List of Etymologies of Country Subdivision Names - Spain

Spain

• Andalusia: from the Arabic name (Al-Andalus, with several suggested etymologies) formerly applied to the whole Iberian Peninsula
• Aragon: from the Aragon River, that gave its name to the county of Aragon, one of the little Christian polities that resisted Islamic rule in Spain during its greatest extent (see Reconquista)
• Asturias: the land of the Astures, an early people of north-west Spain
• Basque Country (Basque: Euskal Herria): from the ancient tribe of the Vascones, whose name became an ethnonym in the Middle Ages. The Basque name derives from Euskara (the autochthonous name for the Basque language).
  • Álava (Basque: Araba): of uncertain etymology. Various theories see it deriving from a Roman town called Alba, from several prossible Basque etymologies and even from Arabs (who, however, never occupied the province for long). A chronicle of 905 uses the form Arba, but later the word commonly appears as Alaba or Alava.
  • Biscay (Basque: Bizkaia, Spanish: Vizcaya): variant of bizkarra ("shoulder", "back" or, in this case, "mountain range" in Basque)
  • Guipuscoa (Basque: Gipuzkoa, Spanish: Guipúzcoa): of unknown etymology. Old documents sometimes use the variant Ipuscoa.
• Cantabria: from the Cantabri, a mountain people defeated by the Romans only after a great military effort (Cantabrian Wars, 29 - 19 BC). Celtologists have suggested a derivation from the Celtic root cant-, meaning "rock" or "stone", and from the suffix -abr, used frequently in Celtic regions. From this we can deduce that the word "cantabrus" means "dwelling in the mountains", referring to the rugged terrain of Cantabria. Another suggestion derives Cantabria from the Celtic Kant ("mountain" or "rock") and Iber (the river Ebro), thus "The Mountains of the Ebro". Spaniards also call this region La Montaña ("The Mountain"), but usually call the Bay of Biscay the Cantabrian Sea.
• Castile: the Spanish/Castilian name Castilla reflects the Spanish castillo ("castle") and the Latin castellum ("fort" or "fortress") with reference to numerous forts or castles erected by King Alfonso I for the defence of the area
• Catalonia: from the castlà ("castellan") class who governed the nascent feudal Catalonia from their castles in the 11th and 12th centuries. (Compare the etymology of "Castile".) Other parallel theories exist: Lafont (1986) says Catalunya could come from Arabic Qalat-uniyya (Qalat means "castle" and -uniyya operates as a collective suffix) because medieval Catalonia formed a border country with a lot of castles in front of the Muslim and Arabized zone of the Iberic peninsula. Some texts suggest that the name Catalunya derives from "Gauta-landia": land of the Goths, or "Goth-Alania" meaning "Land of the Goths and Alans" through Arabian *Cotelanuyya, as the Visigoths and Alans invaded and divided Iberia between themselves, agreeing to rule some parts together, with the region of Catalunya going to the Visigoths. Additionally, the Visigothic kingdom of Catalonia may have taken its name from that of the original homeland of the Visigoths, "Gotland". Coromines suggests an Iberian origin: Laietani (latinization of Iberian laiezken) > *laketani > laketans > metathesized as catelans > catalans, re-inforced by castellani (with an epenthetic s according to Coromines). Another theory suggests *kaste-lan as the Iberian name, later Latinized as castellani (an Iberian tribe in northern Catalonia according to Ptolemy); then the name would have evolved into *catellani > *catelans > *Catalans.
• Extremadura: from Medieval Latin Extrema Dorii (literally, "extremes of the Douro river"), referring to the territories south of the Douro basin; or from an Old Castilian word used to designate the further territories controlled by the Christians (see Reconquista)
• Galicia: from Latin Gallaecia, the name of the province created in Roman Hispania by Diocletian in 298 CE. It derives from gallicoi or callicoi, (Galli or Celts).
• León: the ancient kingdom and subsequent province of León take their name from the city of León, whose name derives from its position as the base of a Roman legion (Latin legio)
• Navarre (Spanish: Navarra, Basque: Nafarroa): from the Kingdom of Navarre. Navarra has been argued to have either a Basque or Romance etymology. In the first case it would come from nabar ("brownish, multicolor", also "plowshare"), in the second from nava ("river bank").
• Rioja: speculatively interpreted as "red" from the redness of a prominent soil type in the area.