Deutschland, Germany.

[answerbok]

What does Germany mean? why don't we call it Deutschland as they do? Same goes for Allemagne. Why is Wales called Wales - wasn't it originally called Cambria? How did they derive Scotland from Caledonia, or England from Albany? but mostly the German thing.. what does the word German mean to a Deutschlander? and is there a connection with Dutch? And why aren't people from Holland and Netherlands called Hollandians or something? Shouldn't Germans be called Dutch, more likely than the Netherlandians?

[Quizmonster]

In the ancient Celtic languages, 'gair' meant 'neighbour'. The Celtic inhabitants of Gaul, which is more or less modern France, would have called a man from the country directly across the border a 'gairman', especially after the north-eastern part of their own territory had been conquered from the east. In other words, 'German' simply means 'the guy next door'! The Romans had to pass through Gaul to reach Germany and probably picked up the name there, Latinising it to 'Germanus'. Basically, we have the old Celts and Romans to thank for the word 'German(y)'. (I'll leave the subsidiary questions for someone else to answer.)

[katejess]

I can't answer the German questions at all, but I just wanted to let you know that the Dutch call themselves 'Nederlanders' and they speak 'Nederlands'....I don't know where the word Dutch came from, but perhaps in time we will all start referring to the Dutch as Nederlanders.

[shybearuk]

That's something I've often wondered. Why don't we call Germany Deutschland, etc? After all, it's their country, so they should know what it's called.

[priveet]

Re Wales. Cambria was the medieval Latin name for Wales. The Anglo Saxon invaders referred to the place as Waellas ( meaning foreigners - or similar ) which became corrupted to Wales. Of course, this is the English name for the place. The natives call it Cymru.

[mikewith]

To suggest we should all call different countries by the names they use is surely to deny the strength, history and development of our own language? Nothing wrong with a bit of diversity.

Our word 'Germany' comes from the Latin Germanus, used by Julius Caesar amongst others to describe a tribe of what was then Northeast Gaul. That in turn may have been derived from a Gaulish word meaning either "noisy" or "neighbour" (ironic, or what?). Teutoni (hence Teutonic) was another word used in Rome as a Germanic tribal name.

The earlier words used in England to describe tribes of the modern Germany were Almain or Dutch. Conversely, the first recorded appearance of the word 'Dutch' (786AD) is in describing Old English. It quickly came to describe the language of the Germanic peoples, then the people and then their land too, hence Deutschland etc. In English, it came to describe the Netherlands in the 17th century - when that country coalesced and became a commercial and military threat to England, and hence we needed a name for them. (And yes, I have discovered a favourite new website!... http://www.etymonline.com/ )

[3s_a_crowd]

Scotland was Caledonia until the tribe of the Scots (who I believe were originally the Scotts from Ireland ) conquered all the lands north of the Forth and renamed the area Scotia. Duncan I added the rest of the lands to Scotia and renamed it Scotland.
Well that's my potted version of Scottish history anyway.

[strozzi]

Great question Answerbok. Or should we say 10 or 12 questions. Deserves a whole category of it's own.
I'll just concentrate on the Albany bit.
I don't believe that England was ever called Albany. That name was related to just a part of Britain which included the north of England and a bit of southern Scotland. James II of England, who was also James VII of Scotland, had the 2nd title of Albany derived from this area. The area of Albany itself derived it's name from Albyn which was the Celtic name for Scotland.
England got it's name from the Anglo (Angles) Saxon invaders who first called that part of Britain 'Angleland' which later became England.
I'm sure that your question will provoke some debate because of all the name changes that countries have had following internal and external conquests and different nationalities changing names and meanings. You could pick just about any country in the world and ask the same questions and provoke many an argument.
That's an idea; why don't you ?

[answerbok]

me Strozzi? why not you? - what you mean like Persia being called Iran, and where's old Abyssynia these days and Ceylon ..and Brigadoon.

[strozzi]

No, not me. Too controversial.
Why is the whole world not called Eden ?

[JFK]

Probably because the average football supporter doesn't know what "Bayern" means. But I do wonder why we call Munchen "Munich". Obviously words like "Germany" etc are derived from Olde English or Latin, however Munich simply looks like a mispronounciation of Munchen. Similarly why do the French called London "Londres"? I mean it's not that hard to say "London" is it?

[JohnPPotts]

To answer (One of) your questions - England doesn't derive from Albion, it's named after the Angles (as in Anglo-Saxons) who invaded Britain around 500AD. Angle-land = England, thanks to linguistic drift. And I believe that Dutch (to refer to Netherlanders) is because they're the Germanic Netherlanders (as opposed to the Francophone Netherlanders in Belgium).