# Why do Germans call their country Deutschland? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [April 17, 2001, 11:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-germans-call-their-country-deutschland/62336 "2001-04-17T23:13:21Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 14\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Thunder\_Owl](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/dc4da7/32.png) [@Thunder\_Owl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Thunder_Owl)\ **Post date:** [April 17, 2001, 11:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-germans-call-their-country-deutschland/62336/1 "2001-04-17T23:13:21Z")
Why do the Germans call their country Deutschland, and the rest of the world calls it Germany? ---
**Author:** ![Arjuna34](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/eb8c5e/32.png) [@Arjuna34](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Arjuna34)\ **Post date:** [April 17, 2001, 11:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-germans-call-their-country-deutschland/62336/2 "2001-04-17T23:28:06Z")
Welcome to the SDMB, **Thunder Owl**! Cecil himself has addressed this question: [Why are there so many names for Germany, AKA Deutschland, Allemagne, etc.?](http://www.straightdope.com/classics/a2_162.html) Many answers can be found using the [SDMB search engine](http://www.straightdope.com/columns/index.html). Arjuna34 ---
**Author:** ![Arnold\_Winkelried](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/3d9bf3/32.png) [@Arnold\_Winkelried](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Arnold_Winkelried)\ **Post date:** [April 18, 2001, 1:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-germans-call-their-country-deutschland/62336/3 "2001-04-18T01:07:35Z")
Good answer, Arjuna34! I couldn’t have said it better myself. ThunderOwl, as you can say from Cecil’s column, the rest of the world does **not** call it Germany, only the english-speaking rest of the world. ---
**Author:** ![Dark\_Lord\_Davidson](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/bc8723/32.png) [@Dark\_Lord\_Davidson](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dark_Lord_Davidson)\ **Post date:** [April 18, 2001, 4:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-germans-call-their-country-deutschland/62336/4 "2001-04-18T04:15:01Z")
Did you know that the Japanese call their country “Nippon”? Or that Hispanic countries call America the “E.E.U.U.”? _kisses nomenclature_ ---
**Author:** ![friedo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/8edcca/32.png) [@friedo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/friedo)\ **Post date:** [April 18, 2001, 4:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-germans-call-their-country-deutschland/62336/5 "2001-04-18T04:27:12Z")
That’s an interesting column. But where does “Bavaria” come from? ---
**Author:** ![wolfman](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/a8b319/32.png) [@wolfman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/wolfman)\ **Post date:** [April 18, 2001, 4:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-germans-call-their-country-deutschland/62336/6 "2001-04-18T04:34:24Z")
This is kind of an end run to a comment on Cecil’s Column, but since the subject exists here I’ll post here instead of starting a new thread over there. I had always heard that Germany was named for Drusus Germanicus, the Roman General who attacked and conquered much of Germany. So now I’m really confused. Was Germanicus(which I had always understood to be a common-ish name) named after Germany, or is it a complete coincidence that a man named Germanicus conquered an area that later came to be known as Germany?(I would find that trully amazing). ---
**Author:** ![Monty](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/monty/32/47_2.png) [@Monty](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Monty)\ **Post date:** [April 18, 2001, 5:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-germans-call-their-country-deutschland/62336/7 "2001-04-18T05:35:59Z")
Perhaps a better question would be “Why does an _auslander_ call _Deutschland_ ‘Germany?’” Cecil, of course, has already provided the answer as noted above. ---
**Author:** ![Captain\_Amazing](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/6de8d8/32.png) [@Captain\_Amazing](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Captain_Amazing)\ **Post date:** [April 18, 2001, 5:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-germans-call-their-country-deutschland/62336/8 "2001-04-18T05:55:44Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by wolfman \* > \*\* > I had always heard that Germany was named for Drusus Germanicus, the Roman General who attacked and conquered much of Germany. So now I’m really confused. Was Germanicus(which I had always understood to be a common-ish name) named after Germany, or is it a complete coincidence that a man named Germanicus conquered an area that later came to be known as Germany?(I would find that trully amazing). \*\* Err…no…you have it sorta backwards. Roman generals added the names of the places they won victories as cognomens. Drusus won a big victory in the place the Romans called “Germania”, so he called himself “Germanicus”. Earlier, for example, there was a Roman named Quintius Cacelius Metellus, who fought a war with Numidia, then got the name Quintius Cacelius Metellus Numidicus. Even earlier, the Roman general who beat Hannibal, Publius Cornelius Scipo, became Publius Cornelius Scipo Africanus, etc. ---
**Author:** ![Doughboy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/bcef8e/32.png) [@Doughboy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Doughboy)\ **Post date:** [April 18, 2001, 7:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-germans-call-their-country-deutschland/62336/9 "2001-04-18T07:01:54Z")
What does the Hispanic version of USA, E.E.U.U. stand for then? ---
**Author:** ![Floater](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/dc4da7/32.png) [@Floater](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Floater)\ **Post date:** [April 18, 2001, 9:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-germans-call-their-country-deutschland/62336/10 "2001-04-18T09:11:17Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Thunder Owl \* > \*\*Why do the Germans call their country Deutschland, and the rest of the world calls it Germany? \*\* Do we? ---
**Author:** ![pulykamell](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pulykamell/32/3166_2.png) [@pulykamell](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pulykamell)\ **Post date:** [April 18, 2001, 10:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-germans-call-their-country-deutschland/62336/11 "2001-04-18T10:36:41Z")
Well, If you’re interested in German place-names here’s a web site I’ve found: [http://german.about.com/homework/german/library/weekly/aa051099.htm](http://german.about.com/homework/german/library/weekly/aa051099.htm) Unfortunately, it doesn’t seem to explain where Bavaria/Bayern came from. Perhaps someone can do an OED search for Bavaria … I’m sure it’s just a (Latinized? Slavicized? Which is it?) form as in Oesterreich/Austria, Boehem/Bohemia, etc… What it originally meant, I haven’t the faintest clue. Oh, and USA in Croatian is SAD. In Slovenian, ZDA (if I remember right), and in Hungarian, AEA (though I’ve never seen anyone actually write that.) ---
**Author:** ![KarlGrenze](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/dbc845/32.png) [@KarlGrenze](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/KarlGrenze)\ **Post date:** [April 18, 2001, 10:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-germans-call-their-country-deutschland/62336/12 "2001-04-18T10:40:40Z")
What does the Hispanic version of USA, E.E.U.U. stand for then? Estados Unidos=United States…I sometimes see this written as E.U.A.(Estados Unidos de America, United States of America). I dont know why the double E and U, when E.U. is enough. ---
**Author:** ![pulykamell](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pulykamell/32/3166_2.png) [@pulykamell](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pulykamell)\ **Post date:** [April 18, 2001, 3:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-germans-call-their-country-deutschland/62336/13 "2001-04-18T15:48:57Z")
According to this web site: [http://segate.sunet.se/htbin/wa?A2=ind9906b&L=lantra-l&D=1&T=0&O=D&P=83428](http://segate.sunet.se/htbin/wa?A2=ind9906b&L=lantra-l&D=1&T=0&O=D&P=83428) it’s because the Spanish double the acronyms when referring to something that is plural. Interesting, eh? ---
**Author:** ![Mahaloth](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mahaloth/32/1079_2.png) [@Mahaloth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mahaloth)\ **Post date:** [April 18, 2001, 11:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-germans-call-their-country-deutschland/62336/14 "2001-04-18T23:10:53Z")
Interesting point. The word “teut” that meant people is now “mensch” in modern German. They should call themselves “Menschland”!