Variation of Countries names

Googling confirms that uus = new, mere = sea, and maa = land, for whatever that's worth.

Edited by: VinnyD

Interesting, considering the general idea is that it (New Zealand) WAS named after Zeeland (as was New Holland after Holland... read Australia), but just that to identify it as less foreign, or more etymologically orientated towards "sea" (by the British Empire of the time), the name was changed, quite artibrarily and artificially, to Zealand.
Does anyone know exactly when this was done?

...which, of course, means the Estonians have gone completely down the wrong path (or not??).

Wiki gives you more clues, including the Captain James Cook interference,

Does anyone know if it was done, toot? Are you sure that Zeeland was consistently spelled Zeeland (and never Zealand) in English throughout history?

Wiki gives you more clues, including the Captain James Cook interference,

According to the relevant FOAK page:

The name New Zealand originated with Dutch cartographers, who called the islands Nova Zeelandia, after the Dutch province of Zeeland. No one is certain exactly who first coined the term, but it first appeared in 1645 and may have been the choice of cartographer Johan Blaeu. British explorer James Cook subsequently anglicised the name to New Zealand. There is no connection to the Danish island Zealand.

Thanks, zashibis. That's more or less what I would have guessed.

The Estonian Uus-Meremaa is most likely a direct translation of German Neuseeland. There are many compound words in Estonian that are direct translations from German compound words.

Ah, thanks.

Do the Germans call the Dutch Zeeland Seeland?

Yes, Estonian has lots of loan translations from German. In Finnish New Zealand is Uusi-Seelanti. Thailand, however, is Thaimaa (maa=land).

Ruotsi, Venäjä, Viro and Saksa are some country names in Finnish that are quite different from the more recognizeable (sp?) names for those countries -- all countries with long and close historical ties with Finland. Estonian has the same names (etymologically) for all those countries, except for the Finnish country name "Viro"... I think Finnish the the only language that uses something like "Viro" for that country. The explanation for "Viro" however is very similar to at least the explanation of "Saksa" (maybe also the others, Ruotsi and Venäjä).