Country Names

A few years ago, we hosted Japanese students. In the beginning, polite questions are asked, one of them being where are you from. One of them didn’t say she was from Japan. She said she was from Nippon, which is what the Japanese call their country.

Coming from Canada, our name is universal. Although it is spelled with a “K” in some places, the pronunciation is the same everywhere. Not so with many countries.

I have already mentioned Japan, but there are many others.

Germany is Deutschland. Switzerland is Helvetia. Norway is Norge. The list goes on and on.

English is not the only language that does this. In French, England is Angleterre, for example. London is Londres. If you go to Belgium, many of their cities have two different names, reflecting the two official languages. Mons and Bergen are the same place. Canada is not immune to this. If you are English, you call it the Ottawa River. Francophones call it the Outouais.

Here is my question. I have no trouble saying Nippon. Then why don’t we call the country by this name? How in the world did Nippon become Japan? Why can’t we call Italy Italia?

Can we change? Of course we can. When I grew up Beijing was called Peking. Mumbai was Bombay. Why can’t we agree on one name for the countries as a start, eventually working our way down to cities and rivers?

I have searched high and low for the answer. I even sent the question into CTV News for their question of the week without any satisfaction.

When I die I just hope that they haven’t renamed heaven when they ask me where I would like to go.