Country's names

[janaage]

I was just wondering after watching the Euros why countries call other countries different names.

For example, we are England - so why doesn't everyone else call us England not Angleterre, Ingleterre and all the other dago names.

Germans call their country Deutschland - so why do we call it Germany.

You would think it polite for people to call a country by the name the country calls itself.

I know, I know - I'm bored - just cleaned the kennels out and a bit shagged at the mo

Because we'd never been able to pronounce Hungary's proper name?

[kerry red]

Cote d'Ivoire

[Coca Fola]

Croatia is Hrvatska and Montenegro is Crna Gora. The Montenegro thing is weird, Crna Gora means Black Forest in Serbian, whereas we call it Montenegro which means Black Mountain in Italian. Make your mind up guys.

[ChalkyWhiteIsGod]

Pretty sure England is something other than England in German, Italian, etc too

[china red]

I live in Zhong Guo = middle kingdom. 

[Reg Smeeton]

Ivory Coast ?- Big old guess.

Yep....as KR says Cote d'Ivoire....t'other is Timor Leste....East Timor to us.

[cheltred69]

Croatia is Hrvatska and Montenegro is Crna Gora. The Montenegro thing is weird, Crna Gora means Black Forest in Serbian, whereas we call it Montenegro which means Black Mountain in Italian. Make your mind up guys.

Hey?  According to my wife's English / Serbo-Croatian dictionary "gora" means mountain. Forest is šuma

[Flashheart]

Burma is actually known as Myanmar, after being changed from Burma

However, as the British government do not formally recognise the regime is legit they don't recognise the name change either.

[leefer]

Sri Lanka was formerly Ceylon....not many countries are named after people suprising .

Norway was named by old mancunian explorers who on setting foot on the snowy ground one said.....live here?....Nor way.

[Coca Fola]

Hey?  According to my wife's English / Serbo-Croatian dictionary "gora" means mountain. Forest is šuma

Depends whereabouts you're from.

[sonicyouth]

Norway was named by old mancunian explorers who on setting foot on the snowy ground one said.....live here?....Nor way.

The weather has actually been nicer here than in the UK the last few days.

Apparently (I looked it up because your post made me curious) the name for Norway comes from the old Norse for 'the north route'.

[Bodins left foot]

I'm in one of the two countries whose official names begins with The.
No idea why there's a THE
 

[Bumpkin]

When did they drop The from Ukraine?

[Amir]

When did they drop The from Ukraine?

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-18233844

In reply to the original question the best answer I can come up with is, it depends.  In my experience it depends on how a country came to know about another and whether the given name was easily pronounceable in that nations mother tongue.

For example in Cambodia we are Anglais, because they didn't know about us until the French turned up.  Except because of their language the country has the same name as the people/language.  They call the French 'Barang', because that's what they felt like calling them when they turned up.  The French call England 'Angleterre' because that means land of the Angles in French, and Angle is where we got the name England from.  

Like I said, it depends.

[Nomoreheroes]

I'm in one of the two countries whose official names begins with The.
No idea why there's a THE
 

Because Ukraine comes from a Russian word that means 'edge' or 'country'. So, 'The Edge' or 'The country' makes a little more sense when describing where you come from.