Why is spain called Spain?

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rtorto

First, it was the Carthagenians. They call it "Spanna" which meant something like loats of rabbits. At those times Spain was almost completely covered by woods and they said that a squirrel could travel from the Pyrenees to Gibraltar without touching the ground.

Then the Romans. they called it Hispania. From then on, España.

As for Europe, Herodotus mentions that phoenician sailors kidnapped a lady called Europa, and took her to their land, in Asia. Since then, the continent seems to have been known after the name of the lady.

Joan el guiri

OK here goes!

'Spain' is English for 'España'.

This comes from what the Romans called it ´Hispana'

Bunny rabbit land!

doctorsarcasm

Spain is just the anglicized version of España, the Spanish name of the country. As for how we got an ugly-sounding name like "Spain" out of the elegant "España," beats me.

Sled Queen

Because if Spain was called Canada people would get confused...same for Europe

Amy

I guess we couldn't pronoune Espan~a. The ~ is suppossed to go over the n.

Dotr

b/c they couldn't call it Italy??

भारत गणराज्य

The history of Spain covers a span from pre-historic times, through the rise and fall of a global empire, to Spain's modern-day renaissance in the post-Franco era.

Modern humans arrived on the Iberian Peninsula in the area of today's Spain some 35,000 years ago. Waves of invaders and colonizers followed over the millennia, including the Celts, Phoenicians, Carthaginians, and Greeks, and by about 200 B.C., the area was controlled by the Roman Empire. After the fading of the Roman Empire, the history of the modern nation of Spain has been viewed as beginning with the Christian Visigoth kingdom established during the 5th through early 8th centuries.[1] By 711, the first Muslim invaders arrived from North Africa, and within a few years, these invaders dominated a large portion of the Iberian Peninsula. During the next 750 years, independent Muslim states were established, and the entire area of Muslim control became known as Al-Andalus. This period is remembered in part for a flowering of philosophy and religious thought, and in part for continuing tensions between Christians and Muslims. What became known as the Reconquest (or Reconquista) of Spain by Christian forces began almost immediately in the 8th century with resistance efforts in northern Spain, and gradually rolled south over the centuries, culminating in the defeat of the last Muslim ruler of Granada in 1492. During this period of the re-taking of Spain, Christian kingdoms and principalities developed, including most importantly, the Kingdom of Castile and the Kingdom of Aragon. The union of these two kingdoms, through the marriage in 1469 of Queen Isabella I and King Ferdinand II, led to the creation of the Kingdom of Spain.

mandasrooster

There are several competing hypotheses as to the origin of the Roman name "Hispania", the root of the Spanish name España and the English name Spain. These hypotheses are based on slender evidence and must be treated cautiously.

-Wikipedia

here's more if you want it.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hispania#Origin_of_the_name

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