Awesome World Map Shows Literal Translations of Every Country’s Name

Created by Australia-based company Credit Card Compare, this cool world map has recently been making rounds on the internet. The said map has sparked the interest of numerous netizens from across the globe as it featured literal translations of country names.

Of course, one thing we’ve immediately realized while looking at it is that certain factors are considered when it comes to naming countries – from geographical locations and wildlife, to popular persons, among many others.

You’ll see what that means as you scroll down below and see how the names turned out.

Columbia and Bolivia’s names seem obvious but did you know what Brazil or Paraguay really means?

See any interesting names? Check out Benin, Botswana, Madagascar, and Mali.

Now I know Nauru literally means “I Go To The Beach”. Plus Papua New Guinea translates to “Frizzy-Haired Men”?

Meanwhile, Saudi Arabia is “Land of Good Fortune” and Philippines is “Land of Prince Philip Asturias”.

So Spain is home to a lot of rabbits? Also, you wouldn’t want to mess with people from Denmark.

While Canada means “The Village”, United States of America means exactly just that.

In an interview with Lonely Planet, David Boyd, Co-Founder and CEO of Credit Card Compare, explained:

“Both company co-founders travel a lot and isn’t it cool to know a little about where you’re travelling to?

“We know that people in Australia use our comparison site extensively to research travel-related credit card rewards and travel destinations so that they can make the most of their international travels. We wanted to look at the world map in a whole new way for our visitors by getting to the literal translations of country names. And that’s what we’ve managed to do with this beautiful world map.

“The interest has been enormous far beyond Australia because of some of the unexpected names. People are contacting us with their positive feedback and reasons for some corrections to one or two names. We plan to release even high-def downloads suitable for big poster-sized prints.”

If you want to read more details about the country names, you can read Credit Card Compare’s blog entry. Otherwise, those who want to give the map a closer look may click this link instead.