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”

  • Kennystillalive@feddit.org
    14·
    2 days ago

    Switzerland means land of the people from Schwyz, which is one of the 3 founding “Cantons / States” of Switzerland. When going to war the old confederacy would wear white cross with red background (the flag of Schwyz) to distinguish themselves in battle. So in wider Europe they where known as Switzerland, specially because the Swiss Mercs were elite warriors and the most powerfull nobles would want to have the Swiss as their Guard (the Vatican still uses them today).

    The real name of Switzerland though is Confederatio Helvetica. Which means the Helvetic Confederation. The Helvetic are a Celtic tribe that used to live in today’s Switzerland before the Romans took over and later the Alemans rolled in.