Schwyz - History of The Toponym

History of The Toponym

The name Schwyz is first attested in 972 as the village Suittes and is perhaps related to Old High German suedan "to burn", referring to the area of forest that was burned and cleared to build. The name was extended to the area dominated by Schwyz (the Canton of Schwyz), and later to the entire Old Swiss Confederacy. Other cantons tended to resent this in the 15th century, but after 1499 the term Schwyzer was widely self-adopted, out of spite so to speak, since it had been employed as a term of abuse by the Swabian side during the Swabian War. Eidgenossenschaft and Schwytzerland could be used interchangeably as country names in the 16th century. Today, Swiss-German people use the name "Schwiiz", derived from Schwyz as the Swiss name of the country. Most famous is the sentence "Hop Schwiiz", which most Swiss people yell in an international football game.