What is the origin of the name MACEDONIA (Makedonija)?

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Denicia

Word is proto Slavic:
Make-don Make Mother/s, Don Domain. "Mothers Domain" ('Don' is a suffix).
http://www.angelfire.com/country/veneti/DonskiMacedonians.html
http://www.maknews.com/html/articles/stefov/digest_18.html
http://www.unet.com.mk/ancient-macedonians/

appelman21

the name macedonia is a hellenic name based on the Hellenistic kingdom of Philip II and Alexander the Great also called Aegean Macedonia which is a Macedonian Slav nationalist term used to refer to the region of Macedonia in Greece. The origins of the term seem to be rooted in the 1940s but its modern usage is widely considered ambiguous and irredentist. The term has occasionally appeared on maps circulated in the Republic of Macedonia, which envisioned Greek Macedonia (referred to as "Aegean Macedonia") as part of a "Greater Macedonia", and is regarded as a challenge of the legitimacy of Greek sovereignty over the area.[1]

The origin of the geographical terminology is arguable. A similar term was used in 1944 to describe a unit fighting in the Second World War called the "First Aegean Macedonian Brigade", although there is no evidence that this is the first usage of the term "Aegean Macedonia".

soubassakis

Hello dear!
Oldest mentioning of the name Macednos is by Hesiod, some 28 centuries ago!
Etymologically, MAK denotes length and thus long, tall, etc., the same root is still frequently used in many Greek words, even today.
The Greeks name the areas, cities, countries, etc., after people. Thus, the place Makednos resided was named Makedonia, that of Magitas Magnesia, Armenos Armenia and so on.
Mekednos and Magnitas are brothers, sons of Zeus.

LiL'_ShaWty_MoBos

umm, the word Macedonian (Makedhonas, makedhonikos) has always been used in the Greek language to declare the origin of individuals and not to mark out their ethnic identity. That is why its use is so widespread and unlimited; all the more so, since it drew on the weighty heritage of Alexander the Great, unforgotten even under Ottoman Rule. In 19th century Greece nobody ever cast doubt on the Greekness of the Macedonians, even though it was entirely clear that many of them spoke non-Greek Slavic, Romance and Albanian dialects. The very use of the word ‘Macedonian’ distinguished them from the Bulgarians and classified them as belonging to the Greek stock.

Yet the word ‘Macedonian’ had the same geographical rather than ethnic sense of origin in the corresponding languages in Bulgaria, Serbia and Romania; it was used to define individuals from the corresponding national groups in the wider Macedonian area.

In short, in the closing decades of the 19th century, individuals, belonging to different national and linguistic groups, natives of the wider Macedonian area, were defined using the same Macedonian name, which varied only linguistically, according to their particular language group ( Makedhones, Makedontsi, Matsedoneni).

this is the best I can do, sorry if it is too long, but I gave it in details... :D

andelska

Almost all the answers above are very corret.Very generally,I can tell you that the word Macedonia comes from the ancient Greek word Μακεδνος (Makednos) which means "tall".It is a totally Greek name.

ragzeus

The name Macedonia is of course a Greek name. The first Greek tribe that was established there was called “Makednoi” and at first they gave the land the name, “Emathia”, after their leader “Emathion”. It derives from the Greek word “amathos”, “amathoeis” meaning sand or sandy.
From now on, all of its names are Greek. Later it was called Maketia or Makessa and finally Makedonia (Macedonia). The latter names are derived from the Doric/Aeolic word “makos,” (in Attic “mēkos) meaning length (see Homer, Odyssey, VII, 106), thus Makednos means long or tall, but also a highlander or mountaineer. (cf. Orestae, Hellenes).
Herodotus gives a clear description about the Greek (Dorian) origin of the ancient Macedonians
> "...but the Dorians on the contrary have been constantly on the move; their home in Deucalion's reign was Phthiotis and in the reign of Dorus son of Hellen the country known as Histiaeotis in the neighborhood of Ossa and Olympus; driven from there by the Cadmeians they settled in Pindus and were known as Macedons; thence they migrated to Dryopis, and finally to the Peloponnese, where they got their present name of Dorians."
>"Now that the men of this family are Greeks, sprung from Perdiccas, as they themselves affirm, is a thing which I can declare on my own knowledge, and which I will hereafter make plainly evident. That they are so has been already adjudged by those who manage the Pan-Hellenic contest at Olympia"
(Herodotus, the Histories 8.43)
and :
>“... Had I not greatly at heart the common welfare of Greece I should not have come to tell you; but I AM MYSELF GREEK by descent, and I would not willingly see Greece exchange freedom for slavery.... consider the risk I have run, out of zeal for the Greek cause, to acquaint you with what Mardonius intends, and to save you from being surprised by the barbarians. I am Alexander of Macedon."
(Herodotus, The Histories, 9.45)
and
>"Tell your king who sent you how a Greek his viceroy of Macedonia has received you hospitably... "
(Herodotus V, 20, 4)
"But Alexander said, `If I were not Alexandros, I should be Diogenes'; that is to say: `If it were not my purpose to combine barbarian things with things Greek, to traverse and civilize every continent, to search out the uttermost parts of land and sea, to push the bounds of Macedonia to the farthest Ocean, and to spread and shower the blessings of the GREEK justice and peace over every nation, I should not be content to sit quietly in the luxury of idle power, but I should emulate the frugality of Diogenes. But as things are, forgive me Diogenes, that I imitate Heracles, and emulate Pursues, and follow in the footsteps of Dionysus, the divine author and PROGENOTOR of my family, and desire that VICTORIOUS GREEKS should dance again in India and revive the memory of the Bacchic revels among the savage mountain tribes beyond the Kaukasos...' "
(Plutarchos, On the Fortune of Alexander, 332 a-b)
There are of course many more quotes but not enough room!
Of course every modern historian agrees that the Ancient Macedonians were Greeks.
The entire north Greece is the province of authentic Macedonia.
Since the ancient Greek kingdom (of Macedonia) the Greek word “Μακεδονία” (Macedonia) was used to describe a geographical region of Greece (later it applied in a larger are in the Balkans but always slightly different than the Greek original) and the term “Μακεδόνες” (Macedonians) was always used to describe a Greek tribe.
In 1991 a small Slavic/Albanian state emerged in the Balkans after the collapse of Yugoslavia. That small state decided to use as an international name the Greek name “Macedonia” and of course that caused and still is causing confusion with authentic Macedonia in Greece!
(Certainly no descent scholar has ever suggested that the name “Macedonia” was Slavic. I think only some crazy characters from Skopje who have published some completely imaginary books!
Even the Government of Fyrom (Slavic/Albanian) Macedonia says that they have no relation with authentic-Macedonia of Greece
The first president of of Fyrom (Slavic/Albanian) Macedonia Mr Gligorov declared: "We are Macedonians but we are Slav Macedonians. That's who we are! We have no connection to Alexander the Greek and his Macedonia… Our ancestors came here in the 5th and 6th century" (Toronto Star, March 15, 1992).
http://pqasb.pqarchiver.com/thestar/access/453344711.html?did=453344711&FMT=ABS&FMTS=FT&date=Mar+15%2C+1992&author=Dusko+Doder+SPECIAL+TO+THE+STAR&pub=Toronto+Star&desc=History+never+dies+in+Balkans )

realm

Macedonia is a Greek name (makedonija is the slavic alternativer of the Greek one).
According to ancient Greek mythology, Macedon - ancient Greek ΜΑΚΕΔΩΝ (Makedōn), poetic ΜΑΚΗΔΩΝ (Makēdōn) - was the name of the first phylarch (tribal chief) of the ΜΑΚΕΔΟΝΕΣ (Makedónes). The historian Herodotus, who in his Histories states that the Dorian Greek tribes passed into the area of the Pindus mountains, and were known as Makednoi (Macedonians). These Macedonians seem to have been left behind during the great Dorian invasion (Histories 1.56.1). The region of Macedonia (Gr. ΜΑΚΕΔΟΝΙΑ) most likely took its name from this tribe, which according to Herodotus was called Makednoi (ΜΑΚΕΔΝΟΙ). The word "Makednos" derives from the Doric Greek word ΜΑΚΟΣ - "makos" (Attic form ΜΗΚΟΣ - "mékos"), which is Greek for "length". This theory seems to be in agreement with Herodotus' records. According to scholars Macedonians took this name either because they were physically tall, or because they settled in the mountains. The latter definition would translate "Macedonian" as "Highlander".
The answer that says proto-Slavic is incredible. Where they get their answers from?

Μακεδών

It is ΜΑΚΕΔΟΝΙΑ and it is of greek origin.

Eleni H

Hello my friend!

I believe that you have taken a lot of answers about the name Macedonia.
The answers that have been given from the most people above are right.It is a totally Greek name.
@Solun or Saloon or whatever (doesn't matter) : What is your exactly answer?There is a question there that needs an answer.
It is obvious that you can not answer because there is not the word Macedonia in your Bulgarian/Albanian language.
It is the main reason for you to understand that you live and you believe a lie!
Just think about it!

SOLUN macedonia

The name MACEDONIA belongs to the MACEDONIANS!!! The name MACEDONIA was used in the ancient times till today!! Users above and many wannabee Greeks believe that everything comes from a Greek word and that they invented everything!!! LOL!! MACEDONIA was a empire in the Balkans!! When Alexander and Philip were around!! I will try to make this short!! MACEDONIA was much bigger than what it is today!!! MACEDONIA was divided after the Balkan Wars 1912-1913!!! The country was divided amongst its neighbors which is Greece,Serbia, Bulgaria and Albania!!! All these countries gained territory http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Treaty_of_Bucharest%2C_1913#Greece.27S_gain_in_territory Greece has the largest part!!! MACEDONIANS which lived in this part of MACEDONIA were ethnic cleansed and stripped from their human rights, they were not allowed to speak their own language!!! Today MACEDONIA is its own country again but is still not reunited with its part that fall in neighboring countries!!! Take a look at some of the links I provided!! Long Live MACEDONIA and the MACEDONIANS!!!

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