Can you pick the meanings of these geographic names?

created by survivor

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Correctly selected answers will show up in green
Select the appropriate location given the meaning of its name. Keep in mind that the language of origin isn't necessarily spoken in the corresponding place; etymology and geography are a fickle duo.
Also try: Country Names That Are Also...

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There are 36 comments for this game.
(Warning: comments may contain spoilers)

Geographic Name Meanings Quiz

by survivor

Created Oct 27, 2012 in Geography
Featured Nov 8, 2012
Game Plays 43,503

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Archived comments: show them

	Bobman1:	Nov 8th, 2012 at 04:30 GMT		18 points
	That was awesome and very challenging. Thanks! I'd love to say I learned a lot, but the many I did not know I will have to look up. So I will learn them shortly.

	MrCaliChicago:	Nov 8th, 2012 at 04:48 GMT		14 points
	Whoever discovered Nevada obviously didn't go beyond the Sierra Mountains.

	chikka2:	Nov 8th, 2012 at 05:08 GMT		10 points
	Great job, Survivor. Thanks for the pleasure

	geeyom:	Nov 8th, 2012 at 08:14 GMT		5 points
	Thanks for the quiz.

	bandersnatch:	Nov 8th, 2012 at 10:26 GMT		0 points
	My eyes were drawn to "Kuala Lumpur" when I saw a clue about flat land..

	WCRoentgen:	Nov 8th, 2012 at 10:42 GMT		11 points
	Great quiz. "Las Vegas" must be among the greatest geographic misnomers, up there with "Greenland".

	severian:	Nov 8th, 2012 at 12:14 GMT		16 points
	"Stud Garden" would be an awesome band name.

Comment below threshold: show it

	dancastro:	Nov 8th, 2012 at 13:03 GMT		9 points
	@WCRoentgen: actually, when Greenland received its name (Grønland) from the Vikings (around AD 1000), it was green, at least in its southern tip. The world climate was in a warm period, like now. Only around the 16th century the climate began getting colder and the green areas disappeared. (By the way, only in the Germanic languages "Greenland" sounds strange for an ice-covered land. For a speaker of French the name of the island (Groenland) is a meaningless word, in no way associated with a green land ["terre verte"]).

	hubbim:	Nov 8th, 2012 at 13:27 GMT		13 points
	great quiz educational and fun and I love etymology and languages.

	nizorel:	Nov 8th, 2012 at 14:45 GMT		5 points
	@dancastro: where are you getting this information about the etymology of Greenland? All sources I've come across describe your explanation as a myth invented by global warming skeptics; scientists believe that Greenland hasn't been green for the past 400,000 years. The name is generally attributed to Vikings who thought they could lure settlers there by giving it an attractive name.

	yeehaw_buckaroo:	Nov 8th, 2012 at 14:55 GMT		10 points
	Pete: In fact, isn't "Milwaukee" an Indian name? Alice Cooper: Yes, Pete, it is. Actually, it's pronounced "mill-e-wah-que" which is Algonquin for "the good land." Wayne Campbell: I was not aware of that.

	dancastro:	Nov 8th, 2012 at 15:13 GMT		5 points
	@nizorel: that around the 10th century the climate was warmer and around the 16th century is was colder isn't a myth invented by global warming skeptics; it's a fact. There are natural cycles, besides the warming caused by pollution. It's bad luck for humankind that now, in a period that would be warmer anyway, pollution is making the climate still warmer. It would have been good that in the 16th century there were cars or industries that raised a little the temperature (too much cold is also bad); unfortunately then, when a little pollution would have been favorable, there was none.

	nizorel:	Nov 8th, 2012 at 16:27 GMT		4 points
	Thanks for this information. I'm as bothered by fabricated warming-awareness as I am by anti-warming ideologies and think this sort of science is important. But what I'm asking for is the source of this fact that Greenland was partially green a mere thousand years ago, meanwhile all the sources I've found indicate 400k years. Regardless of whether or not the planet was warm a mere thousand years ago (and I believe you that it was), giving someone the idea that Greenland was green a thousand years ago (if false) is particularly dangerous because it offers such a distortion of the timescale that we conceptualize climate change on. "Hey, there's no crisis, the fact that Greenland was green in recorded human history shows we're fine so long as Greenland is still icy" is a much more devastating ideology than "Hey, there's no crisis, the planet has been this warm before."

	nizorel:	Nov 8th, 2012 at 16:41 GMT		7 points
	to add probably my last comment on the subject: after opening a few dozen pages with simple Google questions like "was greenland ever green" and "greenland etymology" I see that there are a few sophisticated scientific confirmations of green-ness and a few scientific negatives amidst an overwhelming deluge of "no of course it was never green" by the ideologues. I guess this isn't really a question that can be easily settled on sporcle.

	Navarro:	Nov 8th, 2012 at 18:09 GMT		2 points
	@dancastro there is some words in Spanish like "argenteo" with similar meaning, tho'

	bizzlebiz13:	Nov 8th, 2012 at 21:53 GMT		4 points
	So you're telling me that El Salvador isn't Spanish for "The Salvador"?

	RonB:	Nov 8th, 2012 at 22:01 GMT		3 points
	I've always heard that Erik the Red came up with the name to get more settlers. It was warmer during that period which allowed the settlers to eke out a living, but cooler temps meant they starved.

	doctorwhofan883:	Nov 8th, 2012 at 23:14 GMT		5 points
	Never would have gotten Eritrea without knowing that red blood cells are called "erythrocytes," or Comoros without knowing they have a moon on their flag.

	StrobesAU:	Nov 9th, 2012 at 16:11 GMT		1 point
	Fun quiz but one thought: Maybe you could change "Naples" to "Napoli," which is both the city's name in its country's language (keeping in line with the rest of the answers) and is also a better transliteration of the corresponding clue's language.

	ascalante:	Nov 9th, 2012 at 19:51 GMT		0 points
	Here are the answers to the most poorly answered questions on this quiz up to this date: (let's see if the statistics for these will change in the future) 16.0% arabic for two seas - Bahrain 14.8% arabic for little fort - Kuwait 14.4% arabic for victorious - Cairo 13.2% arabic for the islands - Algiers 11.3% arabic for moon - Comoros

	marceloOrigoni:	Nov 10th, 2012 at 02:17 GMT		5 points
	As a native spanish speaker, I'm ashamed to say I never new the meaning of Vegas, until now. @StrobesAU, not all the names are in their native language. Munich is spelled munchen in german, belgrade it's spelled something like beograd. @nizorel I also had the smae information as you, that Erik named greenland and iceland "inverted", so he would prevent settlers from settling in iceland and continue to greenland.

	thegirlnextdoor:	Nov 13th, 2012 at 20:19 GMT		6 points
	I think I will plant me a stud garden.

	serf_in_USA:	Dec 27th, 2012 at 07:21 GMT		-2 points
	^ LOL ^. A very tough quiz. F it.