9 countries which might be named after people, according to Twitter

When historian Dan Snow asked his followers for eponymous country names, he probably expected a thoughtful and candid discussion – but he clearly doesn’t understand Twitter.

Taking the example of Bolivia, named after 19th century independence fighter Simon Bolivar, he asked for other countries that are named after an individual.

After the promising start displayed above, here’s nine spurious claims from the wrong turns the discussion took.

1. America was named after a superhero.

Seriously, it’s definitely named after a superhero.

2. Greenland takes its name from 53-year-old actor Robson Green.

3. Alan Brazil is a former football player, so there’s only one country that could have taken his name.

4. There is, unfortunately, no Travoltaland, but John of the same name starred in an appropriate film.

5. Bernard Matthews has no nation to take his name, but he’s famous for his bootiful turkey…

6. Great Uncle Bulgaria is the only Womble to have a country named after them.

7. A Teletubby named a country in Eastern Europe, despite her lack of speech.

8. Lucky for Iceland, they decided to drop the “Vanilla”.

9. And finally, Chad is Chad.

Which Chad named Chad? Seeing how the rest of this discussion went, you can decide.

Web editor