Alternate names for Germany

Byzantion

What could you think of ? In English it is called Germany, obviously because of Germanians, Allemania or similiar it is called in many other countries, too. In German language Germany is called Deutschland. There are often references to the Roman definition Teutonia, and Germans called Teutons. Terra teutonorum would mean "Land of the Teutons" in Latin , if im correct.
 
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FleetMac

FleetMac

Umbric Man said:
Dutchland, Dutchland over all!
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Indeed, the narrowing of "Dutch" to mean the Netherlands didnt happen until the 17th century, so its possible for that name to be reassigned to the German states longer up until unification. A more Saxon alternative (come the Victorian era) could be "Theedsland" or the like.

A more Latinate name could be the Romance-standard "Almain".
 
ennobee

ennobee

Spelf said:
Perhaps a constituent part to the whole - Saxony?
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Actually, in Finnish Germany is called 'Saxalainen', Saxa-land. Probably the ancient Finns had more dealings with the Germans from Saxony then with those from any other part.
(Curiously enough, Russia is called 'Venelainen': Sail-land. No idea because that was because it was the land where all the sailing ships came from or because it was where everyone was sailing to.)
 

Tonifranz

How about.


"The Holy Roman Empire"

especially if Germany was reunified by a centralizing HRE or Austria or emperor.
 
ruth

ruth

ennobee said:
Actually, in Finnish Germany is called 'Saxalainen', Saxa-land. Probably the ancient Finns had more dealings with the Germans from Saxony then with those from any other part.
(Curiously enough, Russia is called 'Venelainen': Sail-land. No idea because that was because it was the land where all the sailing ships came from or because it was where everyone was sailing to.)
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A bit off topic, but saksalainen and venäläinen actually refer to the people (-lainen is a suffix that means more or less "someone from X"); the countries are called Saksa and Venäjä, respectively.
 
Sabot Cat

Sabot Cat

Banned
Almany was a common term for it in English during the medieval era, derived from the Old French word for the region.
 
ruth

ruth

Slightly more on-topic, this has done the rounds a couple of times online. The big outliers are Latvia and Lithuania, whose name for Germany we're not really sure about, but it might come from the Vagoths.
 
Eivind

Eivind

Dutchland, Teutonia, Saxony, Alemannia, Gothia. I think I would go for Dutchland. As far as I understand, it is more general than the others, which originate from various tribes (although, as the use in various neighbouring countries shows, the use might change over time). It is also better than Germany, which should have been reserved for all of Germania.
 
Umbric Man

Umbric Man

FleetMac said:
Indeed, the narrowing of "Dutch" to mean the Netherlands didnt happen until the 17th century, so its possible for that name to be reassigned to the German states longer up until unification. A more Saxon alternative (come the Victorian era) could be "Theedsland" or the like.
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Ah, I forgot of Theedsland and actually prefer it, so the Netherlands can keep Dutch as OTL.

I tend to go for 'Theetch' though, when I was studying how a native English/Anglo-Saxon name could crop up for Germany - I think it was because '-ch' is a viable suffix as well. And probably so 'theed' can be the generic word for 'nation' in native English/Anglo-Saxon in my own head.
 
NCW8

NCW8

Maybe it could be named after the Nemetes tribe to give a name like Nemets, which would fit in nicely with the Slavic names for Germany (e.g. Niemcy in Polish).


Cheers,
Nigel.
 

pa_dutch

NCW8 said:
Maybe it could be named after the Nemetes tribe to give a name like Nemets, which would fit in nicely with the Slavic names for Germany (e.g. Niemcy in Polish).


Cheers,
Nigel.
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My understanding is that the etymology of Niemcy in Polish and its equivalents in most Slavic languages is that it comes from a root word meaning "mute," which evolved to mean "foreigner," and then "German," specifically, as the Germans were the closest and largest neighboring culture that didn't speak a Slavic language. You can imagine an ancient German-speaker arriving at a village or marketplace in Slavic-speaking territory and not being able to communicate. Interestingly, in Arabic, Farsi, and historically in Turkish, the Slavic root word for Germany was adopted for the local name of Austria - an-Nimsā is the name of Austria in Arabic, for example.

Aside from the afforementioned roots (from Germania,the Tuetons, the Allemans, the Saxons, and Slavic "mute"), another possibility is to derive the name from Prussia - The only case of this in modern language is Tahitian, which calls Germany by the name "Purutia".

Another name from Old Norse called Germany by the name "Suðrvegr," which means "South Way" as an equivalent to Norway. Perhaps Vikings in early England could spread this etymology, thus making "Sudway" as common name for Germany in English.
 

Matteo

Byzantion said:
What could you think of ? In English it is called Germany, obviously because of Germanians, Allemania or similiar it is called in many other countries, too. In German language Germany is called Deutschland. There are often references to the Roman definition Teutonia, and Germans called Teutons. Terra teutonorum would mean "Land of the Teutons" in Latin , if im correct.
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The specificity of the german nation, due to its history, is that it can not have a definite single name. The german best scholars have been debating for close to a century over what is being german.

In Italy, Germany is called Germania but a german person is called a tedesco and the german language is called tedesco.

In France, all the words come from Alemania (Allemagne, allemand).
 

Tyr Anazasi

Banned
The word deutsch comes from the Germanic word thioda (people) resp. thiodisk (adjective to thioda). It means belonging to the people and thus differing from the Latin speakers.
 
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