List of country name etymologies

This list covers English language country names with their etymologies. Some of these include notes on indigenous names and their etymologies. Countries in italics are endonyms or no longer exist as sovereign political entities.

It is said that the word 'Afghanistan' is derived from two Sanskrit words, first is avagāṇa (Sanskrit: अवगाण) which was used by the Indian astronomer Varahamihira in his Bṛhat Saṃhitā in the 6th century and the second is sthāna (Sanskrit: स्थान) which means 'place'. So literally, 'Afghanistan' means 'place of Avaganas/Afghans'.

From the Kikuyu word Kirinyaga a contraction of Kirima nyaga "Ostrich mountain," so called because the dark shadows and snow-capped peak resemble the plumage of a male Ostrich. The neighbouring Kamba tribe do not have the "R" and "G" sound in their language and called it "Keinya" when acting as guides to a German explorer. It is often erroneously believed it comes from Kirima Ngai "Mountain of God"

The name literally means "Land of the Pure" in Urdu and Persian. It was coined in 1933 as Pakstan by Choudhry Rahmat Ali, a Pakistan Movement activist, who published it in his pamphlet Now or Never, using it as an acronym ("thirty million Muslim brethren who live in PAKSTAN") referring to the names of the five northwestern regions of the Indian Empire: Punjab, North-West Frontier Province, Kashmir, Sindh, and Baluchistan". The letter i was incorporated to ease pronunciation and form the linguistically correct and meaningful name.

...
Wikipedia