Not something I thought of a lot when I was back in US since USA is… a pretty bureaucratic name by all means. But I just realized that some countries have really fascinating names in their local language

Like how China names itself Central/Middle country in a very grandiose way (as in, we are the center of the world), or Japan being “land of the rising sun”

  • onoki@reddthat.com
    link
    fedilink
    arrow-up
    19
    ·
    2 days ago

    Finland (Suomi) basically means a swamp (suo).

    If you look at the etymology, there are other explanations of the origins, but a modern person would associate the name with a swamp. I guess it makes sense with all the lakes.