The Geography of Country Names
There’s a pretty clear geographical split in what different countries call Greece. In most of Europe, the name comes from the Latin Graecia . But across North Africa, the Middle East, and much of Asia, the name is usually derived from Ionia or Yunan , through Persian, Arabic, Turkish, and related linguistic influences. The split basically reflects two different historical contact routes: western Europe inherited the Roman/Latin name, while the Middle East and much of Asia inherited the Persian name based on the Ionians. You can explore the geographical differences in how different languages name countries around the world on the Exonym Atlas . The Exonym Atlas groups country names into linguistic and historical “families”, allowing users to see how names spread across cultures, empires, and trade networks. An exonym is a name used by outsiders for a place, person, or language, rather than the name used by the locals (the endonym). Germany provides another excellent illustration o...
