Not something I thought of a lot when I was back in US since USA is... a pretty bureaucratic name by all means. But I just realized that some countries have really fascinating names in their local language

Like how China names itself Central/Middle country in a very grandiose way (as in, we are the center of the world), or Japan being "land of the rising sun"

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[–] 5 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

"Scotland" is very literal. It's the land of the Scots

In Scottish Gaelic - never the language of the whole area of the modern day country and a very small minority nowadays, but nonetheless a language that is uniquely Scottish and very influential on our history - it's Alba. This one is kind of interesting, because it originally meant the entire island of Great Britain. "Scotland" in Scottish Gaelic therefore sort of means "Scotland, England, and Wales"

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