This article provides a collection of the etymology of the names of subnational entities. This page generally only deals with regions and provinces; cities and other localities and features may appear listed under the individual country, with a link below.
Note that most modern French départements take their names from local geographical features: usually rivers, occasionally mountain ranges or coasts. Thus most such names have a self-evident immediate origin: even non-speakers of French can deduce them with a minimum of geographical knowledge. The traditional provinces and regions (of any period) often bear names with more obscure and superficially richer histories.
Alsace - from LatinAlisatia, a latinised form of the Germanic name that also yields Old High German El-sasz, allegedly meaning "foreign settlement"
Artois - from LatinAtrebatensis, adjectival form derived the Belgic tribe Atrebates; the name of its main city Arras (Atrecht in Dutch) derives directly from the tribe's name Atrebates, so Artois properly means "territory of Arras"
Baden-Württemberg - created by joining Baden and Württemberg. Baden: after the city of Baden-Baden, formerly Baden, the name was doubled to distinguish it from the state. The name means "baths", after the springs in the city. Württemberg: origin unknown.
Bavaria - after the tribe of the Baiuvarii, who probably gained their name from the land of Bohemia.
Brandenburg - after the city of Brandenburg. The earlier Slavic name of the castle (Burg) of Brandenburg appears as Branibor (Branim's forest).
Lower Saxony - after the tribe of the Saxons. "Lower" was added in modern times to distinguish it from the state of Saxony.
Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania - created by joining Mecklenburg with the western part of Pomerania, also called Hither Pomerania. Mecklenburg takes its name from a castle (Burg means "castle" in German), the origin of the first part remains unclear. Pomerania comes from Slavic roots meaning "near the ocean".
North Rhine-Westphalia - created by joining the northern part of the Rhineland with Westphalia. Westphalia was the westernmost subdivision of the Saxon tribe; the origin of the second part (-falen in German) is unknown.
Saxony - land of the Saxons (possibly the "sword-folk"). During the middle ages and early modern times, the name migrated from today's Lower Saxony to the current location of the state of Saxony.
Schleswig-Holstein - created by joining Schleswig and Holstein. The district of Schleswig tales its name from the city of Schleswig, which in turn derives its name from the Schlei bay. The name "Holstein" comes from a Saxon subtribe named Holcetae .
Latium (in modern Italian: Lazio) - land of the early Italic inhabitants known as Latins, in their turn popularly associated with the mythological King Latinus [in turn, "Latins" (in Latin, Latīnī) -- as well as the name of King Latīnus (simply the singular of the same name) -- clearly derived their names from Latium by means of the ethnic suffix -īnus, with the obvious meaning of "inhabitant(s) of Latium", which makes this etymology ridiculously circular, but let that serve as a warning to the reader as to the quality of this and other etymologies on this page]. Ovid hints at perhaps a slightly more sophisticated folk etymology, with a legend of the naming of Latium after Saturnlatente deo (as a god in hiding) after he allegedly fled to Italy following his expulsion by Jupiter
Lombardy - from the Germanic tribe of the Lombards (literally "long-beards" or "long-bearded axe people", or, according to another theory, "long-halberds"), who invaded Italy in the 6th century. Note: After the Lombard invasion, the name "Longobardia" or "Langobardia" applied to the whole of Italy for about two centuries, throughout Europe and also in Arabic (al-Ankubardiya). The name Italia did not return into wide use until the late 8th century
Marche - literally. "marches", "borderlands". In the Middle Ages the region lay on the boundaries between imperial lands and the more independent areas of southern Italy. The March of Ancona became the best-known of such marches
Hamgyŏng - from the first characters in the city names Hamju and Kyŏngsŏng (?).
Hwanghae - from the first characters in the city names Hwangju and Haeju.
Jeolla - from the first characters in the city names Jeonju and Naju (The first character of Naju is actually "ra"—"r" changes to "n" in the initial position, and the combination "nr" changes to "ll" due to phonological characteristics of the Korean language).
P'yŏngan - from the first characters in the city names P'yŏngyang and Anju .
Gyeonggi - the Chinese characters for the name mean "area around the capital," i.e., around Seoul, South Korea, where the province is located.
Holland (part of the Netherlands; but the term often refers to the country as a whole): Germanic "holt (i.e. wooded) land" (often incorrectly regarded as meaning "hollow [i.e. marsh] land")
Batavia (Germanic): "arable land" (derived from the regional name "Betuwe", as opposed to the other regional name "Veluwe" meaning "fallow" or "waste" land)
Amsterdam: from Amstelredam , which means 'dam over the Amstel' (the river which flows through present-day Amsterdam)
Rotterdam: meaning 'dam over the Rotte' (the river flowing through through present-day Rotterdam)
Alkmaar: from Aelcemaer , meaning 'lake of auks', due to the fact that lakes formerly surrounded the core of Alkmaar -- all of them now drained and thus turned into dry land
Otago - anglicised from the Maori name Otakou, a kainga east of present-day Otago Harbour, originally meaning "one isolated village" or "place of red earth"
Plimmerton - from John Plimmer, Wellington pioneer, director of the railway company that created the seaside resort to help boost its railway; central Wellington has Plimmer's Steps.
Tasman - district named from the bay name, in honour of Dutchman Abel Tasman, commander of first European expedition to sight the country; also a mountain and glacier name. Abel Tasman National Park bears a fuller version of his name.
Waikato- Named after the river Waikato, which itself means "flowing water"
Ardeal - "wooden hill" - arde expresses an Indo-European root meaning forest, the same as in English Forest of Arden and Belgian Ardennes Woods; Deal means hill in Romanian.
Sakhalin -- derived from misinterpretation of a Manchu name "sahaliyan ula angga hada" (peak of the mouth of Amur River). "Sahaliyan" means "black" in Manchu and refers to the Amur River (sahaliyan ula).
England - from Engla-lond, the land settled in the early 6th century by various peoples from Low Germany, among them the Angles (Latin Anglii) who originally inhabited the fish-hook shaped territory known as Angeln situated in present-day Schleswig. See Anglo-Saxons.
Gibraltar - from Arabic"djebl al-Tarik" -> "Tarik's rock" because the Arab general Tarik-ibn-Ziyad started his conquest of the Iberian peninsula from here in 711.
Scotland Literally 'Land of the Scots'. The Scottish people, originally from Ireland, settled parts of western Scotland in the 5th century, although the name didn't come about until after the 9th Century. Alba, the Gaelic name for Scotland means 'highlands' from the Latinalbus or 'white' (describing the mountains). Caledonia, the Latin name, means forested highlands
Wales - "land of the foreigners", from the Germanic 'welsche' the term used by Anglo-Saxon invaders of the British Isles for the native Celts they encountered. The Welsh native toponym "Cymru" means "fellow countrymen". Ancient Germanic tribes named several areas in Europe in a similar way, using their term for places inhabited by peoples of Celtic or Latin descent, including "Wallonia" in Belgium, Wallachia in Romania, "welsche Schweiz" (French-speaking Switzerland) and the archaic "Welschenland" (a term for Italy).
