OpenGeofiction
The country names in OGF sound very original and realistic, but they all originated from something, so I thought this could help all mappers and give them ideas for naming.
My country, Reeland (Reelant), was named after the Ree people from the Ree island. The Ree island (Isle of Ree) was originally a fictional map I found outside of OGF. I later found out that there is also a Dutch surname Reeland (Reelant), but that is not connected to the country name.
So, how did you all come up with the country name? Write in the comments.
Regards
Discussion
Comment from BMSOUZA on 1 August 2015 at 23:59
My friend, I dont see problems in any countries names in OGF. All my inspirations are from out-OGF/ real World.
If you would like to know my names origins, lets go:
Cariocas Islands: “Carioca” is who was born in Rio de Janeiro. As “porteño” is who was born in Buenos Aires, “paulistano”, who is from São Paulo, etc
Brasonia: I got inspiration in… Brasil! hehehe Luslandia: I got inspiration in “Lusitania”, the old name to Portugal Belgravia: Oh, you will like this name! I didnt got inspiration in the London neighborhood. To me, the scheme is “Belgrad+Jugoslavia=Belgravia”, hahaha. This way, Belgravia is nothing english at all
Goytakanya: I live close to Campos dos Goytacazes, the bigger city in Rio de Janeiro state out from Metropolitan Region. In Campos, there are two traditional football (soccer) clubs: Goytacaz and Americano. Ok, here in Brasil, the derbies usually got nicknames (Falmengo vs. Fluminense= FlaFlu; AtleticoPR vs.Coritiba= AtleTiba etc). So, in Campos, Goytacaz vs. Americano is “GoitaCano”.
Comment from Asparagus on 2 August 2015 at 00:43
Inretsk:
Inretto (Japanese word for inlet) + “sk”, a silly suffix I added to make it sound Slavic, even though I’m trying to make the language sound as genuine as possible from now on. I came up with this name when I was playing Nationstates a while back and was trying to come up with something quick, which stuck. It carried on to here.
Comment from Luciano on 2 August 2015 at 01:04
“Ardisphere” was originally the name of a sort of “parallel history” universe I developed in the 1990s for a novel I never finished writing. It was originally a whole planet - hence “-sphere.” Ardi-, of course, derives from Latin ARDERE “to burn.” When I made it the name of my country, here in OGF, I did some post facto etymology, and decided it was related to the sun iconography of the native Altazorians (the burning sphere), which also shows up on the country’s flag, and in the Gohangukian translation of the name, 화국 (hwa-guk = fire-land).
I then went a step further, and decided that the “post facto” etymology above also applied “in world.” Thus, in fact, I have decided that the Altazorian name, “arde siferi” means, roughly, “forbidden land” or “unwanted place” - this is connected to the civil war that was going on among the natives at the time the Castellanese colonists arrived in 1500. The Altazorians had abandoned the city of Albalonga after massacring its inhabitants, declaring it “off limits.” This is why the Castellanese essentially took the city and surrounding land unopposed, thus establishing their firm foothold in the territory from the start. This parallels the way in which political squabbles and cultural expectations allowed Cortez and a small band of Spaniards to conquer the Aztec empire quite quickly.
Comment from Pawl on 2 August 2015 at 06:27
Tircambry means “Land of the Cambry” in Cambric/Welsh.
“Cambric” was in use in OGF before I joined, but comes from “Cambria”, which is the Latin name for Wales, coming from the Welsh “Cymru” (pronounced Cumree). “Cambry” is analogous to the Welsh “Cymry” - the Welsh people.
Comment from tule00 on 2 August 2015 at 07:15
BM, I didn’t mean ture were problems, just that it’d be interesting to hear the etymologies. So Brasonia is from Brasil! Wow! Luslandia, it sounded familiar, but I never thought of Lusitania. Now Belgravia, of course I like that :) As a Slav, I can tell you: Depending on if you want a southern (ex-Yugoslavia, Bulgarian), western (Czech, Polish, Slovakian, Sorbian) or eastern (Russian, Belarusian, Ukrainian), you can make it like this: Belgravija - south, Belgrawia, Belgravya, or maybe even just Belgravia for western, Белгравия - eastern.
Asparagus, Inretsk sounds Slavic indeed, like it or not :) But it is ok. In fictional etymology you can say it was from the Slavic immigrants.
Luciano: no comment. That was really very much effort. I just don’t understand: Has the name (in the fictional universe) originated from arde siferi or ardi sphere?
Comment from Luciano on 2 August 2015 at 08:13
Heh. Sorry, I know I can get confusing sometimes… “In universe,” the TRUE etymology is “arde siferi” while the FOLK etymology is “ardi sphere”. In my own mind (ie outside of the OGF universe), the TRUE etymology is “ardi sphere”.
Comment from tule00 on 2 August 2015 at 08:20
Ohhh, so it was (fictionally) originally arde siferi, and the Spanish immigrants made up the ardi sphere etymology… interesting…
Comment from Luciano on 2 August 2015 at 08:29
Exactly!
My other country, Mahhal, has a complicated story too: in the Mahhalian language, it comes from Ma Hhal, which means River Snow (Snowy River). A treaty was signed at Snowy River between the Seven Kingdoms over a 1000 years ago.
The language is completely made up, so there is no connection between those words and Earth. Some Mahhalian vocabulary comes from my Ojibwe dictionary, but not those two words.
The “real world” background on the Mahhalian language is old, though - I first invented a planet called Mahhal and the language of its inhabitants when I was 12 years old. I drew a detailed atlas of the city of Derindonderak and created a dictionary, but those papers were accidentally destroyed many years ago. The maps and wordlists of Mahhal are partly based on things I remember, partly based on new inventions.
Comment from antoon on 2 August 2015 at 10:28
The name of my country Neberly begins with the starting letters of the country i live (Netherlands) en live close by (Belgium). Not a very original idea as some people will know the Benelux, a ‘union’ of the countries of Belgium, Netherlands and Luxemburg. But after this ‘Nebe’ start i searched for some extensions to to complete the name. I then found Neberly and liked it for it sounded a bit like neighbourly, and i certainly like to be friends with my neighbours as well as other people here. Only afterwards this i choose the name of the main river to be Neber. So this is the other way around then what i described in the Neberly-wiki-page (In the Geography-chapter).
Comment from tule00 on 2 August 2015 at 12:00
Interesting names out there!
Comment from isleño on 2 August 2015 at 12:18
Wow, we’ve been getting some really good questions.
To me, “flavor” is probably the most important thing in a country name. I start with some places that have a “flavor” I want, jumble them around, adding/subtracting letters until I get a name I like — a name with the same sort of “flavor” and very few google results, haha. For example:
Khaiwoon is probably some combination of Taiwan, Kowloon, and ???
Onnutu probably originated with Oahu, Honolulu, and ???
Comment from Rasmus Rasmusson on 2 August 2015 at 18:49
Řots is just a word I came up with. The accent is just to make it slightly more interesting, but as the Řotsnan language is not related to any other language, I could have used any other accent as well. Although I am Dutch, and there are Dutch words “rots” (i.e. “rock” or “(something) rotten”), the meaning of these words have no relation to Řots or its character.
Comment from clik on 2 August 2015 at 19:12
Egani comes from “megali lini”, meaning “big lake” in greek. Most of the history of my country has been taking place near or on the big lake of central Egani : “I Ka’lini”, meaning the same, the name of the lake is in Eganian. All the other names (region/towns/rivers…) also have an ethimology.
Comment from tule00 on 2 August 2015 at 19:14
Isleño, that is a very interesting way to make a name. Although I always pay attention to the flavor of the word, not just the place. For example, I would never use a spanish name, like Los Angeles, for Reeland, a G(a)ermanic country.
Rasmus, I think that is sometimes the best way to invent a name. Especially when your language is completely constructed, like Řotsnan. I also invent names in that way, for example Vagheen, Spentel or Vumrup. These words sound Germanic but I just came up with them.
Comment from tule00 on 2 August 2015 at 19:17
clik, just one question: how do you mean they all have etymologies? Did all names originate from real world words?
Comment from Rasmus Rasmusson on 2 August 2015 at 20:27
Tule00, in the case of Řotsnan there is a little bit more liberty because the language has no ‘siblings’. If I need a word, I just invent it without the need to consider external etymological rules (which would be a bigger issue if I had invented a language that is related to existing ones). For names of persons, I want to keep track of every person invented, but that’s just a personal requirement.
What I would like to do as well is naming streets to internationally known people. Is there a list of such people, i.e. the OGF variants of the inventors of gravity, the lightbulb, cars, barbed wire etc?
Comment from Rasmus Rasmusson on 2 August 2015 at 20:30
(I am confusing two threads, this one and the mapping language one, but they may be related anyway.. )
Comment from tule00 on 2 August 2015 at 21:20
I like your point. We need something like that, if it doesn’t already exist! So far I have only invented 2 presidents of Reeland to name streets after. But internationally known people, that would really make street naming easier.
Comment from Demuth on 2 August 2015 at 21:27
Well, Østermark is eastern land, more or less, in Swedish, but using the Danish ø instead of Swedish ö. And mark is more land and in the ground as opposed to country. I decided that it would be colonized by whalers from Scandmark and it’s east of Scandmark, so that’s how I chose the name.
Wiwaxia, well, that’s much crazier. Wiwaxia is an early Cambrian age animal, one of the fossils found on the Burgess Shale. I just liked the name from when I first read it 25 years ago, and when I started on OGF, it seemed like the perfect name for a country. All my rivers and lakes, as well as all but one of my county names are from fossil names of animals in the ediacaran genera, which is a slightly different era.
Comment from tule00 on 2 August 2015 at 21:35
As for Wiwaxia, I found that on Wikipedia, as well as some of the other OGF countries, and many of them had interesting etymologies. I have to admit, Wiwaxia has a very creative origin :)
Comment from BMSOUZA on 2 August 2015 at 22:14
Tule, I understand you, I also would like to know the etymologies in OGF, hehehe.
About “my” etymologies, I am thinking follow more the “serbian line”, but using too “czech line”, and just a little or nothing of “russian line”. Thank you the advices!
Wiwaxia is a so interesting etymology!!!
I have in my mind another topic about Rogolnika etymolgy, but I dont remember the exact link about it…
Comment from clik on 3 August 2015 at 16:17
Tule, the names of places are in eganian and they mean something, but no name comes from real name, everything is invented. The city name Alnisi, for example, comes from “Ar nisai” (in eganian), wich means “victorious port”, because the people of this region won several battles in this place. The other towns, villages and even rivers also have names that represent what they are.
Comment from histor on 4 August 2015 at 19:56
“Latina” only shall show an common “latinian” style in urban design - mixed from french, italian, spain and southern america influence and a little bit nostalgic 19th century. So the language in Latina is not clear spain, but with some french and italian additions - means too in Latina some french regions as Du Bois and in Latina (Cidudad) some italian quarters as Palermo, Sur and Italia. And a small danish “island” near the city of Gentofte (Gentofte is a suburb of Kopenhagen / Danmark).
“Zylanda” is a corrupt etymology of german “Ziel” (target) and “Land” (Land) - means in toto the targetland of the colonist. The basic is lower german. Some centuries here are the supremacy of french-speaking kings, so there are some french names as “Elegantia” and “Charity” beneath lo-german names as “Fock”, “Keunichsborch” or “Aaby” or some artificiel names as “Pentapolis” (fivetown).
Comment from Maxwell Black on 4 August 2015 at 22:01
“Carpathia” is the actual name of a range of mountains in eastern Europe but the name came to me as a confusion between a Doctor Who’s spaceship called “Byzantium” and a youtube series called The Great War where the 1st world war is followed every week, 100 years later and where the carpathian were a theatre for battle.
As for “Estanha/Estaña” is literally a variation of “Espanha”, the portuguese name for Spain which are the inspiration for that province of Carpathia.
Comment from Ernestpkirby on 7 August 2015 at 16:22
Freedemia was actually slightly inspired by a combination of Freedom, Redeemed, and America. It was meant to kind of mean “Land of Freedom” or “Land of the Reedemed”. Most of my other city names were inspired by English and slightly German (the whole ‘burgh’ part)
Comment from Sarepava on 8 August 2015 at 13:39
Karolia is partly from a book on my shelf by Hungarian musicologist Karolyi, and partly from the Karelia region of Finland. These are the two main cultures that the country is based upon.
Arataran is from Mt Ararat in Armenia, as the country is a fusion of Caucasian and Islamic. I was also keen not to have another country name ending in -ia.
Meridonia is from meridian, as it’s in the middle of Karolia.