There are numerous widely varying names of Germany in different languages, more so than for any other European nation. For example:
the German language endonym is , from the Old High German , meaning "of the people"; the French exonym is , from the name of the Alamanni tribe; in Italian it is , from the Latin , although the German people are called , which is cognate with German ; in Polish it is , from the Proto-Slavic *němьcь, meaning speechless, since German is not mutually intelligible with Slavic languages; in Finnish it is , from the name of the Saxon tribe; in Lithuanian it is , of unclear origin, but possibly from Proto-Balto-Slavic *vākyā-, meaning “those who speak loud, shout (unintelligibly)”.
Often language lags behind the changing society and names tend to retain references to first encounters: the Finnish first and foremost met the Saxons while the French faced the Alamanni. Comparable tendencies appear elsewhere, e.g. in names for Russia.
Each of the names for Germany has been adapted into other languages all over the world. After an overview of variants this article presents etymological and geographic context for the forms and their worldwide usage as well as names used in bureaucracy.
List of area names In general, the names for Germany can be arranged in six main groups according to their origin:
From Old High German diutisc or similar
Afrikaans: Duitsland Chinese: (pinyin: Déyìzhì), commonly (trad.) or (simp.) (Déguó; "Dé" from , and "guó" means "country") Danish: Tyskland Dutch: Duitsland Faroese: Týskland German: Deutschland Icelandic: Þýskaland Japanese: (Doitsu) Kinyarwanda: Ubudage Korean: (Dogil; Korean pronunciation of Japanese name in Kanji) or (Doichwillandeu – North Korea) Kven: Tyskä Lojban: dotygu'e Low German/Low Saxon: Düütschland/Duutslaand Luxembourgish: Däitschland Medieval Latin: Teutonia, regnum Teutonicum Nahuatl: Teutōtitlan Norwegian: Tyskland Northern Sami: Duiska Northern Sotho: Tôitšhi Swedish: Tyskland Tamil: இடாய்ச்சுலாந்து (idaichulandu) Vietnamese: (; Vietnamese pronunciation of Chinese abbreviation) West Frisian: Dútslân Yiddish: (daytshland)
From the Latin Germania
Acehnese: Jeureuman Albanian: Gjermania Aramaic: ܓܪܡܢ (jerman) Armenian: (Germania) Bengali: (jarmani) Bulgarian: Германия (Germánija) Burmese: (gyamani) Modern English: Germany Esperanto: Germanio (also Germanujo) Friulian: Gjermanie Georgian: (germania) Greek: (Germanía) Gujarati: (jarmanī) Hausa: Jamus Modern Hebrew: (germánya) Hindi: जर्मनी (jarmanī) Ido: Germania Pashto: جارمنی/jarmani Indonesian: Jerman Interlingua: Germania Irish: An Ghearmáin Italian: Germania Hawaiian: Kelemania Kannada: ಜರ್ಮನಿ (jarmani) Kyrgyz: Германия (germaniya, via Russian) Lao: ເຢຍລະມັນ (yīa la man) Latin: Germania Macedonian: () Malay (incl. Malaysian and Indonesian): Jerman Malayalam: ജർമനി (jarmani) Manx: Yn Ghermaan Maltese: Ġermanja Māori: Tiamana Marathi: जर्मनी (jarmanī) Marshallese: Mongolian: (German) Nauruan: Djermani Nepali: जर्मनी (jarmanī) Odia: ଜର୍ମନୀ/ଜର୍ମାନୀ (jårmånī/jårmānī) Punjabi: ਜਰਮਨੀ/جرمنی (jarmanī) Romanian: Germania Rumantsch: Germania Russian: (Germánija) Samoan: Siamani Sardinian: Germania Scottish Gaelic: A' Ghearmailt Sicilian: Girmania Sinhala: ජර්මනිය (jarmaniya) Somali: Jarmal Sundanese: Jérman Swahili: Ujerumani Tahitian: Heremani Tamil: செருமனி (cerumani), ஜெர்மனி (jermani) Thai: เยอรมนี (yəə-rá-má-nii), เยอรมัน (yəə-rá-man) (adjective) Tongan: Siamane Urdu: (jarmanī) Uyghur: (gërmaniye)
From the name of the Alamanni tribe
Arabic: (ʾalmānyā) Asturian: Alemaña Azerbaijani: Almaniya Basque: Alemania Breton: Alamagn Catalan: Alemanya Cornish: Almayn Extremaduran: Alemaña Filipino: Alemanya Franco-Provençal: Alemagnes French: Allemagne Galician: Alemaña Guarani: Alemáña Hindi: आल्मानिया (ālmāniyā) Kazakh: (Almanïya), not used anymore or used very rarely, now using Russian "Германия". Khmer: (ʾaalləɨmɑng) Kurdish: Elmaniya Ladino: Almania Latin: Alemannia Mirandese: Almanha Occitan: Alemanha Ojibwe ᐋᓂᒫ (aanimaa) Persian: (ālmān) Piedmontese: Almagna Portuguese: Alemanha Quechua: Alimanya Spanish: Alemania Tajik: (Olmon) Tatar: Almania Tetum: Alemaña Turkish: Almanya Urdu: آلمانیہ (ālmāniya) Welsh: Yr Almaen (with preceding definite article)
From the name of the Saxon tribe
Finnish: Saksa Livonian: Saksāmō Romani: Ssassitko temmR.V.Sowa, Wörterbuch des Dialekts der deutschen Zigeuner. Westliche Mundart (Abhandlungen für die Kunde des Morgenlandes 11) Leipzig 1898 ("Dictionary of the dialect of the German Gypsies"; digitized by archive.org; (older use?); accessed . Tornedalian: Saksa, also called Tyskä, influenced by the Swedish Tyskland. Veps: Saksanma Võro: S'aksamaa
From the Proto-Slavic *němьcь
Belarusian: (Njamjéččyna) Bosnian: Njemačka Bulgarian: (Nemsko) (obsolete colloquial) Croatian: Njemačka Czech: Německo Hungarian: Németország Kashubian: Miemieckô Montenegrin: Njemačka Ottoman Turkish: (nemçe), meaning all Austrian – Holy Roman Empire countries Polish: Niemcy Serbian: (Nemačka) Silesian: Ńymcy Slovak: Nemecko Slovene: Lower Sorbian: Nimska Upper Sorbian: Němska Ukrainian: (Niméččyna)
From the name of Prussia
Limburgish: Pruses (mostly in derogatory meaning) informal Luxembourgish: Preisen informal Twents: De Pruus Silesian: Prusacy Tahitian: Purutia (also Heremani, see above)
Unclear origin
Kursenieki: Vāce Zėm Latgalian: Vuoceja Latvian: Vācija Lithuanian: Vokietija Samogitian: Vuokītėjė
Other forms Medieval Greek: Frángoi, frangikós (for Germans, German) – after the Franks. Medieval Hebrew: (Ashkenaz), from biblical Ashkenaz, son of Japheth and grandson of Noah, thought to be the ancestor of the Germans. Lower Sorbian: bawory or bawery (in older or dialectal use) – from the name of Bavaria. Silesian: szwaby from Swabia, bambry used for German colonists from the area around Bamberg, krzyżacy (a derogative form of krzyżowcy – crusaders) referring to Teutonic Order, Rajch or Rajś resembling German pronunciation of Reich. Old Norse: Suðrvegr – literally south way (cf. Norway), describing Germanic tribes which invaded continental Europe. Kinyarwanda: Ubudage, Kirundi: Ubudagi – thought to derive from the greeting guten Tag used by Germans during the colonial times,Jutta Limbach, Ausgewanderte Wörter. Eine Auswahl der interessantesten Beiträge zur internationalen Ausschreibung „Ausgewanderte Wörter". Rowohlt Taschenbuch Verl, Reinbek bei Hamburg 2007, p. 123, . or from deutsch.John Joseph Gumperz and Dell Hathaway Hymes, The ethnography of communication. Holt, Rinehart and Winston, New York, N.Y. [etc.] 1972, p. 96, . Navajo: ("Metal Cap-wearer Land"), in reference to Stahlhelm-wearing German soldiers. Lakota: Ullrich, Jan F. (2008). New Lakota Dictionary. Bloomington, Indiana: Lakota Language Consortium. . ("Bad Speaker Land"). Plains Cree: pîwâpiskwastotininâhk ("Among the Steel Helmets") or mâyakwêsinâhk ("Among the Speakers of a Foreign/Strange Language") Sudovian: guti, Old Prussian miksiskai Polish (slang of the communist period): Erefen from R.F.N. = F.R.G. (Federal Republic of Germany) Polish (pre-Second World War slang): Rajch from German Reich
Discussion of name origins
Names from Diutisc
The name Deutschland and the other similar-sounding names above are derived from the Old High German diutisc, or similar variants from Proto-Germanic *Þeudiskaz (Old English þeod), which originally meant "of the people". This in turn comes from a Germanic word meaning "folk" (leading to Old High German diot, Middle High German diet), and was used to differentiate between the speakers of Germanic languages and those who spoke Celtic or Romance languages. These words come from *teuta, the Proto-Indo-European word for "people" (Lithuanian and Latvian tauta, Old Irish tuath).
The Italian for "German", tedesco (local or archaic variants: todesco, tudesco, todisco), comes from the same Old High German root, although not the name for "Germany" (Germania). In the standardised Romansh language, Germania is the normal name for Germany but in Sursilvan, Sutsilvan and Surmiran it is commonly referred to as Tiaratudestga, Tearatudestga and Tera tudestga respectively, with tiara/teara/tera meaning land. French words thiois, tudesque, théotisque and Thiogne, and Spanish tudesco,tudesco in the Diccionario de la Real Academia Española. The first sense refers to Lower Saxony. share this etymology.
The Germanic language which diutisc most likely comes from is West Frankish, a language which died out long ago and has hardly left any written evidence today. This was the Germanic dialect used in the early Middle Ages, spoken by the Franks in Western Francia, i.e. in the region which is now northern France. The word is only known from the Latin form theodiscus. Until the 8th century the Franks called their language frengisk; however, when the Franks moved their political and cultural centre to the area where France now is, the term frengisk became ambiguous, as in the West Francian territory some Franks spoke Latin, some vulgar Latin and some theodisc. For this reason a new word was needed to help differentiate between them. Thus the word theodisc evolved from the Germanic word theoda ("the people") with the Latin suffix -iscus, to mean "belonging to the people", i.e. the people's language.
In Eastern Francia, roughly the area where Germany now is, it seems that the new word was taken on by the people only slowly, over the centuries: in central Eastern Francia the word frengisk was used for a lot longer, as there was no need for people to distinguish themselves from the distant Franks. The word diutsch and other variants were only used by people to describe themselves, at first as an alternative term, from about the 10th century. It was used, for example, in the Sachsenspiegel, a legal code, written in Middle Low German in about 1220: Iewelk düdesch lant hevet sinen palenzgreven: sassen, beieren, vranken unde svaven (Every German land has its Graf: Saxony, Bavaria, Franken and Swabia). In the Carion's Chronicle, the German reformator Philip Melanchthon argued the Germans were descendants of the biblical Ashkenaz, the son of Japheth. They shall have called themselves the Ascenos, which with time derived into Tuiscones.
The Teutoni, a tribe with a name which probably came from the same root, did, through Latin, ultimately give birth to the English words "Teuton" (first found in 1530) for the adjective German, (as in the Teutonic Knights, a military religious order, and the Teutonic Cross) and "Teuton" (noun), attested from 1833. "Teuton" was also used for Teutonisch Land ("land of the Teutons"), its abbreviation Teutschland used in some areas until the 19th century and its currently used official variation Deutschland.
In the northern French language area (northern France, Belgium), the neighboring Germanic dialects, areas and inhabitants of Flanders to Alsace are sometimes referred to as Thiois, most likely still for the area between Maastricht and Aachen and for the traditional German speaking part of Lorraine (Lorraine Thioise), The term is obsolete or colloquial and derives from theodisc (see above).see Thiois in the French wikipedia It remains in a more or less distorted form in the name of one of each of the following pairs of villages, separated by a present or past language barrier: Heur-le Tiexhe (nl:Diets-Heur) (Belgian Limburg) and (Province of Liège); Meix-le-Tige and Meix-devant-VirtonThe latter used to be called just Meix; when under Dutch regime a more distinctive name was desired, the mayor proposed Meix-le-Romain but the authorities didn't accept his proposal. (both in Belgium near French-Luxembourgian border); Audun-le-Tiche (French département Moselle) and Audun-le-Roman (Meurthe-et-Moselle).
Names from Germania