There are many widely varying names of Germany in different languages, more so than for any other European nation. For example:
- the German language endonym is Deutschland, from the Old High German diutisc, meaning "of the people";
- the French exonym is Allemagne, from the name of the Alamanni tribe;
- in Italian it is Germania, from the Latin Germania, although the German people are called tedeschi, which is cognate with German Deutsch;
- in Polish it is Niemcy, from the Proto-Slavic *němьcь, meaning speechless, since German is not mutually intelligible with Slavic languages;
- in Finnish it is Saksa, from the name of the Saxon tribe;
- in Lithuanian it is Vokietija, of unclear origin, but possibly from Proto-Balto-Slavic *vākyā-, meaning “those who speak loud, shout (unintelligibly)”.
Often language lags behind the changing society and names tend to retain references to first encounters: the Finnish first and foremost met the Saxons while the French faced the Alamanni. Comparable tendencies appear elsewhere, e.g. in names for Russia.
