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TIL Saint Lucia is the only country named after a woman.
(en.wikipedia.org)
Aunt Arctica, duh
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_country-name_etymologies
checks first few entries
Antigua and Barbuda
Antigua: "Ancient", corrected from earlier Antego,[22] a truncation of the Spanish Santa Maria la Antigua,[23] bestowed in 1493 by Christopher Columbus in honor of the Virgen de la Antigua ("Virgin of the Old Cathedral"[24]), a revered mid-14th-century icon in the Chapel of La Antigua in Seville Cathedral.[25]
Greece's official English name is the Hellenic Republic, named after Helen of Troy.
That is incorrect.
Wiki and OED: "Hellenic" originates from the Ancient Greek Hellēnikós, derived from Hellēn, referring to the Greek-speaking people and their culture. It is rooted in the mythological figure Hellen, the son of Deucalion and progenitor of the Greek race, rather than the female Helen of Troy. The term signifies belonging to Greece, originating from Hellas (Greece).
This is America Ferrera erasure and I won’t stand for it.
I love Superstore. I'd absolutely DESTROY Justine!!!! Let her parents know they aren't getting the deposit back on this one!
Djibouti
That’s a nice flag
I mean, fuck Ireland I guess.
The names Ireland and Éire both derive from Old Irish Ériu, which in turn comes from Proto-Celtic ɸīweriyū meaning "fertile soil". The Classical Latin name for the island of Ireland, Ivernia, also comes from this same root
Not sure why you're mentioning Ireland, did you think it was named after Kathy Ireland?
It's called that because Eriu is the goddess of the land, that is also likely named after her.
Everything we think we know about the goddess Ériu (and Irish mythology in general) was written down within the past 1000 years by Christian monks. They purported to be recording the oral mythology of the Irish people, but it's hard to say how much of it was a faithful transcription and how much was invented/reworked by the monks to fit into a Christian/Greco-Roman worldview.
The etymological root of Ireland as a place name ultimately derives from ancient Greek sources, which obviously predate such mythology by over 1000 years.
The name Ériu has been derived from reconstructed Archaic Irish *Īweriū, which is related to the ethnic name Iverni. The University of Wales derives this from Proto-Celtic *Φīwerjon- (nominative singular Φīwerjō). This is further derived from Proto-Indo-European *piHwerjon- ("fertile land" or "land of abundance"), from the adjective *piHwer- "fat" (cognate with Ancient Greek píeira and Sanskrit pīvara, "fat, full, abounding").
The Archaic Irish form was borrowed into Ancient Greek as Ἰέρνη Iernē and Ἰουερνία Iouernia, and into Latin Hibernia.
So, even ignoring the fact that a mythical goddess is not equivalent to a human woman, Ireland wasn't named after a goddess either.
Ériu, Banba and Fódla are from Lebor Gabála Érenn, Ireland's creation myth, and they each wanted the whole country named after them (and still can be, poetically). This is a mythologised history, not etymology.
Also, downvoting someone you're debating with is extremely bad form.
Agreed, even if I disagree with someone they get an upvote if they tried to drive the conversation
I have a policy that if a post or comment is worth a reply then it’s worth an upvote. If it’s not worth an upvote then I don’t reply.
Lucy of Syracuse is a woman who, by all accounts, did physically exist. Maybe that's the difference?
At least there is Europe.
All that needs to happen now is for the countries of Europe to unify and St. Lucia loses this incredibly important title!
Canada was named after Denise Canada.
I thought it was named after de nephew.
Dad, is that you?
They named it after me dontchaknow
Then why isn't it called Saint Me?
I can just imagine a puppet dog making this joke while insulting Luci Liu.
You're telling me Argentina is a man's name? 🤨
It is an adjective! República Argentina means silver republic
But it was named after the Argentine, which I remember is supposed to be a mythological land of women, similar to the Amazons.
Or maybe I'm getting my ancient lores mixed up
I suspect that you're thinking of El Dorado, which was a mythical golden city believed to be in South America, more specifically Columbia. It's in Voltaire's Candide. amongst other places.
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(2 replies)
what countries are named after men?
Chad, duh
Oman
No way, that is "zero man"!
Phillipines, Dominican Republic, Bolivia, Colombia, Georgia, El Salvador, Swaziland, Peru, Saint Vincent, San Marino, United States of America, etc. There are 22 countries named after men.
Modern scholarship generally derives the name Georgia from the Persian term Gurj (گرج), a historical ethnonym for Georgians. The ultimate origin of this term is debated, though it may be connected to gurğān, a region name meaning "land of wolves."[33]
but checked out a few others and yeah sounds right
interesting
ᕕ(گرج )ᕗ
Sorry if insensitive lol
insensitive?
"if it's an impropriate joke" (I guess)
:/ what’s the joke? it just looks like hieroglyphs to me
an emoji, ready to punch and flexing
i thought it was dancing
Dance Kirby dance
HeyThisIsntTheYMCA.
but wolf means man. check and mate
werewolves were scary because were meant woman and werewolves were mythical men who turned into women when the moon rose.
Philistan. Named after Phil.
For the sake of completeness, YSK there are only two countries in the world that are named after the families that rule them. They have a common border and are both kingdoms: The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia and the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan.
Columbia.
That's not a country.
™️
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this post was submitted on 24 Mar 2026
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