How Did The Countries Of South America Get Their Names? 

What part of South America are you watching from?

One funny coincidence is that the word 'peru' in Portuguese means 'turkey', and the word 'turkey' in English is also the name of a country. So, we have two different countries whose names in different languages are the names of a same animal. 🤣

Fun fact: Argentina is rich in almost every precious metal EXCEPT silver.

Dude from Chile here. There are several theories about the meaning and origin of the word "chile" but the one that is most accepted is, indeed, "where the land ends" or "the end of the land." But it is not because of the coast, but because the Inca named it like that because that is where their empire ended mainly for two reasons: a. they had no real interest on expanding more to the south and b. the dense forests and freedom-loving natives from those regions were just a nightmare. Imagine the emperor saying "everything that touches the sun is ours... except chile, never go there"

02:03 | Colombia 🇨🇴 03:24 | Venezuela 🇻🇪 04:03 | Guyana 🇬🇾, Suriname 🇸🇷 & French Guiana 🇬🇫 05:08 | Ecuador 🇪🇨 05:47 | Peru 🇵🇪 06:21 | Bolivia 🇧🇴 07:21 | Brazil 🇧🇷 08:23 | Paraguay 🇵🇾 & Uruguay 🇺🇾 10:24 | Argentina 🇦🇷 11:05 | Chile 🇨🇱

It's worth noting that Bolivia isn't the only country named in honor of Simon Bolivar. The official name of Venezuela is "República Bolivariana de Venezuela," which means "Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela."

The Amerindian family is disputed by linguists, but Guarani is a Tupian language. The Tupian family is believed to have been traditionally present in the Guianas, so is probably traceable to a TUpian language in that area. The Guy/Guay cognate is probably derived, in turn, from proto-Tupian, but I don't know the status of reconstruction..

*_Peru has the most mysterious name of all! because there is no true information of its origin_* everything is based on assumptions! Some say that it is called Peru because in Italy there is a city called "Perugia" and the Spaniards who arrived in Peru passed through *_PERUGIA_* and they liked the name, they saw similarities, others say that in Spain there was the saying *_"vale un peru"_* which means "abundance" and in the lands of present-day Peru there was a lot of gold and abundance of food like potatoes!

Hi, The name Brazil comes from a very abundant tree in our territory, when the Portuguese arrived here. When boiled, it releases a kind of red liquid used to produce red dye used to give high quality red color to expensive clothes. In Portuguese the word for "Ember" is "Brasa". One of the words for "Wood" is "Pau". So putting these two words together, "Pau + Brasa" / "Wood + Ember", you get "Pau Brasa", which lately was converted into "Pau Brasil", or just "Brazil", ok? Please let me know if you need any additional information from our country. Best regards, José.

There is no origin of the name "PERU" he Spanish "conquered" the Inca Empire, founded the "Kingdom of Peru" the largest viceroyalty founded in the Americas! literally almost ALL of South America was called PERU for a long time, (1542 - 1717) The kingdom of Peru in its maximum splendor lasted 2 centuries and covered the current territories of Colombia, Argentina, Chile, Ecuador, Bolivia, and other territories except Venezuela, when the kingdom of Peru was divided, other viceroyalties were born such as the current silver argentina and new granada current colombia! Present-day Peru is the only country that continued to preserve the name of the old viceroyalty that once covered almost all of South America.

fun fact: peru is also the word for turkey in portuguese, the name of the bird derives from the country similar to what happened in english

I love the fact that Uruguay and Paraguay kept their (true) native names... 💚

Uruguay is largely accepted locally to mean river of the tainted birds. With our country's full name being República Oriental del Uruguay (Oriental Republic of the Uruguay), meaning republic east of the Uruguay river, I always found it funny that our country's name tells you how you can find it on a map 😂😂

The meaning behind Brazil's name is "vermelho como brasa" that in english is " red like ember"

"You go Uruguay and I'll go mine." --Groucho Marx, 1930

Hey! Great video, loved it. Just a a small detail that caught my attention. When you're talking about the origin of the name for Argentina, the silver was not coming from the Rio de la Plata, actually it was coming from the Potosí mountain in Bolivia, but the "Silver River" was the route that the spanish used to get the mineral to the Atlantic Ocean, and so, Europe.

Peru is my favorite place in South America, if you really want to "know" South America you have to travel to Peru.

Chile comes from the quechua word "Chire", which means Cold. Chile is way colder than Perú and Bolivia.

I should mention that the word Paraguay in Guarani using the Guarani pronunciation of the last letter ¨y¨ means the capital Asuncion, it seems like this region was called like that way before the spanish named as such. People here also speculate that the origin of the word Paraguay is the fusion of 3 Guarani words: Para: shinny, glowy Gua: From y: water so bassically meaning ¨from the shinny waters¨, or ¨waters from the glowing brightness¨.

The Brazil nut tree is a tree named after a country named after a different tree.

You should look into the cities names too because they also have interesting names. For example, a legend in Ecuador the largest port city named Guayaquil is named after a native chief and his wife. His name Guayas and her name was Quil

Fun fact: The indigenous name of Brasil before the portugueses was Pindorama.

As a Paraguayan, I must add that in modern Guaraní “guay” doesn’t mean anything, “river” is written “rysyry” and “water” is simply written as “y”. This is actually an incredibly common misconception, specially between foreigners who are eager to lean about our country, because the language family Guaraní is a part of is called “tupi-guarani”, but the language simply called Guaraní has relatively recent origins as it evolved from tribal languages through mestizos’ way of speaking during colonial times. In fact, in Guaraní the name for our language is “Avañe’ẽ”, meaning “the people’s language”. This confusion between language denominations is a fairly common one, as most tupi-guaraní languages spoken in our region generally have this word in their name, but if anyone wanted further information on the language our country is named after, here you have it!

I'm surprised you didn't mention that the only other country named after the Equator doesn't actually have any area touching the Equator

Argentina may be translated as made from silver, like "cristalina" is something mad or with properties of crystal. Argentinian meaning those who are made from silver sounds badass.

In my opinion, the most striking is "PERU" I was investigating and there is no exact origin! It is very interesting because Peru is the country with the most history in South America!

"Brasa" in portuguese is when you have a burning log without the flames. Brasil is a collection of brasa. So, the names comes from red and amber, of course, but has a closer connection to fire. Unfortunatelly our flag doesn't have that burning red

For Brazil, that derives from the "red like ember" wood, something that might help connect the idea would be "blaze" or "blazing", although those may or may not convey the same exact color shade hahah

Fun fact ecuador wasn’t named ecuador just because the equator goes throught it but because the french geodesic mission went to ecuador to do the measurements for the line since quito it’s capital was the only big city that went along it most other places where jungle like the congo or the amazon or very far away. So after the mission the name stuck.

I don't know why, but English-influenced countries are the only ones (as far as I know) that recognize this continent, America, as two. In fact, where I live, we are all taught at school that America is the second largest continent in the world just behind Asia, but that would not be true for North America or South America independently as Africa would be larger. We are also taught that the continent is composed by FOUR subcontinents: North America, South America, Central America and the Antilles. Your example of the country of Trinidad and Tobago is regarded, then, as part of the Antilles, even though it is a mere 13K (8 miles) from Venezuela on its closest proximity. Perhaps the reason for that naming in English is that the whole continent is called America, so the country, USA, would actually not have a name. The name "Colombia" is used like that in English and Spanish, "Columbia" is a whole different word (amongst others, it is the name of the district where the capital city of the USA is located). Other languages modify the name to match their pronunciations, for example "Colombie" in French or "Kolumbien" in German, but you should use Colombia in English too. Similarly in English the country Ecuador is called like that, not "Equator" or something of the sort. Much like Great Colombia gave birth to today's Venezuela, Colombia, Ecuador and Panamá, Bolivia exists because a larger country divided, in this case in two. During the Spanish rule, the land called Peru included Bolivia, and in fact Bolivia was probably the most important land for the whole Spanish kingdom. When Simon Bolivar divided it in two, to create Bolivia, Peruvians were really offended. Bolivia was actually one of the richest regions: The mountain called "Potosi" was very likely the largest silver mine in the world at the time, and its proximity to Peru made it a very good way to rule it, but the routes to Europe from Peru were very sketchy. Spaniards found another way by transporting silver through the river Paraná, then to the "Río de la Plata" (river of silver), and then to Buenos Aires, where it could be transported much easier to mainland Spain. It is very likely that Argentina is called like that not because of its own silver mines but because of the silver trade in Buenos Aires that came from the Potosi Mountain in Bolivia. Finally, Paraguay, there is an easier explanation: the name for the river Paraná is older, so, if the river is called Paraná, and the suffix "guay" means river, then the country's name can come from Paranaguay and then Paraguay. Fun fact, one of the largest falls in the world are the Iguazú falls, where the Iguazú river flows into the Paraná river. It is also where three countries have borders: Brazil, Argentina and Paraguay.

The most widespread theory about the origin of the name of Paraguay is _"Water from the crown of feathers",_ from _"paraguã"_ (crown of feathers) and _"y"_ (water). The particle _"y"_ in Paraguay is present in the toponymy of other places related to water. This can be seen in different names of bodies of water such as the Queguay river ("Keguay", dream river), the Capivary stream ("Kapivary", capybara stream) or the Yguazú falls ( "Y guasu", big waters).

Columbia is a popular brand, and an university in the US. Colombia is a country in South America. Confusing the two is beyond ignorant, and no, Colombia should never be spelled or pronounced like Columbia! 🤨

The Inca empire was called Tawantinsuyo or Tahuantinsuyo but the Spaniards ask to this tribe lead that they found around the south pacific coast of what is today Colombia or the coast of what is today Ecuador, what is the name of this kingdom in the south, the lead though that the Spaniards were asking for his name and he said Viru or Piru, later the Spaniards changed for Peru, they didn't change the name of this new kingdom despite that the Incas told them the name of their empire. One more thing, the Incas didn't use flags but they used an emblem as the Roman empire, the emblem has snakes, the "crown" of the Inca and little rainbows coming from the mouth of the snakes, anyways, if you see this rainbow flag in Cusco, it never was part of the Inca empire, it was an invention in the 20s for a local radio en Cusco a flag for the city of Cusco but the truth is that Cusco has a different flag created for the Spaniards, as I said the Incas never used flags.

In addition to this explanation of the name Brasil being derived from the word "brasa" (meaning "amber" in Portuguese), for the fire-colored wood, historians also theorize a more ancient origin: There was a legend that circulated in the extreme west of Europe (Ireland and Portugal), written by an Irish monk named São Brandão, saying that there was a mystical heavenly land beyond the unknown waters of the Atlantic. In the ancient Celtic language, the term "Hybrasil" is mentioned as being "blessed land", deriving from the term "bress", which means "bless". So when Europeans arrived in America, they found their blessed promised land, their "Hybrazil".

This was great! It's really unexpected when south America shows up in my RU-vid because there's very little content about it from other parts of the world, which I believe is a criminal underrating because there's so many fascinating stories and each culture is beautiful, with a good assimilated mix of Spanish (and other European settlers) and native traditions in it. I love living here, it's got it's fair share of troubles but it is also one of the most peaceful parts in the world, without any major wars since the late 19th-early 20th century, and there is a sense of brotherhood in most south Americans as we share this beautiful land and made it our own. Love from Chile 🇨🇱

8:12 Pau does not mean tree in Portuguese. Pau means wood. Árvore means tree. Also, besides Terra de Santa Cruz, Brazil was also called, Vera Cruz.

My favorite country in South America is PERU

Awesome content. I didn't know how much I didn't know!!

Colombia has never been spelled Columbia, the name of Columbus is the Anglo version, both the Italian and Spanish are with an o, Colombo and Colon.

I learned a bit of Guaraní while living in rural Paraguay; it's true that "gua" means "from/of", and "y" means "water", though they would usually be in the other order: ýgua, from water. So it's plausible, but more likely a folk etymology. I looked up "para", and in modern Guaraní it means "ocean", though I never heard that word while living there, as they are landlocked, so this seems unlikely as well.

Technically Venezuela’s name is the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela, making Bolivar the only person with two countries named after him

So that's where the word "argent" in French comes from. Had no idea it had a connection with the name of Argentina in a round-about sort of way 🤯

Buen video hermano por explicar los orígenes de los nombres me ayudaron de mucho👌

Actually the presence of big silver deposits in current Argentina ended up being a legend. The "conquistadores" couldn't find much.

5:50 - Fun Fact: Peru means turkey in Portuguese. 😀

one thing about the "guay" suffix it's that in Guarani the "Y" (look up how to spell ɨ) it's not spelled like the "i" in Spanish so the word that refers to the country Paraguay (in Spanish/English) it's written "Paraguái" in Guarani while the word "Paraguay" in Guarani refers to the area near the Paraguay river where the Asuncion city it's located

Fun fact: Peru in portuguese means "Turkey". Yes, the bird. So, here in Brazil, when we talk about Peru, eu are talking about "turkey" the bird as well

6:05 that Chief Biru was not located in the Inca lands, but in the Bay of San Miguel, south of Panama. The main hypothesis is that the Chief Piru was ruling a terroritory and was fierce enough to not be conquered, so when Spaniards wanted to know where to go for gold, they often said "to the south of Biru"providing a proper name to the soon to be discovered lands of what is now Peru.

The international airport in Santa Cruz, Bolivia is Viru Viru (VVI).

You know something, the origins of these names really are fascinating.

Guarani belongs to the Tupian language family, and is not called amerindian. I'm saying tupian, because tupian languages are spoken in the guianas.

Can't stop focusing on the "eerrrhH" after every single sentence haha. Great video tho! :)

I don't speak Guaraní (accent on the final i), but I am uruguayan. The formal name of our country is "La Republica Oriental del Uruguay," which literally translates to "The Republic to the east of the Uruguay (river)." The name Uruguay means "River of the painted birds."

As a brazilian, they teach in the school that the word "Brasil" comes the color of the ember (the burning coal color), because the reddish wood that portugueses loved to take to Europe to do red dye.

I've heard from my teachers in Brazil that the country's name came indeed from the color of the Pau Brasil tree which is red as an ember, in Portuguese ember translates as 'brasa'.

Pau does not mean tree. Pau means wood. The name of the tree is Pau-Brasil. Pau is also how we call a piece of wood, not the entire trunk. It's also a word for d*ck, lol.

As an Uruguayan the SNAIL part is so dumb, never heard of it. Uru means "Colored/colorful birds" , the name being "River of the colored birds". This is thaught to us in pre-school. Lol. It comes from the Guarani tribe dialect, that part is true.

3:10 is wrong, Colombia is NEVER spelled with an "U" it's because in Spanish Christopher Columbus is called Cristóbal Colón or Cristoforo Colombo (in Italian)

6:13 The word "Biru 6:13 " Means "Blue" In Indonesian

Funny note: there's almost no silver in argentina, most of it is in peru/bolivia.

French Guiana isn't an overseas territory, and is more like what Alaska and Hawaii are to the United States. With Alaska and Hawaii being 2 of the 50 states of the United States, and French Guiana is one of the 18 regions of France.

If you visit brazil in your trip, i recomend Ouro Preto in Minas Gerais, Recife in Pernambuco, Manaus in Amazonas, Bonito in Mato Grosso do Sul, Foz do Iguaçu in Paraná and Blumenau in Santa Catarina. Rio and São Paulo are also most see cities.

Make the "Leave a super thanks" beginning feature this video (at timestamp 9:36) instead of what it currently is RIGHT NOW and use it from now on.

Good video! Im from south america

At 5:44 ...except that Equatorial Guinea is 110 km north of the equator...

Pau means wood, not tree. Tree is árvore in Portuguese.

Just to add more detail about Brazil, Pau-Brasil is named this way because "ember" in portuguese is "brasa"

About Brazil's name, it came from the Brasil three as the video say's, however "Pau Brasil" doesn't mean Brasil's Tree, as the Portuguese word for tree is " Árvore". Pau means stick, or wooden stick. So the most accurate translation is Brasil's stick.

In argentina the Rio de la plata also aquired that name because at the horizon you can clearly see a silver line which is an optical illusion.

3:10 That pause, lol you are just trying to piss us colombians off lmao. For God's sake don't spell it with a U in English

As funny as it may seem, the equator does NOT go through Equatorial Guinea. All of the country is (a tiny bit) north of the equator.

Paraguayian here the "Gua" in the name means "From" "y" means water, "para" it's a multifuncional particle in the language It would roughly translate to "Those who come from the water" Not bc we have a river that splits the country, but bc the original tribes came from Asia during the last ice age and as they came hopping island to island, the name stick

The southern tip of South America isn't occupied entirely by Chile but is shared with Argentina. That southern "tip" is actually an archipelago of islands split between those neighboring nations

Just adding: Brazil, or in portuguese Brasil, comes from the word "brasa" in portuguese, wich means ember. That's because the wood from Pau Brasil is so red, it resembles ember.

Francisco Miranda fought in the American revolution with Spain (Spain was Borbon then, as was France, and they messed with the British all along the Mississippi, which was French). "America" had some choices for its new name as free country, and one of them was "Columbia" (B. Franklin was the fan number one) but they finally chose the most descriptive USA (the long version). Miranda and others were witnesses at the sign of the new American constitution, and then he decided to take it for the name of a future country formed with all the Spaniard colonies, but took the name written with Spanish phonetics, "Colombia" instead of "Columbia".

I love reading all the version of the origin of the name Peru. Personally, i was taught in primary school that the name came from a river that was called biru and when Spaniards came and asked for the name of the land, the person that was asked confused it for the river and told them. Eventually evolving to Perú. But, idk, bro. I was in primary school its a miracle i still remember that story.

Hello Name Explain! Do you happen to have a video that explains the relations between Peru's, Turkey's, India's and the animal turkey's names? If not, i'd love to see one! Basically, the animal is called Peru in Portuguese, but it's called Turkey in English, and called Hindi in Turkish... I'd love to see the history behind that

Brasil actually means some thing like "red hot" or "fire like" or "ember like"... it refers to the color of hot metal or burning wood... the pau brasil tree's wood is so vividly red that looks like it is on fire..

very cool!

There's a less known version of Venezuela's name (I'm Venezuelan). Is a native origin: In Maracaibo's coast was a indian community around a big flat stone called "Veneçiuela" (it pronounces V-nee-see-u-ela) that means " "agua grande" (Big water) in Indian language.

I am brazilians and have traveled to paraguai and saw the foz of iguazu in the brazilian city near of it (while they do have their side of watefalls), and the region have a hidric eletric generator that is one of the most important things in the contry. Trust me, iguaçu alone is worth calling that contry a name based on water. That is the most impressive waterfall system in the world I think. Realy the most beautifull thing I ever saw. It is amazing

About the tree pau-brasil, the word "pau" doesn't mean tree, It means wood.

South America is beautiful. But if you want to see the wild parts, buy the guided tour. Things can happen there. If you like to wander and show yourself around, stick to Peru.

It’s so good to see someone that understands that South America is not everything that’s after Mexico 😂

I am still puzzled why Columbus put so many of his "finger prints" all over the place. I mean, even the Spanish crown back in his day was not very thrilled by him. To put it mildly. Furthermore he was a tyran, a bad gouvernour, so bad that the Spanish crown revoke his title, and most probably he didn't pay his share to the Spanish Crown. Not to mention that his fourth trip to las Nuevas Tierras was a complete disaster. And after all it was pure luck. He wanted to discover a route to Asia. He even didn't knew that he discovered Amerika. But apparently that all did not diminish his fame.

Bolivia and Perú used to be one country under the viceroy from Spain named "Alto Perú". During the independence lead by Simon Bolivar only part of Alto Perú got taken (the part that come to be "El Alto" from Bolivia and Perú been divided just renamed to just Perú.

Thanks for this interesting video. However, as a subscriber of dual nationality (Brazilian-American), I hope you will not object to a minor correction vis-a-vis the name of the Red Wood (which I believe is close to extinction), for its correct name is "Pau-Brasil." Cheers!

4:02 how interesting, i know it as a 'despective' way to call the people who lived there, at least in spanish the 'zuela' may sound like another ofensive word xd i don't know if it the same in italian.

Fun fact- South America is actually América, as it was given the name in 1507.

The ending "zuela" is added to word to forms diminutives, and adds derogatory value to the primitive word. For example, plazuela (a small or insignificant square between two streets), escritorzuela/o, (a low value writter), mujerzuela (a slut). In this case Venezuela was used to compare the settlement at the lake, which remind them of the more grandilocuent city of Venezia. Other examles are, ladronzuela, a petty thief, or portezuela a small door.

I've said it before but you don't know how much I enjoy your channel and I feel like you have a similar passion for the etymology of literally everything, just like me! 😂, don't be disappearing or getting struck or something please! Best wishes 🙏

The author missed fun facts about Suriname. Suriname was once owned by the Spanish, then English and finally the Dutch, after winning a game with an English lord of sorts. The Dutch and English swapped countries thus we now hav British Guyana to the West, and French Guyana to the East. In the center was left Dutch Guayana, or simply Guayana. In 1976, when it separated from Holland, it adopted the name of Suriname (hope I got all the facts straight).

The argentina one gave me an idea: where did the elements get their names?

Great as always

10:45 "so much silver was found in this land that the land got named 'the land of silver'" nope, this is incorrect, there actually wasn't much of any silver in Argentina or around the "rio de la plata" the river is actually called that because it was used to transport the silver from the Potosi mines, which are in current day Bolivia. The idea that we're named after silver but don't actually have much of it is pretty well known in Argentina, it's tought in elementary school so it's interesting that that's a misconception in other countries apparently

Colombia the country isn't going to be spelled with a "u" because it's a Spanish word. In Spanish vowels only have one sound. In Spanish "o" sounds like the word home and "u" like Sue. Spelling Colombia with a "u" would change the pronunciation to Co-loom-bia. English speakers tend to read the second "o" with the short vowel sound which leads to Columbia as an English language spelling.

the meaning of uruguay is simply: river of the painted birds, because of the colourful birds among the shore of the uruguay river. it comes form a word in the language guarani, spoken amongst various countries in south america. not because of snails, it has nothing to do with that or the history of the country. from an uruguayan

Rio de la Plata es por el brillo del sol sobre el rio hacia parecer que era un rio lleno de plata... No es que habia Plata en la zona. De ahi el nombre. SE PENSABA que habia mucha plata, pero no.

thanks

In Finland South American country is spelled Kolumbia. Love for algorithms. ❤