Talk:List of countries named after people/Archive 1

This is an archive of past discussions about List of countries named after people. Do not edit the contents of this page. If you wish to start a new discussion or revive an old one, please do so on the current talk page.

Is the list complete now? It depends partly on what the canonical list of countries is. ISO 3166-1 is a possibility, although it contains many dependencies and a couple of uninhabited "countries". On the other hand, one of the items on the list is Rhodesia, which is obsolete. How far back in history should we go? Rome, supposedly named for Romulus and Remus? Fernando Po, a separate Spanish colony until 1909? Another set of borderline cases would involve alternate or informal names of countries, like Congo-Brazzaville and Congo-Léopoldville.

In doing my last update, I covered the ISO 3166-1 list except for the following: Bouvet Island, Heard Island and McDonald Islands, and South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands, which have no permanent population; Norfolk Island; Svalbard and Jan Mayen (Jan Mayen is an eponym); and Nicaragua. The problem with Nicaragua is that Wikipedia currently says it was named for the Nicarao tribe, but my sources say that there was a (perhaps legendary) individual named Nicarao, and that the country was named for him.

Gwil 19:12, 9 September 2005 (UTC)

United States is not named after Amerigo Vespucci. It is named after a continent named after him (which is also debated). I suggest removing USA from the list. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 193.108.192.71 (talk) 17:54, 2 May 2006 (UTC)

Since I am from Denmark, I know a lot about the Danish history, and it's a fact, that Denmark (in Danish called Danmark) was named after the first Danish king, Dan, who lived contemporary with king David. However, it is only a legend, but I think Denmark ought to be mensioned. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 83.91.175.157 (talk) 18:05, 13 October 2006 (UTC)

Um, why? The article on Anton Florian indicates that he took the name from the existing Liechtenstein family anyway, while Liechtenstein refers to Liechtenstein Castle which means bright stone. I wouldn't say that constitutes naming the country after a person. FrozenPurpleCube 20:58, 25 November 2006 (UTC)

I removed this entry, with "Njomo Kenyata" as the person, because Jomo Kenyatta took his name long after the country was named. Gwil 14:32, 20 December 2006 (UTC)

I'm thinking that it would be useful to split this list under subheadings into countries named after legendary figures, those named after proven historical people, those named after saints, etc., and maybe another section for historical examples, such as Rome. --Xyzzyva 13:13, 12 October 2006 (UTC)

I support this; someone (I might be tempted to do this later, but I'm tired now) should create a temporary page, for instance List of countries named after people/temp where we can assign countries to one of a couple of categories, so that when the main page changes its essential a fait accompli. --Neo 19:02, 13 October 2006 (UTC)

List of countries named after people/temp -is now essentialy complete. Can people double check my work and help decide where the few example which don't have sources, or don't quite fit into my schemata should go. Thanks. --Neo 14:14, 15 February 2007 (UTC)

A discussion has been started at Wikipedia talk:WikiProject Countries/Lists of countries which could affect the inclusion criteria and title of this and other lists of countries. Editors are invited to participate. Pfainuk talk 11:46, 17 December 2008 (UTC)

Name links with Qin Shi Huang? First time I've heard of this. -- 李博杰  | —Talk contribs email 13:42, 29 July 2009 (UTC)

Qin is not his name, its the name of the state he ruled before unifying China. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 97.118.64.38 (talk) 09:01, 19 September 2010 (UTC)

I highly suggest to remove china from the list. China as named in its original pronounciation is Zhong Guo, literally meaning Middle Country based on the belief that China was the center of all civilization. Mike V —Preceding unsigned comment added by 99.28.147.188 (talk) 21:47, 16 October 2010 (UTC)

Are you saying that the word China is a mispronunciation of Zhong Guo? —Tamfang (talk) 05:31, 21 October 2010 (UTC)

--Steven X (talk) 17:03, 4 April 2009 (UTC)

Exactly! When the list is titled "List of countries named after people", a reasonable reader expects to find a list of countries named after actual, historical, human beings. Mythical entities don't count. Neither do gods (whether you believe in them or not). It would make better sense to either rename the category or create a separate list of countries named after mythical or fictional persons. At the very least you could split the table in two, setting actual people apart from all the rest. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 85.250.121.165 (talk) 19:46, 21 May 2013 (UTC)

Even the division into 'actual people' vs. 'legendary figures' is far from clear-cut: as it stands now, Mizraim is included in the former section, although we don't even know if such a person ever existed let alone who he/she might have been, whereas Jesus is included in the latter although pretty much every historian agrees that he certainly existed (and the point I'm making here is not a religious one, but purely one of historicity). I'd say further work is needed... DoubleGrazing (talk) 07:59, 30 October 2017 (UTC)

Georgia is an ancient Persian name and means "wolf land". St George theory is not supported by scholarship. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 38.86.167.115 (talk) 05:21, 3 December 2017 (UTC)

This is the exonym, and as is mentioned by other posters, the cognate Qin is not a personal name, but rather the name of a kingdom. Not sure what convention the list is going by. 2600:1700:5450:5BD0:E0E0:1017:E3C8:B301 (talk) 20:26, 13 January 2022 (UTC)