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20 Weird, Bizarre, and Funny Country Names

Funny country names are names like Swaziland, Papua New Guinea, Belize, Panama, Hungary and Niger. Some people will also find names like Kazakhstan, Afghanistan, Kyrgyzstan and all other “-stans” funny. What about names like Christmas Island, Bangladesh, Tajikistan and Yemen. Each country has its own way of doing things otherwise known as culture or traditions which is unique, but these cultures and traditions are not the only things that make these countries unique and different, their name gives them one as well unique identification.

This article gives you a list of some country names. They are in fact the names of different countries, while some of them may sound funny because of their pronunciation, others look bizarre or weird. I bet there are some others that you might have never heard of before.

  • Burundi (Africa): Originally occupied by the Twa in East Central Africa. It’s a landlocked country
  • Burkina Faso (Africa): We won’t be realistic if we don’t include the country name Burkina Faso in our list of funny country names. Even if you don’t giggle, something humorous always comes to mind when you have to mention that name.

But before we delve any further into the humor, let’s find out what it actually means alongside this name. The name Burkina Faso means “land of the incorruptible people”. The country got its name in 1984 when it was changed from the Republic of Upper Volta to its current name. Another fun thing about Burkina Faso is the capital, Ouagadougou, which is short for Ouaga.

  • Uganda (Africa): This country has no real meaning. It is used to refer to the traditional Buganda Kingdom
  • Swaziland (Africa): A country in south-eastern Africa named after the Swazi people
  • Switzerland (Europe): A landlocked country within the Central Republic of Europe
  • Bangladesh (Asia): Next on our list of funny country names is Bangladesh, a name derived from a combination of two words: “Bengali”, which refers to people of Bengali descent, and “deshi”, the country or country means.
  • Kyrgyzstan (Asia): This country is located in West-Central Asia. The first word of Kyrgyz is derived from the Turkish word “kirk” which means “forty”. The word forty was given to the state in reference to the forty clans of Manas, a man who united forty regional clans against the Uyghurs who ruled Central Asia at the time.
  • Tajikistan (Asia): The name simply refers to a Tajik people or place.
  • Nauru (Oceania / Australia): This is an island country in Micronesia, a sub-region of Oceania. The name Nauru means popularity
  • Papua New Guinea (Oceania/Australia): Derived from the word, Pua – Pua means curly haired. This country has a double name. This is because the country had a complex administrative history prior to independence.
  • Palau (Oceania / Australia): Located in the western center of the Pacific Ocean
  • Belize (North America): Means mud-irrigated
  • Botswana (Africa): The name refers to all citizens of the country, without exception.
  • British Virgin Islands: Located in the Caribbean Sea east of Puerto Rico.
  • US Virgin Islands: What Makes an Island a Virgin? If you were wondering, here is your answer. The name came about when the Italian colonizer Christopher Columbus named the islands after Saint Ursula and the 11,000 virgins.
  • Réunion (East Africa): A French island in the western Indian Ocean.
  • Panama (Central America): means abundance of fish and abundance of birds, generally meaning abundance. This name has two meanings. one is an “abundance of butterflies”. This name came from the historical point of view that there were numerous butterflies at that time; Initiation of the name – abundance of butterflies. The second refers to a place with many fish; This was coined from a river called Panama which is said to be home to many fish.
  • Luxembourg (Western Europe): Located in Northwest Europe country blocked
  • Guatemala (Central America): Located in Central America on the border with Mexico, its importance is attributed to the Catholic faith
  • Christmas Island (Southeast Asia): The meaning is not so clear, but it is a territory in Australia in the Indian Ocean
  • Pakistan: Pakistan is last on our list of funny country names. For a man who doesn’t know anything about Asia, that sure sounds funny. The word Pakistan is used to refer to a “land of the pure”.

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Arica Deslauriers

Update: 2024-05-21