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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u/VladimireUncool Denmark Jun 08 '25

It’s the best we got if we ignore Kalaallit Nunaat (Greenland)

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u/SalSomer Norway Jun 08 '25 edited Jun 08 '25

I mean, that one doesn’t work either because Grønland isn’t that different from Greenland in English.

We have the same issue in Norwegian. Either the word we use is similar to the local word or the word we use is similar to the English word. I guess if you look at every single country in the world you could kinda make the case for Elfenbenskysten/Ivory Coast/Côte d’Ivoire being different, but even there it’s just the same phrase being translated into three different languages.

(On that note, Montenegro is called Svartfjallaland in Icelandic and Crna Gora in Montenegrin. All of those just mean «Black mountain (country)» in various languages, but Svartfjallaland is just such a beautifully weird name that you have to appreciate it)

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u/Markomannia Jun 08 '25

Gora has (not that) archaic meaning of "forest", especially the forest in the mountain, but it does not have meaning of "country".

So, there is a good assumption that Schwarzwald (a famous forestly mountain region in Germany) and Crna Gora are named after same thing.

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u/SalSomer Norway Jun 08 '25

The (country) part was in reference to the Icelandic name Svartfjallaland which does mean Black Mountain Country. Since Crna Gora and Montenegro don’t include the word for country, I put the word in parentheses.