Think about the country you probably (if Google Analytics are to be believed) live in, with its boring, workaday name. Now, think how much would you prefer to live in a country called something more Game of Thrones-y, like Warrior King (Ghana), People of Ten Arrows (Turkey), or Lion City (Singapore)?
Let's face it, most country names are relentlessly boring and descriptive to the point of tedium. OK, we get it, it's the Land of the Angles/Fins/Ice. A similar number are just plain geographical references - it's the place near that river/mountain/bush.
Some other impressively rock and roll names include Flaming Water (Malawi), Lion Mountains (Sierra Leone) and Black Mountain, though a great name for a metal band, is also the translation of Montenegro.
Slightly less impressive on the scale of awesomeness, though cute in their own way, would be Shrimp (the meaning of 'Cameroon'), Year-Old Calf (Italy) and Little Castle (Luxembourg). Hippopotamus is a possible translation of Mali and Spain is possibly named after a land full of rabbits. Little Venice, as well as being a posh neighbourhood of London, is the meaning of Venezuela.
Some country names are obvious with some basic Spanish - Sunday Island (Dominica) and Equator (Ecuador) are the best known, and it's not that much of a stretch to The Shallows (Bahamas - literally 'low sea'). Barbados could have been the first hipster colony, its name meaning The Bearded Ones, though it's possibly a reference to the appearance of the island's fig trees (Barbuda has similar origins).
Malta is literally Land of Honey, And let's nod to the appropriateness of Ireland, meaning Fertile Land.
There aren't too many recently-named countries, though in 1983, Upper Volta became Burkina Faso, which means 'Land of the Honest Men'. Stage a successful coup, you pretty much get to decide what to name your country. Too bad Warrior King was already taken.
Let's face it, most country names are relentlessly boring and descriptive to the point of tedium. OK, we get it, it's the Land of the Angles/Fins/Ice. A similar number are just plain geographical references - it's the place near that river/mountain/bush.
Some other impressively rock and roll names include Flaming Water (Malawi), Lion Mountains (Sierra Leone) and Black Mountain, though a great name for a metal band, is also the translation of Montenegro.
Slightly less impressive on the scale of awesomeness, though cute in their own way, would be Shrimp (the meaning of 'Cameroon'), Year-Old Calf (Italy) and Little Castle (Luxembourg). Hippopotamus is a possible translation of Mali and Spain is possibly named after a land full of rabbits. Little Venice, as well as being a posh neighbourhood of London, is the meaning of Venezuela.
Some country names are obvious with some basic Spanish - Sunday Island (Dominica) and Equator (Ecuador) are the best known, and it's not that much of a stretch to The Shallows (Bahamas - literally 'low sea'). Barbados could have been the first hipster colony, its name meaning The Bearded Ones, though it's possibly a reference to the appearance of the island's fig trees (Barbuda has similar origins).
Malta is literally Land of Honey, And let's nod to the appropriateness of Ireland, meaning Fertile Land.
There aren't too many recently-named countries, though in 1983, Upper Volta became Burkina Faso, which means 'Land of the Honest Men'. Stage a successful coup, you pretty much get to decide what to name your country. Too bad Warrior King was already taken.
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