The Names Of Central America Explained 

As someone from El Salvador we don’t mind the name Guanacos we actually take quiet a bit of pride to it. Also I’m glad you added that intro when I was in high school I got tired of my teacher including Central America as part of South America 🙄

Almost every central american nation got a nickname Guatemala: "chapines" Honduras: "catrachos" El Salvador: "guanacos", "cuscatlecos" or "cuscatleños" Nicaragua: "pinoleros" or "nicas" Costa Rica: "ticos" Panamá: "canaleros" And sometimes people form Spain call everyone from central america: "centracas" ¡Saludos desde México!

I'm from Mexico, but when you said "the love these countries deserve", I truly felt that~

fun fact: 90% of Americans discover that Central America is not Mexico

Who's watching from Central America! I so badly want to visit this part of the world, any recommendations of where to go?

When you talked about Belmopan (the capital of Belize) you showed a picture of San Salvador 🤭 Greetings from San Salvador.

I'm from Honduras and I'm amazed that you actually knew that we shorten our capitals name to Tegus, hahaha!

I'm from Costa Rica, but I know a fun story about Guatemala. There is a gorgeous colonial era city there called Antigua, which means ancient/former. And they named it that because that used to be the original Guatemala City, but it got hit with so many earthquakes that at some point they got sick of it and decided to move the capital elsewhere. So after that, the city was known as Antigua Guatemala (Old Guatemala/Former Guatemala) for a while, and eventually just Antigua. We have a city in Costa Rica called Cartago, and it's nickname is La Antigua Metrópoli for similar reasons. That used to be our capital city during the colonial period, but when news of our newly found independence arrived unexpectedly a civil war broke out to decide whether we should be annexed by the newly minted Mexican Empire or remain fully independent. In any case, the side Cartago was on lost the war and they moved the capital to San José in the aftermath, needless to say the pro-independence side won. Anyway, I love your videos. Cheers!

I’m from El Salvador and Guanacos is a term I’ve always heard used to refer to us. It’s not used as a negative since all Central American countries also have a nickname. So I can say, I’m a proud Guanaco.

I loved going to Costa Rica. It was the best ten days of my life.

My family is from Belize. This is honestly one of the only videos that talk about this small country. Thank u for this😁🇧🇿 One issue tho, the pic that was shown for Belmopan showed San Salvador instead

2:25 Just as a note, Nahuatl is not an indigenous language of Guatemala, that was the lingua franca of the Aztec Empire (nowdays Mexico), and is the name the Tlaxcaltecas gave to the city to the Conquistador Pedro de Alvarado.

As a Panamanian am happy this was researched and explained very accurately

Costa Rica is such a beautiful country, filled with biodiversity

My mom is from el salvador and they usually just like to go by salvadorian.

The rest of the countries also have nicknames: Guatemala: Chapines Honduras: Catrachos El Salvador: Guanacos Nicaragua: Nicas (Mainly, they are others) Costa Rica: Ticos Belize and Panama don't have them due to their heavy British (Belize) and American (Panama) controls. Even though they're in Central America, the other countries see them as distant relatives.

Honduras had many other names given at the time of the discovery: Higueras or Hibueras and Guaymuras, As a native from Honduras we don't mean insult when we call salvadorians GUANACOS, just as we don't take offense when being called CATRACHOS, I guess the same apply to guatemalans being called CHAPINES, nicaraguans being called NICAS or Costa Ricans being called TICOS. Now there is a funny fact about Honduras and El Salvador... The name CATRACHOS is a derivation of the name of Col. FLORENCIO XATRUCH, whom in 1855 lead de Central American Army against William Walker. Now, the Central American Army was multinational, there were Guatemalans, Salvadorians, Hondurans, Nicaraguans and Costa Rican soldiers, but the salvadorians and hondurans troops were led by Florencio Xatruch... The other nations soldiers identified the hondurans as CATRACHOS, and the salvadorans as... SALVATRUCHOS... Now you may have heard this second name often lately... It is the name of the most violent gang in Central America and it was originated from salvadoran immigrants living in Los Angeles after the 1970 to 1980 civil war.

Panamanian here. We tend refer to all other countries as “Central America”, and Panama itself as the “Isthmus” since we’re part of Colombia until 1903. Rarely do Panamanians, if ever, refer to being part of Central America.

Finally a video about us! Greetings from Honduras🖐🇭🇳

When you showed the capital city of Belize, Belmopán, that's actually a very old picture of San Salvador, El Salvador's capital.

Much love from Belize🇧🇿

4:35 The US state of Iowa has something similar. Iowa City used to be the capital of Iowa, but then the capital was moved to Des Moines (presumably because Des Moines is more central).

Greetings from a Guatemalan here. Slight correction worth mentioning on the origin of the name "Guatemala" . While Nahuatl was spoken in Guatemala after colonization (and might still be spoken in certain areas according to some reports), it was not native to Guatemala at the time the name of the conquered city was decided (which later became the name for our country). Nahuatl was the language of the Azteca/Mexica culture, which inhabited Mexico, not Guatemala. The conquistador Pedro de Alvarado conquered Guatemala with the help of Tlaxcaltec allies (who spoke Nahuatl). When the Spanish officials inquired about the name of the region, the Tlaxcaltec warriors used the name for the region in Nahuatl , which the Spanish officers then used as the official name for the region. The name is believed to also have been used to refer to its inhabitants, the Kaqchikel people, one of the indigenous Maya peoples from Guatemala. The exact word in Nahuatl is still contested, but is believed to be Quauhtemallan (differences in spelling are common for nahuatl references). The name of the conquered city in Kaqchikel before the conquest was Iximche, which means "land of corn" in Kaqchikel. Elites leading the country ignored the etymology of the name and believed it to have come from one of the many mayan languages in Guatemala; and so it was never changed, even after independence. Some scholars suggest that the name in Nahuatl, might have roots in the Quiche language, another mayan language, as was the case for the names of several other cities in Guatemala whose name in Nahuatl was inspired by the name in Quiche. The Quiche people referred to the kaqchikel people as "Gagchequeleb", or "those of the red tree/those of the fire tree", in relation to a red stick given to the kaqchikel people by the Quiche people in recognition for not subduing to Tohil, a Quiche God (according to a myth from the Popol Vuh mythology). The etymology of the name is still the subject of research, but is definitely quite interesting and full of history. References: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Guatemala en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nahuatl en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kaqchikel_people en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Popol_Vuh?wprov=srpw1_0 wikiguate.com.gt/origen-del-nombre-guatemala/ en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tohil i3campus.co/CONTENIDOS/wikipedia/content/a/n%25c3%25a1huatl.html

I honestly dont mind the guanaco nickname nor have I ever met someone who does. Also I was a bit disappointed that you didnt mention the name of the old nahuat kingdom called "Cuzcatlan" which would certainly be more of an interesting name than the saviour.

Make a video on : •East Indies •West Indies Differences and how they linked to India.

Salvadoreño presente 🇸🇻🇸🇻🇸🇻🇸🇻

Could panama maybe mean “pan america” but shortened because it’s a gateway between the 2 Americas

I'm not from Panama but I've visited several times and love that country 🇵🇦 Panamá City is a city of prosperity in Latin America and it's super beautiful . I hope to see more of the country in the future . Saludos desde 🇨🇴

I am from El Salvador, when I was little a teacher told me that we were called Guanaco because there was an animal that was very useful and friendly as well as though for work but if you abuse it to much it will spit in your face. Was funny not sure if it is true.

4:38 Port Sudan came to my mind quickly... Also Benin City, which was the capital of the former Benin Kingdom, not only isn't Benin's capital... it isn't even in Benin, but in Nigeria.

This channel is sooo underrated!! Name Explain deserves more subscribers

Yay! I've been waiting for this one ^.^

In the case of Panama, the country was named after the city, and no the other way around, though. Nice video BTW. Keep the good work. 👍

Curious fact: Nicaragua, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras and Costa Rica pretty much share the same history during the colonización, also this 5 countries used to be known as the Centroamerican provinces and they became independent at the same time.

Greetings from NIcaragua! Great video. Thanks for your time & effort!

Great video!! Greetings from the Depths of Honduras!! Fun fact: Each Spanish speaking country of Central America has a nickname for its people : Guatemalan: Chapin Salvadorean: Guanaco or Cuscatleco Honduran : Catracho Nicaraguan : Nica or Pinoleros Costarican: Tico Panamanian : Canalero

At 4:12 when the narrador introduces Belmopan, they actually show a picture of San Salvador lol

4:30 countries named after cities which aren't their capitals: There is the town of Schwyz in Switzerland, which gave name to the canton of Schwitz, wich in turn gave its name to the "Schwyzer Eidgenossenschaft" (Schwyzer Confedearation). At that time there were different Spellings of that name around, including "sweiz", "schweiz" (now the German name for the country) and "switz", which became switzerland. The Swiss German dialects are often called "Schwitzerdeutsch" in German. Also Portugals name derived from Portus Calle, which is now known as Porto. I'm not sure if these two count as bearing their countries name, as it is not exactly the same, like Belize City, but there is a connection between them. Also Patrick did make videos about both of these, so he could have known them.

This video gets A+. Thanks for giving some love to our Tristes Trópicos.

Love this Channel ♥

Orgullo Nicaragüense de parte de mi padre, donde están los Nica’s por aquí? Hablan! 😁🇳🇮🇵🇷

Thank you for this! I've been a long time subscriber and never imagined you'd work on a project relating to my country. Much love to you from Tegucigalpa, Honduras. Now do all my countries cities, hahaha just kidding, unless you want to!

Thanks for making a video about our region. Greetings from Honduras.

Great video. Well done.

my father is from El Salvador, i have never heard Guanaco being seen as slightly offensive. i’ve heard so many songs from Salvadorans proudly calling themselves guanac@s. i personally also carry that name proudly

It may not be the name of the country, but Kyoto here in Japan means 'Capital City', and it's not the capital city any more...

Great content. Thank you. Background music mimics my ring tone. Thought my phone was ringing in a low volume. Through me off for a minute. Still great, keep doing these please.

I really enjoyed this video :)

Genuinely surprised that Mexico isn't considered part of Central America. I grew up seeing Central America as a sub-faction of North America 🌎 with the country in between the center of both continents. I guess it makes sense though. Since Mexico does run a bit north.

Costa Rica! Come and visit here. Not very cheap but is worth it.

The photo at 4:14 is not Belize, you see the El Salvador National Palace, the Cathedral where Monsignor Romero was Murdered and right across from these two in the empty space is the Plaza Gerardo Barrios. But most importantly is the volcano in the background, Volcan de San Salvador. I left El Salvador in 1986 and I used to ride the bus every day as a kid in this area. Haven't gone back since.

Thanks for the explanation dude

Fun fact: -Costa Rica was the poorest of C.A -Panama was the poorest of the Gran Colombia Now we are very proud of our economy, open borders, and very happy neighbors with great multilateral relations. Greetings from Costa Rica

Hi, Patrick. Thank you for explain the names of my home region and country, El Salvador. Just a small comment. In minute 4:13 you are showing a picture of San Salvador, El Salvador circa 2000s with the old design of the Cathedral. I understand because in Google images is mislabeled and actually I couldn't find a nice picture that shows Belmopán from air to send you. I just found one that shows a building in their National Park Blue Hole. Maybe there is a chance a viewer may help with that picture. Actually, Belize cities look like a beautiful places.

Great video sir. Greetings from Panamá 'bridge of the world, heart of the universe'

Entomology aside, I actually have a better understanding of that part of the world period. I’m glad I stumbled across your channel. Thank you! 👍🏼

el salvador! beautiful country!! :) i visited right before covid to visit family. though ive been to madrid, london, rome, hawaii and most of the major cities in the us i can safely say this was my favorite trip. beautiful scenery and amazing beaches, colonial towns and people. dont believe the hype about it being dangerous and do yourself a favor and visit soon! que viva el salvador. :)

Most of my family lives in Central America :D, love to hear my own region

The word Guanaco derives from Nahuatl referring to the valley of San Salvador, "as the valley of Hammocks", due to its frequent earthquakes along the Cocos Plate on the Pacific Ocean. Or it can be translated to 'the valley of movers and shakers'. So, the phrase began to be used among its people.

Greetings from Guatemala.

Central America used to be an entire nation, if I'm not mistaken under the rule of General Francisco Morazán (Honduran) but this union was shortly lived. Morazán would be killed in San José, buried in San Salvador and remembered as a patriot in Honduras. This id why Honduras has 5 stars in it's flag to represent the idea of central american unity, joining 5 out of the 7 countries, leaving out Panamá and Belice, the 1st because at that time they were part of Colombia and the 2nd were part of Brittain. Thanks so much for this video!

I knew about Nicaragua's entomology as it relates to the Aztecs. I've also been told that Niagara (as in Niagara Falls) has similar origins. Would be cool to see this confirmed or debunked in a future video!

As you know, Canada gets its name from the word Huron (I think?) Kanata for "little village". There was formerly a town named Kanata in Canada that was not the the capital. But within the last couple decades that town has been annexed by another city and now Kanata is a suburb of the much more well known Canadian city Ottawa.

Thank you for doing this video about my beautiful C.A. From Nicaragua living in USA.

It does look like some beautiful land. I wonder if I’ll ever make it down south to visit one day. Greetings from the US! Stay well out there everybody, and Jesus Christ be with you friends.😊

Costa Ricans also have a fun nickname: ticos for males and ticas for females!

Hi, from a proud Guanaco!!

Hi I'm from El Salvador, I would like to thank you to the author of this video,every little good history ,is a big step to erase, all the violence and negative image from the past.

When he stared talking about Belmopan, he show an image of San Salvador, the capital of El Salvador

Hi from Honduras!!!!!! Orgullosamente Catrachos.

As I am from El Salvador, there are two nickname definitions: 1. The nickname "Cuzcatlecos" came from one of the six tribes in El Salvador named "Cuzcatlan", a state confederation of the Mesoamerican postclassical period that covers most of the country in the west by Pipil people. Alternatively, some people use as "Cuscatleños". 2. "Guanacos" is a nickname for their nationality, due to its historical word in Mayan (Nahuatl) that was called called "huanacax", when indigenous groups held fraternity meetings in the current territory of El Salvador. Not to be confused with the wild llama in South America.

Your pronounciation of tegucigualpa, and the full name of el salvador, was good, well done! It's sill obviously from an english speaker, but it's so much better than what most people would do. and pretty close to the original!

Nicknames of Guatemala: Guatelinda, Guatebella, Guatebuena, & Chapinlandia.

Donde están los comentarios en Español? No me digan que soy la única nativa nacida en un país de CA y que habla Español

Thank you for making this video! My heritage comes from Central America, specially El Salvador 🇸🇻

Belize came from a land swap between Great Britain and Honduras. In exchange for Belize, Honduras got the Bay Islands, Roatan being the largest. They speak mainly English in Roatan and beautiful Caribbean beaches along with the 2nd largest reef makes for great snorkeling and scuba diving.

You forgot to mention one detail about Costa Rica, much like El Salvador we have an unofficial name. Costa Ricans are known as ticos, and we often call Costa Rica ‘Tiquicia’

Hey, what about a video explaining the names of the Caucasus countries? Also an uncommon region in the world to talk about, yet fascinating and full of history.

It is informative to learn about central america. Wish to visit these countries one day. Peace from south pacific.

Woot! My family is from Huhuetenango haha Guatemala 🇬🇹

The Netherlands is called Nederland in Dutch. There is also a place called Nederland, but it's just a hamlet with about 20 inhabitants.

I always thought of "Panama" as meaning "Pan-America" as it is between the two Americas and it is where both halves of the Pan-American Highway terminate.

As a native Nicaraguan myself, I appreciated and enjoyed this video 👍

Love every video

A bit more information about honduras. Because saying "Great Depth" in spanish is true, but kind of uncommon. "Hondo" means deep as an adjective (Is used more coloquialy, "Profundo" is bit more common) So Honduras means: Hond + dura + s(plural) And what's the sufix "-dura"? It's hard to define, since is used in words like "llanura" (plain) and "quemadura" (burn). But in general, -dura means an action, or the result of said action. "Quemadura" is something that was "Quemado"(Burned), "Llanura" is something that was "Allanado"(Flatened) and of course, Hondura is something that was "Hundido"(Deepened o even Sunk) So Honduras can mean "The ones that were sunk" and if we assume that the name is refering to the land, we could even translate Honduras as "The sunken lands" And that's a pretty cool name of you ask me!

You should do more videos on Guatemala (you said it yourself... 25 languages are spoken here) also... we have the best coffee and hiking in CA

Traveled from Guatemala City to Managua Nicaragua a couple years ago it was so enjoyable to go through those borders and see the beautiful nature East delicious cheap food. It’s not as dangerous as people may think.

Thank you!

Columbus’s 4th trip was actually to costa rica and we also have a cool nickname in ticos

YOU ARE TALKING ABOUT MY COUNTRY, GUATEMALA! * faints *

Thank you from Costa Rica

Salvadoreño/Guanaco here! We're not only known as El Salvador, but many folks in and out of E.S may even know it as Cuscatlan/Kuskatán, once a huge kingdom inhabited by the Nahuat/Nawat people comprised of the words 'Kuska' meaning 'Diamonds or Jewels' and 'Tan' roughly meaning 'Land of', giving it the name 'Land of Diamonds' A much more beautiful name that separates us from the harsh and murderous history of colonial rule that negatively impacted one of the most powerful kingdoms of Mesoamerica.

Hello Iam from Guatemala 😍😎🇬🇹 100% chapina 😘

4:37 Though not a nation, the state of California (with the capital of Sacramento) has a city called California City

Watching from Honduras. One interesting tibid. Our capital is actualy 2 cities. Tegucigalpa and Comayagüela. Both cities together form the urban part of the Central District which is the actual capital. Is just that is just easier to say the capital is just Tegucigalpa since only the people living in the capital can tell them apart and historically Tegucigalpa alone was the capital until 1951, iirc, where the municipalities of both cities merged to form the central district.

Great video. I'm watching from greece.

Panamanian here! In school we were taught there is a single continent of America, divided into the 3 subcontinents of North America, Central America and South America. It's always a surprise for Panamanians to learn that countries like the US divide it into North and South America, and that they think of them as different continents. Fun fact: As explained in the video, those "Panama hats" are not originally from Panama. No native Panamanian wears them. They're just for tourists. Oh, and tourist LOVE THEM. You can recognize who's a tourist in a crowd because they're wearing this hat.

Rica is an adjective that has plenty of meanings: rich, wealthy, nice, pleasant

Hey! Central American here. Specifically from El Salvador. Wanted to say great video. Guanaco is often used as a nickname for us. I don't know if a single person that thinks it is derogatory. It is akin to Yankees for Americans. Fun fact, a lot of central American countries have nicknames like this. Chapin for Guatemalans. Catracho for Hondurans. Nico for Nicaragua.

I’m Central American my dad was born in El Salvador and then came to the US and meet my mom