It's an interesting coincidence that Armorica sounds like America but I don't think it's very indicative of anything more than that - there are probably a lot of places that sound like "America". There is a Georgia in the US and a Georgia in the Caucasus with totally different etymologies. There's also an Albania in the Caucasus and Scotland was known in ancient times as Albania - and neither is etymologically related to the Balkan Albania. There's also a Galicia in Spain (with a similar root to the Gauls) and a Galicia in Poland and Ukraine (which could possibly be Celtic, but could also be of Slavic origin).
Re:The Naming of America (2001)
by throaway915 on Monday October 07, 2024 @08:02PM
(#41772442)
Also Iberia in the Caucasus and Iberian peninsula
Re:The Naming of America (2001)
by croisillon on Tuesday October 08, 2024 @09:48AM
(#41777345)
Karnak, the ancien site in Egypt and Carnac, the ancient site in Brittany
This line gave me synchronicity shivers. There's a recent SMBC comic that's been linked a few times on HN recently: https://www.smbc-comics.com/comic/arthur. The other day it sent me down a minor rabbit hole reading about Brittany, where I stumbled upon this map: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brittany#/media/File:Britonia6.... I (a Brit) thought that "Armorica" sounds exactly like "America" and looked up the meaning: "place by the sea". I realised I'd never looked up the origin of the name America but this must be it. So I googled around and was disappointed when I found the story about Vespucci. Cool to know that it's still somewhat in dispute.