你有沒有好奇過自己國家的名字是怎么來的？或者，世界上其他國名的起源是什么？研究人員得出結論說，地球上幾乎所有的國家都是按四大類中的其中一類命名的，部落、地貌、方位和人物，只有20個國家是例外。一起來了解一下世界各國的命名之道。

Ever wondered how England got its name? As with countless other countries, it's all down to a tribe of early settlers (in this case the 5th Century Angles).
你有沒有好奇過英格蘭的國名是從何而來的？和無數其他國家一樣，英格蘭的名字源于早期定居者的一個部落名（英格蘭的名字源于5世紀的盎格魯部落）。

In fact, almost every country in the world is named after one of four things: 1) a tribe; 2) a feature of the land; 3) a directional description; or 4) an important person. That's according to Quartz, which analysed 195 countries listed in the Oxford Concise Dictionary of World Place-Names.
事實上，世界上幾乎所有國家的名字來源都屬于以下四種：部落、地貌、方位描述和重要人物。這是Quartz網站分析了《牛津簡明世界地名詞典》中列出的195個國家名稱后得出的結論。

下面，我們就分別舉例來說一說。

Tribe names 部落名

England is in good company with the lion’s share (about a third) of the world’s countries named after an early tribe or ethnic group.
英格蘭和世界上的很多國家（約三分之一）一樣，都是以早期部落或種族的名字命名的。

FRANCE – Named after the Franks, who conquered the land in the Medieval ages.
法國：以法蘭克人命名，法蘭克人在中世紀征服了法國大陸。

VIETNAM – Named after the Viets of the South.
越南：得名于南部的越人。

AFGHANISTAN – Translates to "Afghan-land; place of the Afghans”.
阿富汗：翻譯過來是“阿富汗人的土地”。

THAILAND – Relates to the “tai” people, an ethnic group from the central plains region.
泰國：和泰族人有關，泰族是泰國中部平原地區的一個民族。

RUSSIA – From the Medieval Latin term “Russi”, which denoted the people of the land.
俄羅斯：名字源于中世紀拉丁詞Russi，指的是這片土地上的人民。

Important people 重要人物

在以重要人物命名的國家中，只有一個國家是以女人的名字命名的……

SAINT LUCIA – This Caribbean island was named by the French in 1625 after the Catholic Saint Lucy, who was widely worshipped during the Middle Ages.
圣盧西亞——這個加勒比海島是法國人在1625年以天主教女圣人圣露西的名字命名的，圣露西在中世紀受到廣泛崇拜。

COLOMBIA – Named after famed explorer Christopher Columbus, who incidentally never even set foot in the country. It was in fact discovered by his companion Alonso de Ojeda in 1499, but was eventually named after Columbus anyway.
哥倫比亞：得名于著名探險家克里斯托弗?哥倫布，而巧的是，哥倫布從未踏足這個國家。事實上，哥倫比亞于1499年被哥倫布的同伴阿隆索?德?奧赫達發現，但最終還是以哥倫布的名字命名。

PHILIPPINES – Named by Spanish explorer Ruy López de Villalobos, in honor of King Philip II of Spain in 1542.
菲律賓：1542年西班牙探險家路易?洛佩斯?迪?維拉羅勃斯以當時的西班牙國王菲利普二世的名字命名的。

SAUDI ARABIA – After esteemed warrior and aristocrat Emir Muhammad bin Saud, who is considered the founder of the First Saudi State in 1744.
沙特阿拉伯：得名于受人愛戴的貴族戰士埃米爾?穆罕默德?本?沙特，一般認為，他在1744年創立了第一沙特王國。

SEYCHELLES – In 1976, this beautiful chain of islands in the Indian Ocean gained independence from the UK but before that it was controlled by France and was named after French minister of finance Jean Moreau de Sechelles in the 1700s.
塞舌爾：1976年，這個美麗的印度洋群島擺脫英國統治獲得獨立，但此前，塞舌爾曾受法國控制，在18世紀以法國財政大臣讓?莫羅?迪?塞舌爾的名字命名。

EL SAVADOR – This tiny country in Central America takes its name from Jesus and translates to "The Saviour". It was named by Spanish conqueror Pedro de Alvarado in the 1500s.
薩爾瓦多：這個中美洲小國得名于耶穌，翻譯過來是“救世主”。16世紀以西班牙征服者佩德羅?德?阿爾瓦拉多的名字命名。

Land features 地貌

世界上大約四分之一的國家名字來源于本國某種獨特的地貌。

ICELAND – This moniker translates to "Land of Ice", perhaps for obvious reasons, from the ancient language of Old Norse, and is said to have been named by Norwegian Viking Hrafna-Flóki Vilgerearson in 856 AD. This ignores Iceland’s plentiful green landscape, however, and many theorise that Iceland was named as such to dissuade potential settlers from invading what would have sounded like a cold, hostile environment.
冰島：國名從古挪威語翻譯過來是“冰之島”，據說是公元856年挪威北歐海盜Hrafna-Flóki Vilgerearson起的名字，理由再明顯不過了。盡管這個名字無視了冰島的大片綠地，但是許多人推測，起“冰島”這樣的名字是為了打消潛在移民者打算入侵的念頭，“冰島”這個名字讓人以為那里的環境冰冷、難以生存。

HAITI – This Caribbean country’s name translates to "mountainous land" in its indigenous Taíno language. It was colonised by Spain in 1492 and originally named “La Espa?ola”, but was later renamed “Haiti” in 1804 by former slave and revolutionary Jean-Jacques Dessalines, who declared himself emperor and took back the land.
海地：這個加勒比海國家的名字在本土臺諾語中的意思是“多山之地”。海地于1492年被西班牙殖民，原名是La Espa?ola，但在1804年被曾為奴隸的革命者讓-雅克?德薩林改名為“海地”。德薩林自立為皇帝，收回國土。

BARBADOS – This name translates to ‘the bearded’ in Portuguese, which is thought to be due to the long hanging roots of the fig trees that were noticed and marvelled at by colonizers in the late 16th Century.
巴巴多斯：這個名字在葡萄牙語中的意思是“有胡子的”，可能源于無花果樹上垂下來的長長的須根，在16世紀晚期殖民者發現了這一景觀并為之贊嘆，由此而得名。

UKRAINE – Ukraine was labelled as such during the 12th Century and translates to “near the border” in Old Slavic. Essentially it was used to define an area of territory within what was then the East Slavic state of Kievan Rus.
烏克蘭：烏克蘭在12世紀得此國名，“烏克蘭”一詞在古斯拉夫語中的意思是“鄰近邊境”。實質上，該詞曾被用于指代當時的東斯拉夫國家基輔羅斯境內的一段領土。

Location 方位

用方位命名的國家是這四大類中數量最少的，大概有25個。

AUSTRALIA – First coined by the Ancient Greeks, Australia translates to “Unknown Southern Land”, but was officially declared by this name in the early 1800s by English cartographer Matthew Flinders.
澳大利亞：“澳大利亞”一詞是古希臘人造的，翻譯過來是“未知的南部土地”，但到19世紀早期才由英國制圖師馬修?弗林德斯宣布為官方國名。

NORWAY – Conversely, this country traces its name to the Old English term for “northern way”, first mentioned in 880 by the Anglo-Saxons.
挪威：挪威這個名字要追溯到古英語，意思是“北方的道路”，880年由盎格魯-撒克遜人首次提到。

JAPAN – Nippon, which is the name commonly used by Japanese natives, means “land of the rising sun”, referring to its geographical location of being east of China.
日本：日本人普遍使用Nippon這個國名，意思是“日出之國”，指其位于中國以東的地理方位。

不過，也有些國家的名字起源無法歸入以上四大類，來看看哪些國家是例外：

There do exist a smattering of countries in the world which stepped outside the box with their naming criteria - around 20 of them. While some are disputed or their exact origins unclear, here is a handful of the most quirky and imaginative...
世界上確實有少數國家的命名方式突破常規——大約有20個。其中有些國名存在爭議或起源不明，但也有幾個國家的命名方式非常離奇而富有想象力，一起來看看：

Bhutan, which calls itself Druk Yul, means "land of the thunder dragon" on account of the magnificent storms that tear through the Himalaya Mountains.
不丹，在本國語言中是Druk Yul，意思是“雷龍之地”，源于喜馬拉雅山脈地區壯觀的雷雨。

There are several theories as to the origin of Nepal's name, one of which makes reference to Kathmandu's sheep-rearing history, given that in Tibetan, "ne" means "home" and "pal" means "wool" - ergo "the home of wool"
關于尼泊爾國名的起源，有好幾種理論，其中一種說法和加德滿都的養羊歷史有關：在藏語中，ne意思是“家”，而pal意思是“羊毛”，因此Nepal的意思是“羊毛之家”。

Nauru, one of the world's most remote islands and the smallest state in the South Pacific, might take its name from the native term "anáoero" - which rather charmingly means, "I go to the beach".
瑙魯是世界上最遙遠的島嶼之一，也是南太平洋中最小的國度。“瑙魯”可能源于本土詞anáoero，這個詞有個迷人的意思，就是“我去海灘”。

英文來源：每日電訊報
翻譯&編輯：丹妮