Not something I thought of a lot when I was back in US since USA is… a pretty bureaucratic name by all means. But I just realized that some countries have really fascinating names in their local language

Like how China names itself Central/Middle country in a very grandiose way (as in, we are the center of the world), or Japan being “land of the rising sun”

  • ImplyingImplications@lemmy.ca
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    2 days ago

    Canada: from the St. Lawrence Iroquoian word kanata, meaning “village”. The word was told to French explorer Jacques Cartier, who believed it referred to a much larger area than it actually did.