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Did "The North" ever have a Real Name?


Lovely Lyanna

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I don't think it sounds weird. The region making up the northern half of Sweden is called "Norrland", meaning "north land". Norrlanders don't go around and call it "middle land" or something. :P


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In real history we frequently see people naming their culture and lands from the perspective of "self" vs "other." But the name "The North" is very odd as it's named from the perspective of people living South of it, rather than from the people living there.

What examples are you thinking of here?

mmenolas, would these be examples from Wikipedia if I am understanding you correctly?

Egypt / Miṣr, "The word originally connoted "metropolis" or "civilization" and means "country", or "frontier-land"."

Germany / Deutschland, "descended from Old High German diutisc "popular" (i.e. belonging to the diot or diota "people"), originally used to distinguish the language of the common people from Latin and its Romance descendants."

Slovenia / Slovakia / Slavonia, "The Slavic autonym *Slověninъ is usually considered a derivation from slovo "word", originally denoting "people who speak (the same language)," i.e. people who understand each other, in contrast to the Slavic word denoting "foreign people" – němci, meaning "mumbling, murmuring people" (from Slavic *němъ – "mumbling, mute")."

Wales / Cymru, "descended from the Brythonic word combrogi, meaning "fellow-countrymen""

Apache, "Most Apacheans prefer to call themselves by an autonym of Dine or Inde meaning "person"."

Navajo, "The Navajo are speakers of a Na-Dené Southern Athabaskan languages known as Diné bizaad (lit. 'People's language')."

Cherokee, "The Cherokee refer to themselves as Ani-Yunwiya (ᎠᏂᏴᏫᏯ), which means "Principal People.""

Cree, "Collectively the Cree used the autonym Nēhilawē (those who speak our language). They used "Cree" to refer to their people only when speaking the languages of the European colonists, French or English. The Cree of the James Bay region of Quebec refer to themselves as "Eeyou" or "The People.""

Hopi, "The Hopi Dictionary gives the primary meaning of the word "Hopi" as: "behaving one, one who is mannered, civilized, peaceable, polite, who adheres to the Hopi way." In the past, Hopi sometimes used the term "Hopi" and its cognates to refer to the Pueblo peoples in general, in contrast to other, more warlike tribes."

Inuit, "Inuit is the Eastern Canadian Inuit (Inuktitut) and West Greenlandic (Kalaallisut) word for "the people.""

Lenape, "Lenni-Lenape (or Lenni-Lenapi) comes from their autonym, Lenni, which may mean "genuine, pure, real, original," and Lenape, meaning "Indian" or "man". (cf. Anishinaabe.) Alternately, lënu may be translated as "man.""

Nez Perce, "Their name for themselves is Nimíipuu (pronounced [nimiːpuː]), meaning, "The People," in their language, part of the Sahaptin family."

Seminole, "They identify as yat'siminoli or "free people," because for centuries their ancestors had resisted Spanish efforts to conquer and convert them, as well as English efforts to take their lands and use them in their wars."

Shoshone, "Shoshones called themselves Newe, meaning "People."

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It might be a little confusing if every region was called 'The Center'.

China and Taiwan both refer to themselves as "Zhōnghuá", which means "The Middle Kingdom", and it's hardly the first time in history there have been multiple "Middle"/"Central" states in China.

Of course they both call themselves "China" in English, which comes from the Indo-Aryan name for the state that made up part of southwestern part of China (central/northwest part of expanded modern China) a few thousand years ago.

But fortunately, they never talk to each other, so it doesn't get confusing. :)

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The North = Northern most point of Westeros, sometimes including, but most times excluding, The Lands of Always Winter (Beyond The Wall)


The Westerlands = Western most lands, excluding the Iron Islands


The Vale = The Vale of Arryn, Gulltown, the Gates of the Moon + whatever else is in the Vale


The Riverlands = Riverrun, the Twins, the Trident + whatever was not considered part of The Reach, The Westerlands and what is now considered the crownlands. The Riverlands were raped and reshaped regularly, but shared that river commonality.


The Reach = This name was never quite explained to me. I guess it has something to do with Garth Greenhand.


Dorne = Sunspear, the Water Gardens, Starfall + everything on the Dornish side of the Dornish Marshes


The Stormlands = Storms End, Tarth + everything Argilac the Arrogant had been able to keep Harren the Black out of that was on the Stormland side of the Dornish Marshes. The only place we know that actually has storms is Storms End.


Dragonstone = Driftmark and Dragonstone + whatever else is part of that kingdom.


The crownlands = the formerly Riverlands / Stormlands land that surrounds King's Landing


The Iron Islands = the islands where the ironborn are born and raised.



As someone said before, it's literally the major common point of that territory at the time of the conquest.


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New Zealand's two major islands - the North Island and the South Island (not "North Island and South Island" - omitting "the" sounds weird to locals)..

In the early days, due to Stewart Island, the South Island even got called the Middle Island.

But if you go further back you get 'Te Ika a Maui' and 'Te Waka a Maui' (or 'Te Wai Pounamu' if that floats your boat). No pun intended.

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There were probably names for all the Kingdoms the Stark's swallowed up. Like the Kingdom of the Barrows, Wolfwoods, Rills etc.







The Reach = This name was never quite explained to me. I guess it has something to do with Garth Greenhand.






It's an obscure geography term also which I barely understand, but has several meanings. Like the length of a straight river or an extended stretch of water or land. Which can apply to the Reach. In that it's flat and open.


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It's like Norway; from Old Norse *norðvegr, meaning "the northern route" (the way northwards).

It is likely during the Andal invasion the Andals named the North, Dorne(after the Mountain) and the Westerlands because of their Geography and the rest of Westeros gradually adopted to those names.

Possibly a few thousand years ago these places had many different names but a common language has meant they have accepted the Andal terms for these regions.

I agree that dubbing the land between the Neck and the Wall, "the north" was done by the Andals, it doesn't really make sense for the First Men to have named it the north, since they would probably see north of the wall as the true north.

The Starks probably weren't know as Kings in the North until quite a while until after they controlled the whole region.

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Weren't the Kingdoms named after their defining features?



The Kingdom of The Reach. (the reach of Garth Greenhand. Everywhere he went, the land bloomed. seems an appropriate name for his country)



The Kingdom of The Rock, later known as The Westerlands (Goldmines in Casterly Rock)



The Vale of Arryn. (Well, it's good enough for Loveball Laneway)



The Iron Islands. (Iron Mines)



The Stormlands and The Riverlands are pretty self explanatory.



Dorne (I have no idea, I'll assume a linguistic thing)



The North on the other hand was made up of several smaller kingdoms until the Starks either conquered or destroyed them. Purely speculation, but maybe they didn't rename anything as a political move, allowing former kings autonomy in their new lordly titles. Much like the Targaryens when they took the 7 kingdoms. It would help explain the "King IN the North" title.


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