Endonyms, Exonyms and the World Cup

Local names and outside names

World Cup edition below. Prints of this one

Hello!

I hope you have been enjoying the world cup, if that’s your thing—I have—and that you’re not too hot.

This week something I’d wondered about for a long time. Now I have the words for it.

It’s been about a year since I moved the newsletter over here. Thanks to everyone who’s supported me now and in the past. You make it possible for everyone 🙏

Jono

When I was first learning French at school, I was confused to see that London was known as Londres. It already had a name that people in the UK use. Why did it need another? Then, of course, I gradually realised that I was doing the same with names all over the world.

Germany is called Deutschland by Germans. Spain is called España. Italy, Italia. And on and on. I grew up knowing Holland, only later realising the proper English name is the Netherlands (low countries), but to the Dutch who live there, it’s Nederland.

It was only years later that I learned about endonyms and exonyms.

• An endonym is the name locals use for a place.

• An exonym is a name used by outsiders for a place.

Sometimes it can lead to genuine confusion. In a piece of family history, while driving through Italy with friends as a young man, I’m told my Dad decided to steer clear of what looked like the “gritty Northern industrial town” of Firenze, not realising they had just driven past Florence, one of the most beautiful cities in Europe the world and the birthplace of the Renaissance.

Etymology of endonym and exonym

Onym derives from the Greek word “onoma,” meaning “name.” For example, as we have in anonymous: without a name.

Endonym is made up of end- (within) and -onym (name). So endonyms are literally the name from within—what the natives call it. Endonyms are sometimes called autonyms as a self-name—what I call myself—from auto- (self).

Exonym is made up of ex- (outside) and -onym (name), making it the name from outside.

Reasons for Exonyms

Just as eponyms always have a story, exonyms always have a reason.

As an oversimplification, exonyms may exist from differences in language and letters (some languages lack the sounds of others), ease of pronunciation, literal translation (eg Pays Bas means Low Countries in French, just as the Netherlands does in English), and historical reasons.

Exonyms are frequently political and often contentious. They’re also not just for countries. The British, who mapped and named many things around the world, are responsible for many exonyms, many of which have since been officially changed. To name just a few:

• Mt Everest was named after Sir George Everest, who never even saw the mountain. It has both a Nepali endonym (Sagarmāthā) and a Tibetan endonym (Chomolungma).

• Mount McKinley was named in 1896 by prospector William Dickey after presidential candidate, and later president, William McKinley. It was returned to the traditional Koyukon Athabaskan name, Denali by President Obama in 2015. In Jan 2025, Donald Trump signed an executive order returning it to Mt McKinley. The encompassing area remains as Denali National Park and Preserve.

• Uluru, the world’s largest monolith, is the native Aboriginal name of Ayers Rock, a name given by a European Surveyor in 1873.

London or Lontoo

Exonyms are language-specific. Back to London, Londres is London in French. But in Finnish it’s Lontoo. Wikipedia’s article on endonyms and exonyms gives a remarkable array of names for London:

• Londres in French, Spanish and others

• Λονδίνο in Greek

• Londen in Dutch

• Londra in Italian and others

• Londër in Albanian

• Londýn in Czech and Slovak)

• Londyn in Polish)

• Rānana in Māori

• Lundúnir in Icelandic

• Londain in Irish

• Llundain in Welsh

• Lontoo in Finnish

• Luân Đôn in Vietnamese

• لندن (Landan) in Persian, Arabic, Urdu

• 伦敦 Lúndūn in Mandarin

I had no idea.

World Cup Endonyms and Exonyms

We’re in the middle of the FIFA World Cup 2026, and there are many good examples of endonyms and exonyms. And many more people now know where the Cape Verde Islands are and where the small island of Curaçao is. Here are some of the endonyms and their English exonyms from countries that have been competing.

• 🇩🇪 Deutschland - Germany

• 🇲🇦 al-Maghrib / المغرب - Morocco

• 🇪🇬 Misr / مصر - Egypt

• 🇯🇵 Nihon / 日本 - Japan

• 🇰🇷 Hanguk / 한국 - South Korea

• 🇭🇷 Hrvatska - Croatia

• 🇬🇷 Elláda / ΕΛΛΑΔΑ - Greece

• 🇹🇷 Türkiye - Turkey

• 🇦🇹 Österreich - Austria

• 🇨🇮 Côte d’Ivoire - Ivory Coast

• 🇳🇱 Nederland - Netherlands

• 🇪🇸 España - Spain

• 🇸🇪 Sverige - Sweden

• 🇳🇴 Norge - Norway

• 🇮🇶 al-‘Iraq / العراق - Iraq

• 🇯🇴 al-Urdunn / الأردن - Jordan

• 🇩🇿 al-Jaza’ir / الجزائر - Algeria

• 🇸🇦 as-Su’udiyya / السعودية - Saudi Arabia

• 🇹🇳 Tūnis / تونس - Tunisia

• 🇨🇭 Schweiz / Suisse / Svizzera / Svizra - Switzerland

• 🇧🇪 België / Belgique / Belgien - Belgium

• 🇨🇩 República Democrática do Congo / République démocratique du Congo - DR Congo

• 🇧🇦 Bosna i Hercegovina / Босна и Херцеговина - Bosnia and Herzegovina

• 🇨🇿 Česko - Czech Republic / Czechia

• 🇭🇹 Hayti / Ayiti - Haiti

• 🇨🇻 Cabo Verde - Cape Verde

• 🇺🇿 O‘zbekiston - Uzbekistan

• 🇧🇷 Brasil - Brazil

• 🇲🇽 México - Mexico

Related Ideas to Endonyms and Exonyms

In case you wanted more name words to talk about:

• Eponyms

• Capitonyms

• Acronyms and Initialisms

• Contranym

• Heteronyms

• Homonyms, homographs, homophones—I had an interesting (for me at least) chat with my niece about these recently after she talked to me about homographs.

While I can be reasonably authoritative on what the British call London, I am not, of course, an authority on what all the endonyms are around the world. Those listed here are to the best of my knowledge. Apologies if I have made any mistakes. If you notice something I should fix/improve, please let me know 🙏

Replay

Edit 24 Jul 26:

Updated to reflect Denali being renamed to Mount McKinley in Jan 2025.