# Which Nations are Named for Specific People?
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-nations-are-named-for-specific-people/377576
**Category:** Factual Questions
**Created:** [October 23, 2006, 3:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-nations-are-named-for-specific-people/377576 "2006-10-23T15:17:21Z")
**Posts on this page:** 20
**Page:** 2
### Author:  [@Schnitte](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Schnitte)
#### Post date: [October 23, 2006, 7:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-nations-are-named-for-specific-people/377576/21 "2006-10-23T19:42:06Z")
I always wondered if there was any relationship (nomenclature-wise) between Kenya and a leading figure in this country’s post-independence politics, Jomo Kenyatta. I never looked it up (although this would admittedly not be a big thing), but I suppose no. Maybe it’s the other way round - the country honored him by allowing him to use the country’s name as an honorific name, very much like Mustafa Kemal Atatürk and Turkey.
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### Author:  [@Throatwarbler\_Mangrove](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Throatwarbler_Mangrove)
#### Post date: [October 23, 2006, 7:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-nations-are-named-for-specific-people/377576/22 "2006-10-23T19:42:22Z")
> [@](#):
>
> Except that China never called itself China.
\
…but before modern times the Chinese did refer to themselves by the name of the Dynasty. “Zhong Guo” is a fairly modern innovation.
It is possible that “China” (coined by the Romans I believe) came from Qin, but “Qin” is not a person, it was the name of the dynasty, which in turn was the name of one of the warring states that eventually conqurered the others during that period. That name is geographical, and MAY have originated with a person from the very distant past, but the name of the first Qin emperor was Ying Zheng, “Shi Huang Di” simply means “the first emperor” and was his title. The Chinese system of names and titles is rather complex, more so when dealing with Royalty and even more so when dealing with names from 2000 years ago when the language was quite different than it is today.
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### Author:  [@John\_Mace](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/John_Mace)
#### Post date: [October 23, 2006, 7:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-nations-are-named-for-specific-people/377576/23 "2006-10-23T19:50:18Z")
[QUOTE=kawaiitentaclebeast]
\
…but before modern times the Chinese did refer to themselves by the name of the Dynasty. “Zhong Guo” is a fairly modern innovation.
[/QUOTE]
The way politics in the US is going, perhaps we should rename ourselves Bush-Clinton-Bush-Clinton-…
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### Author:  [@Colibri](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Colibri)
#### Post date: [October 23, 2006, 8:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-nations-are-named-for-specific-people/377576/24 "2006-10-23T20:31:09Z")
[QUOTE=Schnitte]
I always wondered if there was any relationship (nomenclature-wise) between Kenya and a leading figure in this country’s post-independence politics, Jomo Kenyatta. I never looked it up (although this would admittedly not be a big thing), but I suppose no. Maybe it’s the other way round - the country honored him by allowing him to use the country’s name as an honorific name, very much like Mustafa Kemal Atatürk and Turkey.
[/QUOTE]
Jomo Kenyatta named himself after Kenya, not the other way around. His birth name was Kamau wa Ngengi, and he was known as Johnstone Kamau until publishing _Facing Mt. Kenya_ in 1938 undet the name Jomo Kenyatta. “Kenyatta” means “Light of Kenya” in Swahili.
Kenya itself is named after Mt. Kenya, a corruption of the Kikuyu name _Kirinyaga_ or _Kerenyaga_, meaning ‘mountain of whiteness.’
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### Author:  [@Dog80](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dog80)
#### Post date: [October 23, 2006, 8:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-nations-are-named-for-specific-people/377576/25 "2006-10-23T20:36:50Z")
[QUOTE=John Mace]
No, not Helen of Troy (_Ἑλένη_), but there is no firmly accepted etymology for the word “Hellas” (_Ελλάδα_). There have been people who referred to themselves by that name for millenia, but we don’t really know where the word originated from.
[/QUOTE]
The Greeks (ΕΛΛΗΝΕΣ) are the descendants of the ΕΛ who came from Sirius 10,000 years ago. The ΕΛ are few in numbers today but they have formed the apocryphal Epsilon Team and they have Tesla-technology weapons. In 2011 the Epsilon Team will emerge and once again the ΕΛ will rule the world.
Buy the books here: [http://www.liako.gr/index.jsp](http://www.liako.gr/index.jsp)😃
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### Author:  [@Gala\_Matrix\_Fire](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gala_Matrix_Fire)
#### Post date: [October 23, 2006, 9:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-nations-are-named-for-specific-people/377576/26 "2006-10-23T21:11:00Z")
A tiny nitpick: the country is spelled Col **o** mbia with an ‘o.’
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### Author:  [@Polycarp](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Polycarp)
#### Post date: [October 23, 2006, 9:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-nations-are-named-for-specific-people/377576/27 "2006-10-23T21:20:09Z")
[QUOTE=Colibri]
Jomo Kenyatta named himself after Kenya, not the other way around. His birth name was Kamau wa Ngengi, and he was known as Johnstone Kamau until publishing _Facing Mt. Kenya_ in 1938 undet the name Jomo Kenyatta. “Kenyatta” means “Light of Kenya” in Swahili.
[/QUOTE]
Kamau (wa Ngengi, sometimes cited without the particle, is a patronymic) ran away to a mission at age 12, seeking an education and a broader life than the Kikuyu way of life of that day. He chose “Johnstone Kamau” as a baptismal name, and like many renamings-at-baptism, that was considered his legal name until he formally changed it to Kenyatta after the success of the book (for which he adopted J.K. as a pen name). I believe he intentionally did so in seeking a Washington/Bolivar/de Gaulle sort of role as the person instrumental in shaping the new country – though that’s a matter of psychological hypothesis, not something provable in a GQ sort of way.
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### Author:  [@John\_Mace](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/John_Mace)
#### Post date: [October 23, 2006, 9:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-nations-are-named-for-specific-people/377576/28 "2006-10-23T21:23:32Z")
[QUOTE=Colibri]
Jomo Kenyatta named himself after Kenya, not the other way around.
[/quote]
I always suspected that was the way it went. Interesting to learn that it did.
> [@](#):
>
> Kenya itself is named after Mt. Kenya, a corruption of the Kikuyu name _Kirinyaga_ or _Kerenyaga_, meaning ‘mountain of whiteness.’
Isn’t the “mountain of whiteness” in Colombia? 😉
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### Author:  [@Colibri](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Colibri)
#### Post date: [October 23, 2006, 9:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-nations-are-named-for-specific-people/377576/29 "2006-10-23T21:23:45Z")
[QUOTE=CalMeacham]
If you go by states, we have quite a few:
**Virginia** – named after Elizabeth I, the “Virgin Queen”
**Delaware** – named after Lord De La Warr, and after the Lenape Indians that the British renamed “Delawares”
**Maryland** – after Queen Mary
**Georgia** – after King George (And Russian Georgia, also named after a George)
**Pennsylvania** – after William Penn
**Louisiana** – After King Louis
**Washington** , after George
[/QUOTE]
Also the two Carolinas, named after King Charles I.
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### Author:  [@Colibri](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Colibri)
#### Post date: [October 23, 2006, 9:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-nations-are-named-for-specific-people/377576/30 "2006-10-23T21:33:59Z")
[QUOTE=John Mace]
Isn’t the “mountain of whiteness” in Colombia? 😉
[/QUOTE]
Well, it does refer to “snow,” but in a different sense.
The form “Colombia” is itself interesting, since Columbus is called Cristóbal Colón in Spanish. Obviously “Colonia,” meaning colony, would not be a suitable name for an independent country. The name is thus derived from the original Italian form, Colombo.
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### Author:  [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)
#### Post date: [October 23, 2006, 9:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-nations-are-named-for-specific-people/377576/31 "2006-10-23T21:37:02Z")
> [@](#):
>
> El Salavador, named after “The Savior,” Jesus Christ.
And while we’re at it, there’s also San Salvador, “Holy Savior”. Also Jesus, of course.
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### Author:  [@brianmelendez](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/brianmelendez)
#### Post date: [October 23, 2006, 9:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-nations-are-named-for-specific-people/377576/32 "2006-10-23T21:38:32Z")
Acording to Thomas Bulfinch, Great Britain may be named after someone named Britto, or someone named Brutus. Bulfinch also suggests that France, Rome, and Germany were named after Britto’s brothers:
> [@](#):
>
> According to the earliest accounts, Albion, a giant, and son of Neptune, a contemporary of Hercules, ruled over the island, to which he gave his name…
>
> Another story is that Histion, the son of Japhet, the son of Noah, had four sons, Francus, Romanus, Alemannus, and Britto, from whom descended the French, Roman, German, and British people.
>
> Rejecting these and other like stories, Milton gives more regard to the story of Brutus, the Trojan, which, he says, is supported by “descents of ancestry long continued, laws and exploits not plainly seeming to be borrowed or devised, which on the common belief have wrought no small impression; defended by many; denied utterly by few.” The principal authority is Geoffrey of Monmouth, whose history, written in the twelfth century, purports to be a translation of a history of Britain brought over from the opposite shore of France, which, under the name of Brittany, was chiefly peopled by natives of Britain who, from time to time, emigrated thither, driven from their own country by the inroads of the Picts and Scots. According to this authority, Brutus was the son of Silvius, and he of Ascanius, the son of Aeneas…
Thomas Bulfinch, _Bulfinch’s Mythology_, pp. 378-79 (New York: Avenel Books, 1979).
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### Author:  [@Spectre\_of\_Pithecanthropus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spectre_of_Pithecanthropus)
#### Post date: [October 23, 2006, 9:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-nations-are-named-for-specific-people/377576/33 "2006-10-23T21:42:49Z")
As long as Vancouver was mentioned, what about Alberta…for Prince Albert?
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### Author:  [@Colibri](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Colibri)
#### Post date: [October 23, 2006, 10:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-nations-are-named-for-specific-people/377576/34 "2006-10-23T22:13:13Z")
[QUOTE=Spectre of Pithecanthropus]
As long as Vancouver was mentioned, what about Alberta…for Prince Albert?
[/QUOTE]
As well as Prince Edward Island, named after Queen Victoria’s father.
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### Author:  [@Polycarp](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Polycarp)
#### Post date: [October 23, 2006, 10:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-nations-are-named-for-specific-people/377576/35 "2006-10-23T22:28:56Z")
Doing states and provinces:
**Prince Edward Island** – named after Queen Victoria’s father, Prince Edward Augustus, Duke of Kent
**New Brunswick** is **not** eligible. It was, according to two apparently reputable websites, named after (1) the city of Braunschweig, capital of the Kingdom of Hanover, or (2) the House of Braunschweig-Lunenburg, AKA the House of Hanover – in either case paying tribute to the British royal house between 1714 and 1837, under its Anglicized form Brunswick.
**New York** – named after King James II of England, its first Protector after its being conquered from the Dutch and at that time Duke of York.
**Pennsylvania** – after named either William Penn, or named by him after his father
**British Columbia** – after Christopher, this time without the second “o”
It’s worth noting that the two halves into which the Kingdom of Saxony was divided for several decades in early modern times were officially distinguished by the German equivalents to “Ernestine” and “Albertine” (and I don’t have the German forms at ready reference, but seem to remember they used _-liche_ as the appropriate suffix) after the two heirs between whom the kingdom was divided: \* Konigsreich von Sachsen Albrechtenliche\* or something of the sort being the official usage when the distinction needed to be drawn.
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### Author:  [@Smeghead](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Smeghead)
#### Post date: [October 23, 2006, 10:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-nations-are-named-for-specific-people/377576/36 "2006-10-23T22:57:06Z")
Don’t forget the country founded by Larry United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland. It’s called Larryland.
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### Author:  [@Helen\_s\_Eidolon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Helen_s_Eidolon)
#### Post date: [October 23, 2006, 11:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-nations-are-named-for-specific-people/377576/37 "2006-10-23T23:41:12Z")
Bulfinch is… a mythologist. It’s a lovely myth, but has about zero likelyhood of being true. _Romulus_ is also rejected by most people as anything but a fictional person, made up to be the ancestor of the Romans and named accordingly. So ‘Rome’ came before ‘Romulus’.
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### Author:  [@Kimstu](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kimstu)
#### Post date: [October 23, 2006, 11:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-nations-are-named-for-specific-people/377576/38 "2006-10-23T23:56:40Z")
> [@CalMeacham](#):
>
> Persia – according to Herodotus, named after Perseus (the guy who killed the Gorgon). According others, after someonme names Perses. I don’t think the Persians themselves bought any of this.
Especially since the Persians themselves called (and still call) their country not “Persia” but “Iran”. (“Pars” or “Fars” is the name of a province within Iran, though.) The name “Iran” is derived from a cognate of “Aryan”, but that’s the name of a people, not an individual person.
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### Author:  [@Cunctator](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cunctator)
#### Post date: [October 24, 2006, 12:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-nations-are-named-for-specific-people/377576/39 "2006-10-24T00:02:42Z")
[QUOTE=Polycarp]
Doing states and provinces:
[/QUOTE]
From Australia, three states would be included:
**Tasmania** : as already noted by \*\*glee \*\* and **Giles** , named for the Dutchman Abel Tasman
**Victoria** : named for Queen Victoria
**Queensland** : named for Queen Victoria
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### Author:  [@Kiwi\_Fruit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kiwi_Fruit)
#### Post date: [October 24, 2006, 3:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-nations-are-named-for-specific-people/377576/40 "2006-10-24T03:27:58Z")
The Cook Islands, named after James Cook, the English discoverer.
> [@](#):
>
> British navigator [Captain James Cook](http://http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cook_Islands) arrived in 1773 and 1779; Cook named the Cook Islands the Hervey Islands; the name ‘Cook Islands’ was given by the Russians in honour of Cook when they published a Russian naval chart in the early 1880s.
Note that part of the Wikipedia article contains clear errors. Cook could not have visited in 1813 as he was killed in 1779 on a beach in the [Sandwich Islands](http://www.hawaiischoolreports.com/symbols/origins.htm).
> [@](#):
>
> Sandwich Islands - On his third voyage of discovery, Captain James Cook of Great Britain visited the Hawaiian Islands and named them the Sandwich Islands in honor of his friend and supporter, John Montague, the 4th Earl of Sandwich and first lord of the Admiralty. Though Cook found Hawaii an excellent reprovisioning stop, it’s not likely this included “sandwiches”.
Other Pacific nations such as Marshall Islands and Northern Mariana Islands could also qualify as answers to the OP.
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