African countries named "Guinea"?

Why are there like three African countries with “Guinea” in their name? Is there some significance to this word? And, if so…what? :confused:

My slightly altered reply from an older thread on this topic:
Because they are all named for the Gulf of Guinea in the old sense - loosely covering the coastal region of West Africa below the western tip of the continent to the Bight of Benin. As various powers gobbled up various areas they became local “Guineas”. The country of Guinea was French Guinea, the country of Guinea-Bissau was Portuguese Guinea, Equatorial Guinea was Spanish Guinea. New Guinea comes from the melanesian inhabitants superficially resembling black Africans. The Guinea coin comes from the fact that most of the gold originally used to make them came from the general region of Guinea, etc.

ETA: Well, obviously only the African ones are on the Gulf of Guinea . What I meant is they all derive from the name for that general region, which on some wiki poking apparently derives from a Berber word for “black”, as filtered through Portuguese.

So why is “guinea” an ethnic slur upon Italians?

Name the movie: “That’s it, break it all you spoiled guinea brat – break it all!”

Apparently it derives from the slightly darker complexioned southern Italians ( the predominant Italian immigrants to America ) relative to native WASPs. It’s like “sand nigger” for Arabs - a denigration based on skin color by likening them to black Africans, considered the lowest of the low.

To answer Tom’s second question, it’s The Godfather.

Thanks. And well done.

And in case anyone’s wondering about the guinea pig, here’s an extract from a book I’m writing on misleading geographical terms: