List of country-name etymologies

Afghanistan - "land of the allied tribes"
Albania - land of the highlanders. Native name Shkiperia means "land of the eagle".
Argentina - "silver" (as Rio de la Plata)
Australia - from "unknown southern land" (Latin - terra australis incognita)
Austria - from Österreich, "eastern kingdom"
Azerbaijan - "land of fire" (from surface fires on ancient oil pools"
Belarus - "White Russia"
Belgium - from the name of a Celtic tribe, the Belgae.
Bharat (India) - After the god/king of an old Vedic tribe
Bhutan - land of the Bhotia
Brazil - from the type of wood, and the Gaelic myth of the magical island of Hy Brasil
Britain - "painted" a reference to the original inhabitants of the islands use of body paint and tattoos; may also derive from the Celtic goddess Brigid
Bolivia - from Simon Bolivar
Bulgaria - "land of the tribe formed of many tribes", "Bulg" from a root meaning "mixed"
Burkina Faso - "land of upright people" or "land of honest men"
Cameroon - from Portuguese for "prawns" or "shrimp"
Canada - "little settlement"
Chile - "the depths"
China - after the Qin Dynasty (see also: China in world languages)
Colombia - after "Christopher Columbus"
Costa Rica - "rich coast"
Croatia - *unknown, but probable Sarmatian in origin
Cuba - from "Cubanacan" 'center place'
Denmark - from PIE *dhen "low" or 'flat' and Germanic "mark" - "border land" and/or "border forest". Name used by the ancient Goths to describe the Forest separating Gothland from (then Danish) Scania.
Druk Yul (Bhutan) land of the thunder dragon, land of thunder, or land of the dragon.
Ecuador - "equator"
El Salvador - "the saviour" named for Jesus Christ.
Egypt - "temple of the soul of Ptah"
Estonia - "eastern way"
Finland - "land of the wanderers" or "fish-scale", and Suomi - "land"
France - 'land of the Franks'
Germany - perhaps "land of the spear men"
Greece - from the name of a certain region, and Hellas "land of light"
Honduras - "depths"
Hungary - "people of the 10 spears", or the river Ugra, or the Huns.
Iceland - "land of ice"
Indonesia - "Indian Islands"
Iran - "land of the Aryans" or "land of the free"
Iraq - "between the rivers"
Ireland - after Eire, an ancient fertility goddess, or 'western land', or 'iron land'.
Israel - an alternative name for the biblical patriarch Jacob, literally "struggled with God."
Italy - perhaps "son of the bull god" or "calf god"
Nihon (Japan) - "origin of the sun"
Korea - after an ancient dynasty
Kosovo - "blackbirds" named after a medieval Serb and Turkish battle which ended with Blackbirds feeding on the corpses of defeated Serb armies.
Liechtenstein - "light stone" ('light' as in weight rather than brightness)
Luxembourg - (Celtic 'Lucilem' "small" and Germanic 'burg' "castle", lucilemburrugh) 'little castle'
Malaysia - land of the Malay people
Malta - "refuge". The term may have been kept long in currency by the existence of the Greek word 'melitta' or "honey", the name of the island to the ancients, and also a major export from the island during those centuries.
Mexico - after the Mexica branch of the Aztecs
Moldova - "land of open-pit mines"
Monaco - "himself alone" a reference to the Greek god Hercules
Nepal - "wool market"
Netherlands - (Germanic) - 'low lands'
New Zealand - after the island in Denmark
Nigeria - "river Gir"
Norway - "northern way" and 'Norege' from "Northern Kingdom"
Palestine - from the Roman name for the country, literally "land of the Philistines" ("Philistines" itself is from the Semitic root P.L.Sh., meaning "invader")
Papua - "Land of the people with the frizzy hair"
Philippines - lands of King Philip
Poland - From the Germanic "polen". 'fields.'
Portugal - From the city Oporto
Romania - 'Roman realm". As a country name, a neologism - When the principalities of Wallachia and Moldavia were first unified, 'Romania' was chosen to honor the ancient Romans, from who moden Romanians tend to claim descent.
Russia - from an old Viking group known as the Rus, and from the kingdom they founded in present-day Ukraine
San Marino - after Saint Marinus
Serbia - unknown, but probably Sarmatian in origin, derived from the name of the Sorbs in present day Germany
Slovakia "glory" or "the word"
Slovenia "glory" or "the word"
Spain - (Phoenician) - 'rabbit coast'
Sweden - "land of the Svear"
Switzerland - from the canton of Schwyz
Thailand - "land of the free"
Tuvalu - "eight islands"
Ukraine - "border territory" similar to kraijina in Serbo-Croat
United States of America - from "Amerigo Vespucci"
Vatican City 'Vatican' from an ancient root meaning "prophecy" from the name of a hill 'Mons Vaticanus', the street beneath having been used by fortune-tellers and sooth-sayers in Roman times.
Venezuela - "little Venice"
Vietnam - "southern land"