[Joker_vD]

Yes, and Finns don't call their country "Finland" — Finnish language, after all, doesn't uses "f" natively — they call it "Suomi" and they call Russia "Venäjä" (even though Wends really don't have much to do with it). So what? Names are arbitrary, especially names in different languages, that's just how they are.

As the Russian proverb says, "you can call me even 'kettle', just don't put me on the stove".

[usr1106]

The first prize goes to the French, though.

They call their country France, named after the Germanic tribe of the Franks. Only in Asterix they remember that their country should be called Gaul.

[NeoTar]

The Germanic tribe who invaded and conquered the lands currently known as France, forming (at least) the aristocracy and then naming it after themselves? Isn't that a reasonable name for the country? I mean, it also happened in England (i.e. land of the Angles) - which historically would have been Britannia when France was Gaul.

[kergonath]

> They call their country France, named after the Germanic tribe of the Franks.

You mean, the Germans who call it “Frankreich”?

There were several Frankish tribes, who occupied over the years regions from Thuringia all the way to Gascony. You might have heard of Clovis, king of the Franks, baptised at Reims and who made Paris the capital of his kingdom, and founded the Frankish Merovingian dynasty that ruled almost all of what is France now for 2 centuries. Gauls had been heavily romanised well before that point anyway.

You should probably read a bit in a subject before trying to be clever.

[int_19h]

Eh. The name "Bulgaria" derives from Bulgars, who were a nomadic Turkic tribe from areas around the Caspian Sea that came to conquer the country.

For another example, the name "Russia" is derived from "Rus", which itself appears to be a derivative of the Norse "Ruslaw" - again, because it was the Norse who came, conquered, and became the ruling elite.

Basically, it happened all the time.