Etymologies and meanings of nationalities and ethnicities

[TheOldNorth]

Anglo-Saxons: people of the peninsula region + people of the seax(knife)
Brittons: the people who do/make/build
Gauls: the able ones
Scots: the raiders?
Gaels: the wild ones
Cymro (Welshmen): our fellow countrymen
Welshmen: the foreign men (Germanic exonym for celts/Romans, also Walloons)
Danes: the lowlanders
Swedes: our people
Norwegians: the north men
Russians: the rudder men

Feel free to add more/make suggestions

[Crn Volk]

Macedonians: Highlanders

[Glauk]

Macedonians: Highlanders

In which language?

[Crn Volk]

In which language?

Greek most probably

[WeirdLookingFellow]

Romania - Land of the Romans (I swear to fuck I would've preferred Dacia like they first wanted to name it).

Moldova - land of Molda; the surname is Slavic (-ova) and most probably not a derivative of the Dacian -dava, used to denominate a fort ( Capidava for example ). It is debated whether Molda is from the old German Molde which is a mine, or even Gotchi Mulda which could refer to the river ( Mulda ). It's probably from the Slavic "mold-" which means spruce or fir, especially since the place where Moldova appeared was in the North-West, a highland filled with those kinds of trees.

But nationalistic Romanian historians will scream that it's because Dragos the founder of Moldova named it after his dog Molda, who died during a hunt.

[Ymyyakhtakh]

Here are different proposed etymologies for Uralic ethnonyms. More uncertain etymologies are marked with an asterisk.

*Finn - cognate of English "fen" (type of wetland)
*Suomi - cognate of Baltic "zeme" (lowland) and Russian "zemlya" (land); cognate of Saami and Häme
*Saami - cognate of Baltic "zeme" (lowland) and Russian "zemlya" (land); cognate of Suomi and Häme
Lapp - from Finnish "lappi" (further end)
Karelian - from Finnic "karja" (cattle) + "-la" (suffix for place names)
*Bjarmian - cognate of Finnish "perämaa" and Vepsian "peräma" (back land, further end land)
*Permyak - cognate of Finnish "perämaa" and Vepsian "peräma" (back land, further end land) + Russian suffix "-yak"
*Bjarmian - cognate of North Germanic "Bjørne" (bear)
*Permyak - cognate of North Germanic "Bjørne" (bear)
*Zyrian - cognate of Finnish "syrjä" (side, further end, remote area)
*Zyrian - from a tribe with a name similar to "saran"
Komi - from Komi "kom" (human) + Russian plural suffix "i"
Mari - from Mari "Märӛ" (person); cognate of Indo-Aryan "maryá-" and Iranian "mard" (human; literally mortal)
Mordvin - cognate of Indo-Aryan "maryá-" and Iranian "mard" (human; literally mortal)
*Meryan - cognate of Indo-Aryan "maryá-" and Iranian "mard" (human; literally mortal)
Udmurt - from Udmurt "odo-mort" (meadow person); "murt" is a cognate Latin "mors" (death)
Khanty - from Khanty "hantõ" (human) + Russian plural suffix "i"
*Ostyak - from Khanty "as-kho" (Ob River) + Russian suffix "-yak"
Mansi - from Mansi "maańśi" (human); likely cognate of Magyar
*Samoyed - from the word "somatu" or "samatu" used by Selkups to denote Enets
*Samoyed - from Russian "same-edne" (Saami land); earlier also used of Saami
*Samoyed - from Russian "samoyed" (cannibal)
Nenets - from Nenets "n'enyts" (person)
*Yurak - from the Nenets family name "Yar"
Enets - from Enets "enet" (person)
Selkup - from Selkup "söl'kup" (land person)
Nganasan - from Nganasan "nganasa(n)" (person)

"Lapp", "Permian", and "Zyrian" are possibly derived from three different Finnic words, each of which means "further end" or "remote side" (Finnish "lappi", "perä", and "syrjä").

I used to think that the names "Mordovia" and "Mordvin" sounded ominous, like Tolkien's Mordor, but I didn't realize they are all likely derived from an Indo-European word for death.

[Nazarene]

God bless the European people

[Lucas]

God bless the European people

Maybe it will be interesting for you, for those who don't know Polish / Slavic languages.

Germans -in Polish "Niemcy" which is derived from "niemy" which means mute / silent. So "Niemcy" are those who can't speak (Slavic).

Italians - in Polish "Włosi", derived from "Wołosi" = Vlachs

[TheOldNorth]

Great additions guys

[Glauk]

Shqipëtar(albanian) - from the word shqiptoj( to pronounce clearly , to speak clearly, from the latin word Excipere) somebody who speak albanian, the termus probably started being used after the ottoman occupation