Has Ethiopia been called anything else?

Answer 1

Currently it is officially called the Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia.

It is not certain how old the name Ethiopia is; its earliest attested use is in the Iliad, where it appears twice, and in The Odyssey, where it appears three times. The earliest attested use in the region is as a Christianized name for the Kingdom of Aksum in the 4th century, in stone inscriptions of King Ezana. 'An Ethiopian', derived in turn from Greek words meaning "of burned face". However, the Book of Aksum, a Ge'ez chronicle compiled in the 15th century, states that the name is derived from "Ityoppis" - a son (unmentioned in The Bible) of Cush, son of Ham, who according to legend founded the city of Axum. Pliny the Elder similarly states the tradition that the nation took its name from someone named Aethiops. A third etymology, suggested by the late Ethiopian scholar and poet laureate Tsegaye Gabre-Medhin, traces the name to the "old black Egyptian" or "land of higher peace".

In English and generally outside of Ethiopia, the country was also once historically known as Abyssinia, modern Habesha, the native name for the country's inhabitants (while the country was called "Ityoppya"). In a few languages, Ethiopia is still called by names cognate with "Abyssinia", meaning land of the Habesha people.

Ethiopia has also been known to be considered the land of Cush. The name was originally derived from the Hebrews to refer to the nations on the eastern coast of the Red Sea. However, the Bible is clear in stating that the Cush people are actually Ethiopians. When Moses referred to the people of Cush, it was in reference of a kindred nation to the Egyptians. Due to the close political relations of Egypt and Ethiopia, both nations at one point in time were under the term Cush according to late Hebrew historians. Even though the original intentions of the word were in reference to both sides of the Red Sea, evidence has shown that parts of the eastern coast did belong to the Ethiopians.