Funny country names include names like Swaziland, Papua New Guinea, Belize, Panama, Hungary, and Niger. Some people will also find names like Kazakhstan, Afghanistan, Kyrgyzstan and all the remaining “-stans” funny. What about names like Christmas Island, Bangladesh, Tajikistan, and Yemen. Every country has its own way of doing things otherwise known as culture or traditions which is unique but these cultures and traditions are not the only things which make these countries unique and different but their name also give them a unique identification.
This article will give you a list of some country names. They are indeed the names of different countries, while some of them may sound funny because of the way they are pronounced, there are others that look bizarre or weird, the fact remains that they are names of countries with people living in them, you may have heard some of them before but I bet there are several others you may never have heard of before.
- Burundi (Africa): Originally occupied by the Twa people, situated in East Central Africa. It is a land-locked country
- Burkina Faso (Africa): We won’t be realistic if we do not include the country name Burkina Faso on our list of funny country names. Even if you don’t giggle, there is always something humorous going through your mind whenever you have to call this name.
But before we delve further into the humorous side of this name, let us find out what it actually means. The name Burkina Faso means ‘land of incorruptible people’. The country got its name in 1984 when it was changed from Republic of Upper Volta to its present name. One more funny thing about Burkina Faso is its capital Ouagadougou which has its short form as Ouaga.
- Uganda (Africa): This country doesn’t really have a meaning, is used to refer to the traditional kingdom of Buganda
- Swaziland(Africa): A country in south-east Africa, named after the Swazi people
- Switzerland (Europe): A landlocked country, within the Central Republic of Europe
- Bangladesh (Asia): next on our list of funny country names is Bangladesh, a name derived from a combination of two words: “Bengali” which refers to people of ethnic Bengali descent and “deshi” which means land or country.
- Kyrgyzstan (Asia): Ths country is located in West Central Asia. The first word Kyrgyz is derived from the Turkish word ‘kyrk’ which means ‘forty’. The word Forty was given to the state with respect to the forty clans of Manas, a man who united forty regional clans against the Uyghurs who dominated Central Asia at the time.
- Tajikistan (Asia): The name simply refers to a people or place of Tajiks.
- Nauru (Oceania/Australia): This is an island country in Micronesia, a subregion of Oceania. The name Nauru means popularity
- Papua New Guinea (Oceania/Australia): Derived from the word, Pua – Pua meaning frizzly – haired. This country has got a dual name. This is because the country once had a complex administrative history before independence.
- Palau (Oceania/Australia): located in the western central of the pacific ocean
- Belize (North America): Meaning muddy – watered
- Botswana (Africa): The name refers to all the citizens of the country, with no exemption.
- Virgin Islands (British): located in the Caribbean to the east of Puerto Rico.
- Virgin Islands (US): What makes an island to be regarded as a virgin? If you have been wondering, here is your answer. The name came about when Italian colonizer Christopher Columbus named the islands after Saint Ursula and the 11,000 Virgins.
- Reunion Island (Eastern Africa): A France Island which is located in the western Indian Ocean.
- Panama (Central America): meaning abundance of fish and abundance of birds, generally means abundance. There are two meanings to this name; one is an “abundance of butterflies”. This name emerged from the historical view that butterflies were numerous at the time; initiating the name – abundance of butterflies. The second which refers to a place of many fishes; This was coined from a river called Panama which was said to have many fishes.
- Luxembourg (Western Europe): located in land Locked north Western Europe
- Guatemala (Central America): Located in Central America bordered by Mexico, its meaning is attributed to Catholic belief
- Christmas Island (Southeast Asia): The meaning is not so clear, but its a territory within Australia in the Indian Ocean
- Pakistan: Last on our list of funny country names is Pakistan. This surely sounds funny to a man who knows nothing about Asia. The word Pakistan is used to refer to a ‘land of the pure’