Guatemala Place Names Explained

Having blogged samples of my books on English place names and also examined the etymologies of the nations of the world and their respective capitals I thought it time I cast my net a little wider. As English place names share some links to other tongues it would be interesting to see if any of the elements contributing to our place names could be found elsewhere. Continuing an alphabetical tour of the world and a look at the largest of Guatemala's settlements.

Guatemala City clearly takes its name from the country. Both, as covered in earlier posts looking at first the country and later its capital city, where I explained this was the Spanish version of a native name. The local Tuendal word uhatzmalha described 'the mountain that gushes forth water' and likely refers to the volcanic mountain now known as Agua.

Villa Nueva is clearly of Spanish origins and means 'new outlying farmstead'. Had the place been of Saxon origin we would today call it Newthorpe.

Quetzalenango had been known by the Mam Maya people as Xelaju, this from xe laju' noj meaning 'under ten mountains'. By the time the Spanish arrived this city had been in existence for at least three centuries.

Chimaltenango had been known as B'oko prior to the arrival of the Spanish. However the Conquistadores opted, as always, to use the name given by the their Nahuatl-speaking allies from central Mexico who used Chimaltenanco or 'shield city'.

Huehuetenango was, in the original Mam Mayan language, known as Zaculeu, but the Cnquistadors used the Nahuatl name meaning 'place of the ancients or ancestors'.

Puerto Barrios has only been known as such since 1895, indeed only founded at the end of the 19th century, and named after president feneral Justo Rufino Barrios.

Chichicastenango is another taking the Nahuatl name as used by the Conquistadores, where Tziticaztenanco meant 'city of nettles'.

Santa Catarina Pinula takes the Spanish name for the patron saint, Catherine of Alexandria, and adds pipil meaning 'flour of water'.

Antigua Guatemala literally means 'ancient Guatemala' and a reminder this was the third capital of the country.

Zacapa is another held to be from the Nahuatl language, here zacatl apan referring to 'the river of grass'.

Fraijanes is a corruption of the earlier name of Frailes Juanes, itself a reminder of the place being under the control of two priests Juan Milan and Juan Alvarez in the late 18th century.

Esquipulas is a Spanish-influenced version of the earlier Nahuatl name of Isquitzuchil or 'place where flowers abound'.

Xekik'el is a river name meaning 'where the blood spread' and a reminder of 20th February 1524 when conquistador Pedro de Alvarado killed the legendary K'iche' king Tecun Uman in single combat.

Nahuala is translated locally as either 'enchanted waters' or 'water of the spirits', objecting quite vociferously to any suugestion of 'water of the shamans' as this comes directly from the Spanish idea of aqua de los hrujos and clearly points to the man and not the spirits with which such are associated.

San Andres Itzapa is an ancient town. The Spanish adding 'St Andrew' to the original name meaning 'flint'. Note the Spanish also referred to the place as Valle del Durazno or 'valley of the peaches'.

Dos Pilas is an ancient Maya site, one named from Guatemalan Spanish meaning 'two wells'.

Iximche is another anceint site, this from the Mayan name of the ramon tree which the Mayan referred to as ixim che or 'maize tree'.

Kaminaljuyu is another anceint site, this name from a K'iche' word meaning 'mounds of the ancestors'.

Naranjo is an ancient Mayan site named from the Spanish for 'orange tree'. This a transliteration of Sa'aal meaning 'the place where maize abounds'.

Piedras Negras is a Mayan site with the Spanish name meaning 'black stones', while the original name is thought to read Yo'k'ib' or 'great gateway'.

Q'umarkaj is another Mayan site, this meaning 'place of old reeds' in the local K'iche' tongue.

Tikal is from the Yucatec Mayan language and means 'at the waterhole'.

Nakbe appears to come from the Mayan sacbe or 'white way', appropriate as the causeway still comes to the surface here.

Note the spellings of the places are English as the piece is written in English.

Etymology of African Nations (M - Z)

Folowing on from last week's post, the origin and meaning of the remaining nations of the continent of Africa.

Madagascar is an old name and one not easily explained. The name is recorded by Marco Polo in the 13th century as Madeigascar. All we can say for certain about this name is it is not African for the native peoples originate from Indonesia to the east.

Malawi is a Chichewa word meaning 'flames', which is said to describe the reflection of the rising sun on any of the three large lakes.

Mali was the original name of the country from the 11th century, it comes from the native Malinke people.

Mauritania is an Arabic name which evolved through Greek translation to describe 'the land of the blacks'.

Mauritius was named by Admiral Van Neek in 1598, the Dutch admiral honouring Prince Maurice of Orange, the rule of what is now the Netherlands.

Morocco is a Spanish corruption of the former capital city of Marrakesh, itself from the Berber and meaning 'fortified'.

Mozanbique is said to be another African name of Portuguese origins. They settled on a coral island off the coast in 1508 and the local people spotted them and, according to Vasco da Gama, described the mosambuco or 'gathering of boats'. It must be said this does sound highly suspect etymology.

Namibia takes the name of the Namib desert, itself named from the Nama or Khoekhoe language to describe the 'vast place'.

Niger takes the name of the river, which in turn comes from Tamashek gher ngheren 'the river among rivers'.

Nigeria as above, this is 'the river among rivers'.

Rwanda is named from its inhabitants although the meaning of the word is uncertain.

Sao Tome and Principe was named by Portuguese sailors after St Thomas who landed here on his feast day.

Senegal is another taking the name of the river, which is yet another African name influenced by the Portuguese. The Berber name is Zenaga, thought to refer to the river as 'navigable'.

Seychelles was ceded top the French by the Portuguese, who knew them as the Seven Sisters, and promptly renamed after the French finance minister Vicomte de Sechelles.

Sierra Leone is the Spanish version of the Portuguese name coined by explorer Pedro de Cintra, who saw the land and called it Serra de Leao 'the lion ridge'.

Somalia is from a Cuchite word meaning 'dark, black'.

South Africa is indeed exactly where it says, the southernmost part of the African continent.

South Sudan shares its origin with the following.

Sudan is from Arabic biladas-sudan describing 'the country of the blacks'.

Swaziland is a corruption of the tribal name, which came from their warrior king of the 19th century MsWati III.

Tanzania is a combination of the two countries which united in 1964. Tanganyika is explained as kou tanganyika 'the meeting place (of the waters)' and refers to the lake, while Zanzibar is thought to represent a combination of Arabic zang and Iranian bar 'the country of the black skinned people'.

Togo is named after Lake Togo, a name of unknown origins.

Tunisia is named after its cpital, with Tunis of unknown origin. Often said to represent the Phoenician goddess Tanith, the name is known to pre-date the ariival of the Phoenicians.

Uganda is named from the Swahili name for the inhabitants, the Ganda.

Zambia is derived from the River Zambezi, itself meaning 'big river'.

The Etymology of the Names of African Nations (A to L)

Having thought about my last post and the first words spoken as our earliest ancestors embarked on the long trek out of Africa, I began to wonder about the names of the nations as they appear in the 21st century.

Africa is the obvious starting point as it also happens to come first alphabetically. A name which may come from that of the ancient Berber tribes of the north of the continent as 'cave dwellers' and named by the Romans around the time they captured Carthage. As a name it is unrecorded before the 2nd century BC and originally only applied to a small province of what is now Tunisia before slowly spreading to the rest of the continent.

Algeria is named after its capital, Algiers coming from the Arabic al-Jaza'ir which means 'the islands' and reminds us this city was built on four islands which were joined to the mainland in 1525.

Angola is from the Bantu of Ngola, a name of uncertain meaning but thought likely to be a royal title.

Benin taken from the Edo-Bini kingdom and thus the Bini people. Prior to 1975 this was Dahomey, thought to be a combination of the personal name Dag and a Sudanese word meaning 'intestines'. In the 17th century poor Dag was slit open by a member of his own palace staff, giving the capital the name of 'Dag's belly' and continued to be used in the metaphorical sense of 'a part of Dag'.

Botswana is named after the people native to these lands, the Tswana tribes also giving their name to the former name of the country, before 1966 this was Bechuanaland.

Burkina Faso literally translates as 'honest men country', the nation known as Upper Volta until 1984, named after the River Volta, itself meaning 'the river of return'. The river was named by an early expeditionary group, although whether they were referring to its turning or winding course or their means of returning from their destination was not recorded.

Burundi is ultimately named from its population, the Barundi. Before independence in 1962 this was united with neighbouring Rwanda as Ruanda-Urundi.

Cameroon is named after the river, which comes from Portuguese camaroes telling of the 'prawns' the sailors found in its waters.

Cape Verde is situated on a group of islands in the Atlantic, named from the Portuguese name for the 'green cape' or Cabo Verde in Senegal, these found off the coast of this mainland country.

Central African Republic is exactly what it says it is.

Chad is named after the lake, itself from a Bornuan word with an overly simplistic meaning of 'large expanse of water'.

Comoros is an island group in the Indian Ocean, north of Madagascar. The original Greek name, as recorded by Ptolemy in the 2nd century AD, was Ore Selenaie 'the moon mountains' and translated to Arabic for the modern name from kamar 'moon'.

Cote d'Ivoire is a translation of the original Portuguese name who referred to this place on the coast where they traded ivory by 1447.

Democratic Republic of the Congo named after the one of the world's great rivers which, rather ironically, means 'mountains' and is derived from the Bantu kong.

Republic of the Congo as with the above, named after the river Congo.

Djibouti was originally known as French Somaliland and now takes the name of the capital city, itself from an Afar word gabouri meaning 'plate'. This is a ceremonial plate, woven from palm fibres and placed on a pedestal.

Egypt is an ancient name and it comes as no surprise to find at least four possible meanings. The ancient capital was Memphis, the city of Pta, and maybe this represents Ga-Ka-Pta 'the house of the god Pta'. This could be Greek aia koptos 'the land of the Copts'. Alternatively we have the Phoenician kap-thor meaning 'island', the early settlements supposedly within the delta of the Nile. While another reference to the river may be in the Arabic kemi as the 'black land' in the colour of the waters or possibly the colour of inhabitants' skin.

Equatorial Guinea the first element is self-explanatory, this necessary as their are three 'Guineas' in Africa. All share an origin in Berber aguinau or 'black', the skin colour of the indigenous peoples.

Eritrea is certainly from the Greek erythros meaning 'red', although it is debatable whether this refers to the red soil or the Red Sea.

Ethiopia is popualrly from the Greek aithos ops and referring to 'the people with sunburnt faces'.

Gabon is another named after the river, itself named by the Portuguese from its estuary seen in 1485 as gabao 'the cape' and presumably referring to the clothing worn by the local people.

Gambia is, once again, a river named by the Portuguese who 'discovered' this in the 15th century. They can hardly have 'discovered' it in the true sense as their corruption of the name given by the indigenous people of Ba-Dimma which means simply 'river'.

Ghana took the name of the tribal leader, their version of 'king' being ghana.

Guinea as with Equatorial Guinea from Berber aguinau or 'black'.

Guinea Bissau and again from Berber for 'black'.

Kenya is thought to be named after Mount Kenya, which maybe Swahili for 'mountain' or perhaps a Kikuyu word kerenyaga describing 'the mountain of whiteness' for it is permanently snow-capped.

Lesotho is named after its people, the Sotho, whose named is derived from the river name meaning 'brown' and coloured by the sediment.

Liberia is from the Latin liber 'free' for this was where American slaves were allowed to return to their homeland and freedom from 1822.

Libya is the oldest name on the continent and is recorded on Egyptian hieroglyphics over 4,000 years ago. Unfortunately the origin is completely obscure.