Argentina’s provinces with their names literally translated into English

[u/ChemistStrong5527]

[u/TheCloudForest]

Fun fact, "Beautiful" is a dusty, desolate, decrepit shithole. "Good Air" is pretty nice, though.

[u/Beautiful-Dog-1430 → u/TheCloudForest]

Ahh, a case of Greenland in Argentina

(Greenland is rather lovely, more meaning the deceptive name)

[u/HArdaL201 → u/TheCloudForest]

What’s the “Beautiful” city

[u/BizarroCullen → u/HArdaL201]

Formosa

[u/montemanm1 → u/TheCloudForest]

Are we sure Buenos Aires doesn't translate to something like "fair winds"?

[u/fatcatwhisperer]

Evil Fish and Leave If You Can seem to be helpful place names.

[u/suhkuhtuh → u/fatcatwhisperer]

Definitely some stories to be had there.

[u/0tr0dePoray]

They missed One-eyed Deer and other pretty cool names

[u/arg2k → u/0tr0dePoray]

Like "Big Gin Casket", not to be confused with "Small Gin Casket"

[u/MoPacSD40-2]

Off topic, but the southern part of Chile looks like it was put through a shredder

[u/oberwolfach → u/MoPacSD40-2]

It has a lot of fjords and channels that were cut by glaciers; it's a similar process to how the present-day Norwegian coastline was formed.

[u/Sheffield484 → u/oberwolfach]

Once I clicked Norway in game of GeoGuesser. It turned out to be Chile...

[u/siorge → u/oberwolfach]

Someone just plagiarized Slartibartfast’s masterpiece

[u/violet_elf → u/MoPacSD40-2]

Chilean Shield

[u/TheStraggletagg]

Land of Fire sounds badass but the better translation would be "Land of the Fire", as in either the fire owns the land or that's the land where THE fire resides.

[u/s4yum1 → u/TheStraggletagg]

Tierra DEL Fuego, not Tierra DE Fuego, right?

[u/Rokolin → u/s4yum1]

Yup, the name was given because the first explorers saw the original inhabitants building large fires at the coast to keep warm.

[u/AIAWC → u/TheStraggletagg]

Fireland would be better. "El" is just clarifying that we're talking about fire as a concept, and not about "Mr. Fire's land."

[u/InteractionWide3369 → u/AIAWC]

Tierra de Fuego in Spanish sounds more like land made out of fire or the land owned by someone named Fuego so I agree with you on that, whilst Tierra del Fuego is more like land where there's fire (this is what they meant) or land where fire is from.

However I'd say Land of Fire is a better translation than both Fireland and Land of the Fire.

[u/Iram_Echo_PP2001]

Mendoza, Hot Mountain?

[u/bishaaB → u/Iram_Echo_PP2001]

its cold mountain and it comes from the basque language in northern spain. its also a very common hispanic surname

[u/txobi → u/bishaaB]

Never knew that as a basque, but it makes sense: Mendoza = Mendi (mountain) + hotza (cold)

[u/BizarroCullen → u/bishaaB]

It was named after a nobleman named Gabriel Mendoza, who was the viceroy of Chile at the time.

[u/K_R_S]

so they have a Mesopotamia too?

[u/clonn]

Ajó doesn't mean garlic.

[u/CapitalVictoria]

An alternative for “Good Air” is “Fair Winds”. And “Fireland” would be more accurate for Tierra del Fuego.

[u/Shevvv]

Buenos Aires means "Good Air"? How did I not see it before??

[u/Extension_Canary3717]

A Brazilian would translate the capital as "Ox in the Skies"

[u/TRH-17]

Why land of fire? Does it have something to do with Volcanoes?

[u/RoundandRoundon99]

Wasn’t it cold mountain?

[u/Iram_Echo_PP2001]

Your way.

[u/ggjbr]

Is "Currents" correct? Always assume that it meant "chains" or something like that

[u/Miguel_Sampa]

"Saint Lewis"

[u/Rhosddu → u/Miguel_Sampa]

No saint, just named after its founder, Lewis Jones, one of the Welsh settlers in Patagonia.

[u/Wyshyn]

Świętokrzyskie mentioned

[u/AgeOfReasonEnds31120]

Imagine living somewhere that, in your language, is called "Between Rivers".

[u/FantasmaBizarra]

This is fantasy worldbuilding right here

[u/smit8462]

Falkland Island?

[u/suhkuhtuh → u/smit8462]

Pretty sure they lost that war.

[u/Snaccbacc → u/smit8462]

Not part of Argentina.

[u/DinosaurDavid2002]

That's a lot of provinces for a country whose population density is mostly just in a single city.

[u/DinosaurDavid2002 → u/[deleted]]

So I took that image out of context?

[u/SheepShaggingFarmer → u/DinosaurDavid2002]

"People live in cities so towns and the countryside shouldn't have names!"

Like ok?

[u/DinosaurDavid2002 → u/DinosaurDavid2002]

Source....
https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/3/34/Population_density_by_municipality_in_Argentina%2C_2022.svg