How Each European Country Got its Name

Europe is the second smallest continent in the world. It has several islands, peninsular rivers, and sounds by the Atlantic and the Arctic Ocean along with Caspian, Mediterranean, and Black seas. 

Europe has been divided into 45 countries, and Turkey is partly part of Asia and Europe. Scholars believe Europe’s land to be 5 million years older. 

Conceptual construct means identifying the characteristics of a person, place or object and imagining the collection of meaning for the particular theory. 

Each country is named through a conceptual construct. The theory of conceptual construct was used in the naming process of countries like France, Spain, Portugal, Italy, Belgium, Latvia, San Marino and others. 

Origin of Europe

Earlier, the world’s geography was divided into three particular continents: Asia, Libya, and Europe. The scholars believe Europe’s origin is older than it was discovered.

The linguistic research approaches the Greek language, which defines the wide shoreline and several ranges of seas, rivers, islands, peninsular, mountains, and shipboards view Europe. 

The northern portion of Africa left is the fourth part of the world’s geographic structure or map. Other scholars believe Europe’s origin to be Mesopotamia due to the ancient language.

In the mythology of Europe, Goddess Europa has occupied the last hierarchy as one of the Oceanides. The goddess of earth, agriculture, and Europa were counted in for naming among the 41 others.

 After research for so many years, the real origin is still unknown, but the conceptual construct theory helped name counties. The real reason scholars believe Europe’s origin is due to its rich geographical features and separated northern portion of Africa.

What Is A Conceptual Construct?

In simple words, conceptual construction means deriving the ideas and constructing them into a sequence in terms of theory. These theories are not understandable directly but are available as abstract. The conceptual construct is used in various studies, including the life satisfaction index, naming countries, land or other objects or matters.

How Were European Countries Named?

The European countries were named using factors such as climate, land texture, living situations, stability, economy, geographical division and a few other aspects included in the identification process. There are several countries, but we will discuss the following:-

• Portugal

Portus Cale is a word derived from the Roman language. The Portus means ports, and the meaning of Cale is yet not defined. The country is situated aside from the river Doru and on the western side of Europe, and Portuguese is the most spoken language.

• Spain

Spain is also called Espana as scholars of old times have introduced the origin word Hispania. It means the city of the western world and the land of metals. Rabbit is also part of their culture, and Spanish is the most spoken language.

• France

Francia is derived from a Latin word, and the meaning differs in languages which all mean the realm of franks or land of free. French is the most spoken language.

• Iceland

Naddodd was the first to discover the country and named it to snow land. Irish and English are the most spoken languages. The ocean sounds like the country, and the climate is mostly cold.

• Netherlands

Dutch and Holland are the two other names for the Netherlands. These all words mean countries with lower sea levels. The Dutch language is the origin of these words, meaning woodlands, and Dutch is the official language.

• United Kingdom

In 1707, the country was founded by the union of England, Scotland and Wales. Till 1800, the real name was Great Britain and Britannia, which was derived from the Latin language. English is the most spoken language known for the monarch ruling system.

• Switzerland

Land of the Switzer is another name derived from the English language. Other words were introduced, such as Swiss from Suites which means to burn. French, German, Roman and Italian are the languages spoken in the country.

Conclusion

The article educates you about the naming of European countries. There are around 45 countries in Europe, and some of them are discussed in the article above. The name was derived using the conceptual construct and considering the demography and nature surrounding the country. 

The origin of Europe is also discussed, along with the ocean, mountains, and peninsular around the country. Brief knowledge of earlier geography is mentioned how Europe, Libya, Asia, and the northern portion of Africa were only continents. Read and know about the names of each country in short.