# Is it just a coincidence that 5 of the continent names begin and end with 'A'? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [May 4, 2015, 6:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-it-just-a-coincidence-that-5-of-the-continent-names-begin-and-end-with-a/719258 "2015-05-04T18:08:58Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 18\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Jackknifed\_Juggernaut](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/9de053/32.png) [@Jackknifed\_Juggernaut](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jackknifed_Juggernaut)\ **Post date:** [May 4, 2015, 6:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-it-just-a-coincidence-that-5-of-the-continent-names-begin-and-end-with-a/719258/1 "2015-05-04T18:08:58Z")
And the other begins and ends with ‘E’? Or is there some other reason? ETA: Only 6 total, because of the 2 Americas. ---
**Author:** ![Gary\_T](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/3ec8ea/32.png) [@Gary\_T](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gary_T)\ **Post date:** [May 4, 2015, 7:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-it-just-a-coincidence-that-5-of-the-continent-names-begin-and-end-with-a/719258/2 "2015-05-04T19:37:33Z")
**"Is it just a coincidence that 5 of the continent names begin and end with ‘A’?"** Yes. ---
**Author:** ![Shagnasty](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/9dc877/32.png) [@Shagnasty](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shagnasty)\ **Post date:** [May 4, 2015, 7:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-it-just-a-coincidence-that-5-of-the-continent-names-begin-and-end-with-a/719258/3 "2015-05-04T19:45:48Z")
Europe Oceania Africa North America South America Asia Antarctica I’m not seeing it. ---
**Author:** ![Jackknifed\_Juggernaut](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/9de053/32.png) [@Jackknifed\_Juggernaut](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jackknifed_Juggernaut)\ **Post date:** [May 4, 2015, 7:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-it-just-a-coincidence-that-5-of-the-continent-names-begin-and-end-with-a/719258/4 "2015-05-04T19:47:08Z")
> [@Shagnasty](#): > > Europe > Oceania > Africa > North America > South America > Asia > Antarctica > > I’m not seeing it. Take out Oceania and add Australia. ---
**Author:** ![fachverwirrt](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/94ad74/32.png) [@fachverwirrt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/fachverwirrt)\ **Post date:** [May 4, 2015, 7:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-it-just-a-coincidence-that-5-of-the-continent-names-begin-and-end-with-a/719258/5 "2015-05-04T19:47:47Z")
Continent names in French: L’Amerique du Nord, L’Amerique du Sud, L’Afrique, L’Europe, L’Asie, L’Australie, L’Antarctique. In German: Nordamerika, Süsamerika, Europa, Afrika, Asien, Autralien, Antarktis. I’m not going to claim that your observation is unique to English, but it’s certainly not universal. ---
**Author:** ![Exapno\_Mapcase](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/exapno_mapcase/32/1051_2.png) [@Exapno\_Mapcase](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Exapno_Mapcase)\ **Post date:** [May 4, 2015, 7:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-it-just-a-coincidence-that-5-of-the-continent-names-begin-and-end-with-a/719258/6 "2015-05-04T19:47:49Z")
I thought that the “a” ending was due to the [Latin](http://www.etymonline.com/index.php?term=-ia): > [@](#): > > -ia > word-forming element in names of countries, diseases, flowers, from Latin and Greek -ia, which forms abstract nouns of feminine gender. This would include such terms as Oceania. What’s funnier is that Europe is derived from the Goddess Europa, which if kept would have made all the continents end in “a”. ---
**Author:** ![Rysto](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/ecccb3/32.png) [@Rysto](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rysto)\ **Post date:** [May 4, 2015, 7:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-it-just-a-coincidence-that-5-of-the-continent-names-begin-and-end-with-a/719258/7 "2015-05-04T19:52:22Z")
It’s not just continents. A lot of country and province/state names end in A. [This thread](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=412701) discusses it, but there’s a not of hard information. One poster does cite a book that says it goes back to Syria. ---
**Author:** ![Colibri](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/colibri/32/1841_2.png) [@Colibri](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Colibri)\ **Post date:** [May 4, 2015, 8:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-it-just-a-coincidence-that-5-of-the-continent-names-begin-and-end-with-a/719258/8 "2015-05-04T20:01:34Z")
> [@Exapno\_Mapcase](#): > > What’s funnier is that Europe is derived from the Goddess Europa, which if kept would have made all the continents end in “a”. It’s kept in Spanish. The other names in Spanish are the same as in English (taking “America” as a single name) except for Antartida/Antarctica. ---
**Author:** ![dracoi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/90db22/32.png) [@dracoi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dracoi)\ **Post date:** [May 4, 2015, 8:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-it-just-a-coincidence-that-5-of-the-continent-names-begin-and-end-with-a/719258/9 "2015-05-04T20:13:44Z")
It’s because they all wanted the top spot in the phone book. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![Doyle](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/doyle/32/439_2.png) [@Doyle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Doyle)\ **Post date:** [May 4, 2015, 8:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-it-just-a-coincidence-that-5-of-the-continent-names-begin-and-end-with-a/719258/10 "2015-05-04T20:16:51Z")
Europe isn’t a continent. It is Eurasia. Sorry, but I’m pedantic. ---
**Author:** ![Colibri](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/colibri/32/1841_2.png) [@Colibri](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Colibri)\ **Post date:** [May 4, 2015, 8:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-it-just-a-coincidence-that-5-of-the-continent-names-begin-and-end-with-a/719258/11 "2015-05-04T20:31:04Z")
> [@Doyle](#): > > Europe isn’t a continent. It is Eurasia. Sorry, but I’m pedantic. To be pedantic, since there is no universally agreed-upon definition for continent, you can be opinionated about it, but you can’t really be pedantic.😉 ---
**Author:** ![Senegoid](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/senegoid/32/6606_2.png) [@Senegoid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Senegoid)\ **Post date:** [May 4, 2015, 9:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-it-just-a-coincidence-that-5-of-the-continent-names-begin-and-end-with-a/719258/12 "2015-05-04T21:19:54Z")
> [@fachverwirrt](#): > > Continent names in French: L’Amerique du Nord, L’Amerique du Sud, L’Afrique, L’Europe, L’Asie, L’Australie, L’Antarctique. In German: Nordamerika, Süsamerika, Europa, Afrika, Asien, Autralien, Antarktis. So in French, ALL L’Continents begin with L’ ? L’Coincidence? ---
**Author:** ![Doyle](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/doyle/32/439_2.png) [@Doyle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Doyle)\ **Post date:** [May 4, 2015, 9:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-it-just-a-coincidence-that-5-of-the-continent-names-begin-and-end-with-a/719258/13 "2015-05-04T21:26:54Z")
> [@Colibri](#): > > To be pedantic, since there is no universally agreed-upon definition for continent, you can be opinionated about it, but you can’t really be pedantic.😉 I guess you believe initialisms and acroyms to be synonomous? 😉 ---
**Author:** ![Haberdash](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/f9ae1b/32.png) [@Haberdash](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Haberdash)\ **Post date:** [May 4, 2015, 9:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-it-just-a-coincidence-that-5-of-the-continent-names-begin-and-end-with-a/719258/14 "2015-05-04T21:28:22Z")
“Because that’s how place names end in Latin” which, if you think about it, is not any more fundamental an explanation than “because that’s how continent names end in English,” but that’s language for you. ---
**Author:** ![Dr.Drake](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/ad7895/32.png) [@Dr.Drake](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dr.Drake)\ **Post date:** [May 4, 2015, 10:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-it-just-a-coincidence-that-5-of-the-continent-names-begin-and-end-with-a/719258/15 "2015-05-04T22:11:16Z")
That they begin with A? Coincidence. That they end with A? Latin. ---
**Author:** ![psychonaut](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/psychonaut/32/4655_2.png) [@psychonaut](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/psychonaut)\ **Post date:** [May 5, 2015, 7:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-it-just-a-coincidence-that-5-of-the-continent-names-begin-and-end-with-a/719258/16 "2015-05-05T07:15:05Z")
> [@fachverwirrt](#): > > In German: Nordamerika, Süsamerika, Europa, Afrika, Asien, Autralien, Antarktis. You speak a very strange dialect of German indeed. ---
**Author:** ![Giles](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/giles/32/60_2.png) [@Giles](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Giles)\ **Post date:** [May 5, 2015, 8:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-it-just-a-coincidence-that-5-of-the-continent-names-begin-and-end-with-a/719258/17 "2015-05-05T08:05:27Z")
> [@psychonaut](#): > > You speak a very strange dialect of German indeed. Well, there are two typos there: it should be “Südamerika” and “Australien”. If you think there’s a third, “Antarktis” and “Antarktika” are synonyms. ---
**Author:** ![fachverwirrt](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/94ad74/32.png) [@fachverwirrt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/fachverwirrt)\ **Post date:** [May 5, 2015, 11:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-it-just-a-coincidence-that-5-of-the-continent-names-begin-and-end-with-a/719258/18 "2015-05-05T11:18:34Z")
It’s my keyboard’s fault.