Everything about Name Of France totally explained
The name
France comes from
Latin Francia, which literally means "land of the
Franks, Frankland". Originally it applied to the whole
Frankish Empire, extending from southern France to eastern
Germany.
Background
At the
Treaty of Verdun in
843, the Frankish Empire was divided in three parts, and eventually only two:
Francia Occidentalis ("Western Frankland") and
Francia Orientalis ("Eastern Frankland"). The rulers of
Francia Orientalis, who soon claimed the imperial title and wanted to reunify the Frankish Empire, dropped the name
Francia Orientalis and called their realm the
Holy Roman Empire (see
History of Germany). The kings of
Francia Occidentalis successfully opposed this claim, and managed to preserve
Francia Occidentalis as an independent kingdom, distinct from the Holy Roman Empire. The
Battle of Bouvines in 1214 definitely marked the end of the efforts by the
Holy Roman Empire to reunify the old Frankish Empire by conquering France.
Since the name
Francia Orientalis had disappeared, there arose the habit to refer to
Francia Occidentalis as
Francia only, from which the word France is derived. The French state has been in continuous existence since 843 (except for a brief interruption in 885-887), with an unbroken line of heads of states since the first king of
Francia Occidentalis (
Charles the Bald) to the current president of the French Republic (
Nicolas Sarkozy). Noticeably, in
German, France is still called
Frankreich, which literally means "
Reich (realm) of the Franks". In order to distinguish from the Frankish Empire of
Charlemagne, France is called
Frankreich, while the Frankish Empire is called
Frankenreich.
The name of the
Franks itself is said to come from the
Proto-Germanic word *
frankon which means "
javelin,
lance". Another proposed etymology is that Frank means "the free men", based on the fact that the word
frank meant "free" in the ancient Germanic languages. However, rather than the ethnic name of the Franks coming from the word
frank ("free"), it's more probable that the word
frank ("free") comes from the ethnic name of the Franks, the connection being that only the Franks, as the conquering class, had the status of freemen.
According to a tenacious
myth, the name of the former French currency, the
franc, wouldn't come from the name of the country but from
Old French franc, a word which meant "free", because the first coins were minted to pay the ransom of the king
John II of France, who was captured by the English at the
Battle of Poitiers in 1356. This story is highly doubtful : currencies are usually named after weights (pound,
lira,
mark,
livre,
peseta), places (Belga, Sequin, Thaler), units (As, Sestertius) or after the object or the man engraved on the coin (
Crown,
Escudo,
Écu,
Louis,
Ducat,
Florin,
Leu). More likely, the name comes from the words engraved on the coins : "Rex Francorum" ("Frankish King" or "Roi des
Francs" in French).
At the arrival of the Franks, the land where they settled was called
Gaul (
Latin:
Gallia;
French:
Gaule). This name continued to be used for a very long time after the Franks arrived in what is now France (their first kings were called "King of the Franks", referring to the people, not the land). In fact, for as long as the cultural elites of Europe used Latin predominantly (until the 18th century), the name
Gallia continued to be used alongside the name France. Today, in modern
French, the word
Gaule has completely disappeared, and is only used in a historical context. The only current use of the word is in the title of the leader of the French bishops, the
archbishop of Lyon, whose official title is
Primate of the Gauls (
Primat des Gaules). Gaul is in the plural in the title, reflecting the three Gallic entities identified by the Romans (
Celtica,
Belgica, and
Aquitania). The adjective
gaulois (Gallic) is still sometimes used when a Frenchperson wants to stress some idiosyncrasies of the French people entrenched in history, such as
notre vieux fond gaulois querelleur ("the love of quarrels of our old Gallic stock"), a phrase used when denouncing French propensity for strikes or controversies. During the
French Third Republic, the authorities often referred to
notre vieille nation gauloise ("our old Gallic nation"), a case in which the adjective
gaulois is used with a positive connotation. In English the word Gaul is never used in a modern context. The adjective Gallic is sometimes used to refer to French people, occasionally in a derisive and critical way, such as "Gallic pride".
Note that the family name of
Charles de Gaulle (with two "l") has nothing to do with the name Gaul (French:
Gaule, with one "l"). It seems that "Gaulle" comes from an old Germanic word meaning "wall", where w- evolved into g- under the influence of French (cf. William and Guillaume). Nonetheless, contemporary Frenchmen couldn't help noticing the striking similarity between the two names, and it added to the aura surrounding the famous general.
In almost all the languages of the world, France is known by the word "France" or any of its derivatives. In a few languages (essentially
Greek and
Breton), France is known as "Gaul". and in
Hebrew as צרפת (Tzarfat).
Meanings of the name France
The name "France" (and its adjective "French") can have four different meanings which it's important to distinguish in order to avoid ambiguities.
Political meaning
In a first meaning, "France" means the whole French Republic. In that case, "French" refers to the nationality, as it's written on the French ID card : "nationalité : Française".
Geographical meaning
In a second meaning, "France" refers to
metropolitan France only, meaning mainland France (known also as the
Hexagone) with its closest islands, but excluding the
French overseas territories and even sometimes the isle of
Corsica. This is the most common meaning, concurrently with the political meaning.
Historical meanings
In a third meaning, "France" refers specifically to the
province of
Île-de-France (with
Paris at its centre) which historically was the heart of the royal demesne. This meaning is found in some geographic names, such as French Brie (
Brie française) and
French Vexin (
Vexin français). French Brie, the area where the famous
Brie cheese is produced, is the part of
Brie that was annexed to the royal demesne, as opposed to Champagne Brie (
Brie champenoise) which was annexed by
Champagne. Likewise, French Vexin was the part of
Vexin inside Île-de-France, as opposed to
Norman Vexin (
Vexin normand) which was inside
Normandy.
This meaning is also found in the name of the
French language (
langue française), whose literal meaning is "language of Île-de-France". It isn't until the 19th and 20th centuries that the language of Île-de-France indeed became the language of the whole country France. In modern French, the French language is called
le français, while the old language of Île-de-France is called by the name applied to it according to a 19th century theory on the origin of the French language -
le francien.
In a fourth meaning, "France" refers only to the
Pays de France, one of the many
pays (Latin:
pagi, singular
pagus) of Île-de-France. French provinces are traditionally made up of several
pays, which are the direct continuation of the
pagi set up by the Roman administration during
Antiquity. The province of Île-de-France is thus made up of several
pays:
Pays de France, Parisis, Hurepoix, French Vexin, and so on.
Pays de France is the extremely fertile plain located immediately north of Paris which supported one of the most productive agriculture during the
Middle Ages and was responsible for the tremendous wealth of the kingdom of France before the Hundred Years' War, making possible the emergence of
Gothic art and architecture which spread all over western Europe.
Pays de France is also called
Plaine de France (for example "Plain of France"). Its historic main town is
Saint-Denis, where the first gothic cathedral in the world was built in the 12th century, and inside which the kings of France are buried.
Pays de France is now almost entirely built up, being but the northern extension of the Paris suburbs.
This fourth meaning is found in many place names, such as the town of
Roissy-en-France, on whose territory is located
Charles de Gaulle International Airport. The name of the town literally means "Roissy in the
Pays de France", and not "Roissy in the country France". Another example of the use of France in this meaning is the new
Stade de France, which was built near Saint-Denis for the
1998 Football World Cup. It was decided to call the stadium after the
Pays de France, to give it a local touch. In particular, the mayor of Saint-Denis made it very clear that he wanted the new stadium to be a stadium of the northern suburbs of Paris, and not just a national stadium which happens to be located in the northern suburbs. The name is intended to reflect this, although a few French people know this story and the great majority associates it to the country's name.
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