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Country Name Etymologies #1

We describe the origin of the country name. You guess the country.
Answer must correspond to yellow box
Quiz by Quizmaster
Rate:
Featured Quiz
Last updated: June 15, 2019
More quiz info >>
First submittedJune 17, 2013
Times taken41,393
Rating4.91
Quiz and answer stats >>
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Hint
Country
"Land of the Franks"
France
"White Russia"
Belarus
"The Savior" in Spanish
El Salvador
Named after Christopher Columbus
Colombia
Describes its position at the south
of a continent
South Africa
Named after Simón Bolívar
Bolivia
"Land of the Aryans"
Iran
"Rich Coast" in Spanish
Costa Rica
Based on Marco Polo's rendering
of "Sun Origin"
Japan
"Black Mountain" in Italian
Montenegro
"Low lands"
Netherlands
Hint
Country
Taken from the Latin for "Southern"
Australia
From the Latin word for "Free"
Liberia
Incorrectly called "Land of the Moors"
Mauritania
From the Greek for "small islands"
Fed. States of
Micronesia
Named after a province in the Netherlands
New Zealand
"Land of the Indus River"
India
Named after the Biblical figure Jacob
Israel
Named after King Philip II of Spain
Philippines
Means "Lion City"
Singapore
Combines Tanganyika and Zanzibar
Tanzania
Italian for "Little Venice"
Venezuela
dwo
+1
level 85
Jun 18, 2013
I kept trying to put in Central African Republic instead of South Africa. Perhaps it needs to accept both.
Quizmaster
+2
level ∞
Jun 18, 2013
Changed the clue to rule out CAR. Thanks.
dwo
+1
level 85
Jul 24, 2013
five stars
Nick16
+1
level 48
Sep 29, 2017
it says south of the continent
Aesthus
+7
level 51
Sep 29, 2017
Didn't when dwo wrote his comment. That's why QM changed it.
Sifhraven
+2
level 65
Sep 25, 2019
It says "changed the clue"
quizzicalguy
+1
level 57
Jul 24, 2013
Fun quiz.
kalbahamut
+1
level 78
Jul 24, 2013
neat idea for a quiz but I think there are a lot of countries with more interesting etymologies you could have included. Maybe in the next one...
kalbahamut
+1
level 78
Nov 18, 2015
I must have forgotten I had taken this quiz when I did another one on the same subject. here
Doubled up on many of the same answers but included a few others missing from this one.
bocoker
+1
level 70
Sep 25, 2019
Likewise here: https://www.jetpunk.com/user-quizzes/108179/country-name-etymology-2
bluesdjben
+1
level 70
Jul 24, 2013
Cool quiz idea. Could have used another minute to think of the last few.
nettybet
+1
level 69
Jul 24, 2013
Good quiz
lolrobbielol
+2
level 55
Jul 24, 2013
Definitely needs more time, but great quiz. For "The Land Of The Aryans" I was trying just about every Nordic/northern European country, going on the lines of the Nazi 'Aryan Race' ideology... was a liiittle far off
Algernon
+1
level 68
Sep 4, 2016
You and me both!
Skymatone
+1
level 55
Jul 24, 2013
Excellent quiz! Needs more time, Very interesting though.
AntwerpSmerle
+1
level 21
Jul 24, 2013
Venezuela doesn't sound Italian to me! Maybe Spanish, or Portuguese?
Quizmaster
+1
level ∞
Sep 3, 2015
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Venezuela#Etymology
alphonds
+4
level 65
Sep 29, 2017
Wouldn't it be more accurate, or at least fair, to say "From Italian for Little Venice"? Wikipedia: ... reminded the navigator, Amerigo Vespucci, of the city of Venice, so he named the region Veneziola "Piccola Venezia".[22] The name acquired its current spelling as a result of Spanish influence,[22] where the suffix -uela is used as a diminutive term (e.g., plaza / plazuela, cazo / cazuela); thus, the term's original sense would have been that of a "little Venice".[23]
Ssssss
+1
level 57
Sep 26, 2019
See alphonds comment, it should say From the Italian for Little Venice. The Italian for 'little Venice' is not Venezuela.
thegrasswren
+1
level 28
Jan 23, 2014
Great quiz. Please make another three!!!! :)
joeythelemur
+1
level 81
Jun 3, 2014
wow, did shockingly bad. Will have to come back and try again sometime!
ander217
+1
level 77
Jul 24, 2015
Great quiz. I missed six, and when I saw the answers for five of those it seemed so obvious I wanted to smack myself. I would have never gotten Singapore, though.
rocamorar
+1
level 69
Nov 18, 2015
Doesn't the clue for Australia work for Austria too?
plattitude
+2
level 85
Nov 18, 2015
Nope. Similar as they are in English, Austria comes from the German Österreich, which means Eastern reach or realm.
haggy999
+2
level 53
Nov 18, 2015
Zealand is a province of Denmark, not the Netherlands.
erikjanssen
+3
level 48
Nov 18, 2015
We also have a Zeeland, which made New Zealand new :)
Arp2600
+1
level 78
Nov 22, 2015
It's named like that because it was discovered by the dutch explorer Tasman, in 1642.
kiwiquizzer
+1
level 63
Mar 9, 2017
Abel Tasman, my children are directly descended from him.
Sifhraven
+1
level 65
Jan 14, 2019
no it is a province of the netherlands AND it is where newzealand gets its name from. And isnt the zealand in denmark a region, not a province
Quizzer6794
+1
level 61
Nov 18, 2015
Singapore is also misnomered "Lion City" (skip to 1:18)
MikeinOregon
+1
level 44
Nov 19, 2015
I wrote Micronesia but it wasn't accepted.
Yossarian
+1
level 66
Nov 19, 2015
Spelling options for Mauritania? (not even sure I got that right...)
MickeyMcNutt
+2
level 24
Nov 25, 2015
How is Israel named after the Biblical figure Jacob?
brandybuck96
+1
level 76
Dec 6, 2015
He was later called Israel.
joez
+1
level 69
Oct 15, 2016
If you like this one, try these by joez. http://www.jetpunk.com/user-quizzes/170770/capital-city-etymologies and http://www.jetpunk.com/user-quizzes/170770/capital-cities-name-etymologies-2
skalidor
+1
level 53
Feb 7, 2017
Missed out on Belarus because I thought it was spelled Belorus. Maybe add it as an alternative spelling?
kiwiquizzer
+1
level 63
Mar 9, 2017
Enjoyable quiz, thanks. Needed a bit more time to think.
idontlikeit2
+1
level 66
May 23, 2017
Surprised so many people got Montenegro...
TBomb
+1
level 22
May 23, 2017
mate i found that so easy i did it with 4 minutes left
morequizzes4u
+1
level 39
May 23, 2017
Australia comes from southern ''land'' (terra australis), not just southern
FuroraCeltica
+1
level 39
Jun 29, 2017
New Zealand clue could also be "After a Danish island" as Zealand is the largest island in Denmark (Copenhagen is on it).
stevediverse
+3
level 86
Aug 20, 2017
No it couldn't. New Zealand is named after Zealand Province, Netherlands. It is not named after the Danish Island.
divantilya
+1
level 37
Aug 21, 2017
"Zeeland" Province in the Netherlands (literally Sea Land)
trakheena
+1
level 31
Aug 6, 2017
"Venezuela" is spanish for "Little Venice". Italian is "piccola Venezia". "Montenegro" is spanish too.
GoGo13
+1
level 62
Nov 2, 2017
Montenegro is from Venetian language, which can be considered a variant of Italian.
someone2018
+3
level 76
Jul 17, 2018
Peasy. There's always someone to brag how easy it was for himself as everyone else struggled. I am he. Let the pretenders utter their false time stamps and ages in reply, but I found this the peasiest of the easy.
Sifhraven
+1
level 65
Jan 14, 2019
Most were easy. But anyone else first tried morocco for the moor question and sudan (sud) for the south ?

I dont think no matter how much more time I would ve gotten i would have gotten israel or singapore.

Sifhraven
+1
level 65
Jul 7, 2019
Missed the same two again... I am amazed though at how extremely low the scores were for everything below 40% ( besides the two I mentioned) T o me they all seem quite self explanatory.
takmike
+2
level 56
Sep 7, 2019
Iranians(=Persians) consider themselves europeans, and rightly so, since they came from eastern europe via russia to iran. Thus they have high pride, but 2 shameful historical events, invasion by non-europeans, the arabs and the mongols. Especially the Arab one was huge, as they had to adopt their language to a huge extent, and more importantly their religion. When I worked in Tehran, my colleagues, and mansion owner, doctor used to say these things. Most common people like america as well.
ArturTamilin
+1
level 47
Sep 25, 2019
Belarus is White Rus, not white Russia
loganite
+2
level 80
Sep 25, 2019
Yes, Mauritania is incorrectly referred to as the Land of the Moors. It should be correctly referred to as the Land of the Moops! ;)
TheCrusher
+2
level 73
Sep 25, 2019
Good quiz! Although I believe it's "Land of the Moops".
Eigengrau
+1
level 55
Sep 25, 2019
Montenegro is the strongest country in the world as it can say the n word.
IPS
+1
level 56
Sep 25, 2019
"Venezuela" and "Montenegro" are not proper Italian, I think the hints should be slightly modified.
Mausu
+1
level 22
Sep 26, 2019
I thought that new zealand was named after the island of zealand in denmark. you learn something new every day
Arii78
+1
level 43
Jan 19, 2020
A slightly harder version of this quizz woud be nice. Without the names, for example. This is fun though.
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