How did Switzerland get its name?

Answer 1

The German (and English) country designation "Schweiz" or "Switzerland respectively, along with the Swiss flag, is derived from "Schwyz", one of the founding cantons of Switzerland. A canton is a state of the federal state of Switzerland of which there are 26. The name Schwyz is first attested in 972 as the village Suittes and is parhaps related to Old High German suedan "to burn", referring to the area of forest that was burned and cleared to build. The name was extended to the area dominated by Schwyz (the Canton of Schwyz), and later to the entire Old Swiss Confederacy: while other cantons tended to resent this in the 15th century, the term Schwyzer was widely adopted as self-designation after 1499, out of spite, as it had been employed as a term of abuse by the Swabian side during the Swabian War, and Eidgenossenschaft and Schwytzerland could be used interchangeably in the 16th century.

Answer 2

This is not so easy to answer... first of all, the country Switzerland got it's name from one of it's states called Schwyz. The states themselves are called cantons in Switzerland... there are (depending on how you want to count) 23 of them... or 20 full and 6 semi-cantons.

Let's get back to its name. 1291 is the year in which the three founder states made an agreement... to defend the territory together. These three states are Uri, Schwyz and Unterwalden. So now - even if some legends might have been added later on - one could say it was exactly at this point the country got it's name.

Officially it's now called Confoederatio Helvetica (Swiss or helvetic confederation) - and as I already said there are more than three states nowadays... all of them joined later on... during 1300 until about 1800. The Swiss flag (the reversion of its colors gave the flag of the international red cross) is also part of the state flag of Schwyz... and yes, there are 26 different flags identifying each canton. This white cross on red ground first appeared as emblem of the Swiss troops in a battle in 1339... and besides the one of the vatican state, it's the only quadratic one on earth (the 2:3 is only allowed at sea).

Don't be irritated by the adjective "helvetic". This was an old German tribe living on Swiss territory during the Roman Empire. It's cosidered as some kind of root of the Swiss nation... nevertheless most of the tribe was extinguished during war with rome.

Answer 3

First, you need to remember that Switzerland is just the English name for this country. The names used here are: Schweiz (German), Suisse (French) and Suizza (Italian). The official name of the the country is: Confoederatio Helvetica (Latin). The Latin name comes because Switzerland was originally inhabited by a group of Celts that were called the Helvetians by the Romans (See Asterix in Switzerland for a fun take on this history). In 1291 a few groups of Swiss people (folks from the neighbourhood) met up on a field by a pretty lake (true story) and made an agreement to live together in peace and support each-other. This was the start of the Swiss Federation, and is where the country was ultimately born.

I hope this helps in some way.