Monarch names - do other countries do this?

[KrazyHorse]

Nope, they chopped off the first one's head. The second one came back after Cromwell died and took charge again

Actually, I knew that.

[Boris Godunov]

Uh-huh, sure.

[KrazyHorse]

I did, you tw@t.

Then there was James II, and then the "old pretender" pretender named James and his son, the "young pretender", Bonnie Prince Charlie...

[Boris Godunov]

Yeah, yeah, go down that list you're rattling off from a Web site, sure...

One of the advantages of having a history teacher for a mom...she can list the Kings of England and give summaries of their histories from memory...

[Adalbertus]

It's funny that German doesn't adapt French or English city names. And even Nanzig is quite unknown (except in Letzebuerg). There are quite a few Mediterranean and eastern European names adapted:
Lisboa - Lissabon
Miland - Mailand
Roma - Rom
Venezia - Venedig
Budapest - Budapest
Warszawa - Warschau (ok, pronounces nearly identical)

It's the name of important cities we transform.
This is because usually the names of the cities developed differently in different languages from one common ancient origin. Some other cities simply were an important part of German history, such as Prag/Praha/Prague or Lüttich/Liège/Luik.

There are other cities, namely in Romania (e, Victor) which are founded by a German population, such as Hermannstadt (Sibiu), Klausenburg (Kluji), or Kronstadt (Brasov).


About the kings: Usually (roughly) the names of the pre-20th century kings are translated to German (except Ivan). And it was quite usual to translate all names a few centuries ago. Gianbattista (?) Lulli -> Jean-Baptiste Lully, John Dowland was referred to as Johannes Duland by some German duke, or I read a 18th century translation of a book by Pierfrancesco Tosi who was called Peter Franz Tosi.

[Bugs ****ing Bunny]

Originally posted by Zkribbler


That'd never happen. King John was the guy that signed the Magna Carta, and that act is so repugnant to royalty that--even though "John" is the most popular name in English--there has never been another King John.

Actually, had it just been for Magna Carta, we'd have had Johns galore. It's considered one of his better moves....

The real reason is because he betrayed his father, brothers, attempted to steal the throne, betrayed his nobles and was both a murderer and a serial rapist. Being forced to kickstart British democracy doesn't enter into it.

[KrazyHorse]

betrayed his nobles

This was the most important bit until the Tudors came along. He pissed off the Lords so much, and they were so crucial in retaining the throne for any length of time that taking the name "John" would have been just asking for trouble...

[Stefu]

Finnish, of course, has also some rather... unique ways to call other countries.

Sweden -> Ruotsi
Russia -> Venäjä
Estonia -> Viro
Germany -> Saksa

[KrazyHorse]

Canada? England? France?

[Stefu]

Canada - Kanada, England - Englanti, France - Ranska. Only the nearby countries suffer from Finnish name-innovativeness.

[Bereta_Eder]

Greece in finnish?

If it is something like griekenlaound dont bother.

[VetLegion]

a brief contribution from croatian (slavic language)

car - tsar/czar
Ivan Pavao II - pope
Luj IV - Louis IV
Gjuro IV - George IV
Isus Krist - Jesus Christ
Djevica Marija - Virgin Mary
Sveti Josip - St. Joseph
Sveti Petar - St. Peter

all biblical names are translated, new ones are not

states:
nizozemska - holland
spanjolska - spain
engleska - england
finska - finland
belgija - belgium
turska - turkey
grcka - turkish province in the aegean
njemacka - germany (comes from nijem - mute, probably because early slavs couldnt figure out german language)
kanada - canada
sjedinjene americke drzave (SAD) - USA (but most people just say amerika)
novi zeland - new zaeland
francuska - france
italija - italy

[Bereta_Eder]

wow. only one vowel

[Meticulous Man]

Originally posted by VetLegion
turska - turkey

That should be Norway.

[Ecthy]

Norway = Turkey?

Weird country indeed...