Country names aren’t always unique in the world. Look on a world map and you’ll see 2 Koreas, 2 Congos, and a full 4 Guineas. But there are some examples that are more hidden. Specifically, there are many combinations of countries whose names might look different in English, but ultimately come from the same meaning. Let’s look at some international etymology buddies and see what we can find.

Many country names have multiple candidate meanings, so we can’t be certain which meaning is the most common.¹ But there’s one standout group that might span as many 6 countries across 3 continents: Botswana, France, Iran, Liberia, Kazakhstan, and Uzbekistan. All these countries’ names plausibly mean “land of the free”, through a few different linguistic routes.

“Liberia” is the clearest to an English speaker, coming from Latin liber as in “liberty”. The name refers to Liberia’s origins as a colony for people freed from slavery in the United States – which is itself a wild story for another time.

The other 5 country names each refer to a specific ethnic group, each of which has a name that plausibly means “free people”.

“Kazakhstan” and “Uzbekistan” come from the Persian suffix -stan meaning “land”, and the names of the Kazakh and Uzbek peoples. “Kazakh” directly derives from an old Turkic root meaning “free” while “Uzbek” likely comes from uz (“own”) and beg (“ruler”).

Iran’s name comes from the term “Aryan”, which was a term used by the ancient Indo-Iranian people to refer to themselves (long before it got co-opted by racial supremacists in Europe). Its origin is uncertain, but one leading hypothesis is that it comes from the Proto Indo-European term *h₂eró, referring to a freeman or someone of equal social status.

Botswana takes its name from the Tswana people, by far the country’s largest ethnic group. The term “Tswana” seems to have originally been used by other groups to refer to the Tswana, and has unclear origins. Early European linguists seemed to think it meant “free”, and some current linguists connect this to the term tswaana meaning “to break off” or “to secede”.

France’s name comes from the Franks, whose name may come from the Germanic root *frank meaning “free” as well, though another possibility would be *frankon meaning “spear” or “javelin”.

There are a few other etymology buddies besides these lands of the free. “Ethiopia”, “Mauritania”, and “Sudan” all come from words for “black people” (Ethiopia from Greek Aithiopía meaning “burnt-faced”, Mauritania from Greek máuros meaning “black”, and Sudan from Arabic bilad as-sudan meaning “land of the black people”). “Guinea” possibly is in the same group as well, from the Berber term aginaw meaning “burnt one”, though an alternative origin as a corruption of “Ghana” is currently considered more likely.

Australia and Tonga both come from “South”, via Latin and Samoan respectively. Yemen may be in this group too, with one candidate origin coming from Arabic yamīn which literally means “right hand side” but refers to south on a compass.

If you want to stretch this group, you can add Austria.² “Austria” comes from Old High German Ostarrîchi meaning “Eastern realm”, but Germanic Ostar (east) and Latin auster (south) both come from the same Proto Indo-European root h₂éwsteros meaning “toward the dawn”. Unfortunately I could not confirm this as a candidate origin for “Westeros” from Game of Thrones.

One final odd pairing is Nepal and Somalia, both of which have names that may refer to herding cattle. For Nepal, this would be ne pa meaning “cattle keeper” while for Somalia it would be sac maal meaning “go and milk”.

Countries choose to name and rename themselves (and each other) for many reasons, even today. But I find it fascinating that some common themes find their way into so many different cultures, even some as distantly related as humans can get. And hey, if you ever need to name a country of your own, maybe this will give you some inspiration.