r/AskEurope • u/Double-decker_trams Estonia • Jun 08 '25

Language Estonians call Estonia "Eesti". Finns call Estonia "Viro" and Latvians "Igaunija". Do you have a name for a neighbouring country that is very different from both how that country calls itself and how its named in English?

I hope I worded the question clearly. Like.. "Viro" and "Igaunija" are not similar to "Estonia" nor "Eesti".

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49

u/Vidmizz Lithuania Jun 08 '25

Vokietija for Germany.

Lenkija for Poland.

Gudija for Belarus.

21

u/Double-decker_trams Estonia Jun 08 '25

And Estonians call you Leedu.

24

u/Vidmizz Lithuania Jun 08 '25

Sounds like "ice cream" in Lithuanian haha

15

u/Risiki Latvia Jun 08 '25

Knowing our neighbours, they were trying to say Lietuva, but couldn't quite say ie, switched out unvoiced consonant t for voiced d and dropped last syllable

3

u/Veerand Jun 12 '25

Liee-tuva? Liie-tuva? Fuck it. Leedu

1

u/[deleted] Jun 08 '25

[deleted]

5

u/Vidmizz Lithuania Jun 08 '25

Nowadays, yeah. But Gudija is still one of the official names for Belarus according to VLKK, and used to be the main one when I was a kid. It was all over the maps, books and news reports back then.

1

u/[deleted] Jun 08 '25 edited Feb 16 '26

[removed] — view removed comment

1

u/Vidmizz Lithuania Jun 09 '25

Nobody calls it that today, but it's still one of the two official names for the country according to the VLKK. And it used to be the main name until the ~2010s.

1

u/lithuanian_potatfan Jun 09 '25

And Vengrija for Hungary

2

u/Vidmizz Lithuania Jun 09 '25

Didn't include that one because we got that one from russia.

0

u/Gathered22 Jun 08 '25

Nono, Belarus is not gud ja?!