the exonyms for Poland to derive from the name of another tribe – the Lendians (Lędzianie).