** Over the millenniums, Egypt has had many names in many different languages. Today, its official name is Junhuriyah Misr al-Arabiyah, which in English means "the Arab Republic of Egypt".
Egyptians themselves refer to Egypt as "Misr", though this can also be a name for Cairo. Interestingly, it is common for Egyptians to refer to Egypt as "Misr", if they are resident in Cairo, but if outside of Cairo, then they will refer to Cairo as Misr. In a certain respect, this is a custom that dates to the earliest times of ancient Egypt.
*we'll divide those names into 3 main groups, according to their chronology:-
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*1st group "dating back to Old Kingdom":
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-In the early period of Egypt, during the Old Kingdom, Egypt was referred to as Kemet (Kermit),or simply Kmt , which means "the Black land" or "fertile land". They called themselves "remetch en Kermet", which means the "People of the Black Land". The term refers to the rich soil found in the Nile Valley and Delta. But it was also sometimes referred to as "Deshret", or "dshrt' , which refers to the "Red Land", or deserts of which Egypt is mostly comprised.
*2nd group"dating back to New kingdom":
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-Later, Egyptians referred to their country as "Hwt-ka-Ptah" (Ht-ka-Ptah, or Hout-ak Ptah),which means "Temple for Ka of Ptah", or more properly, "House of the Ka of Ptah" Ptah was one of Egypt's earliest Gods. As in modern Egypt, this was both a name for the administrative center of Egypt, what we call Memphis today, as well as the name of the country as a whole.
-then in 9th century B.C.,in one of the Homer's epics "odyssey", (Homer was ancient Greek poet&writer), he mentioned for the first time the name of "Aegyptus", which explains that The name "Egypt" derives from the Greek mythological figure "Aegyptus" who ruled over Egypt. He was the son of King Belus (the son of Poseidon) and Queen Anchinoe of Egypt and had a twin brother called Danaus. Between them the two brothers had 100 children – Aegyptus had 50 sons, and Danaus had 50 daughters. The brothers were on bad terms; to make peace, Aegyptus wanted his 50 sons to marry Danaus's 50 daughters, the Danaids.
The girls refused and, together with their father, fled to Argos where Danaus became king. Aegyptus and his 50 sons followed them there, at which point Danaus decided to let the marriages happen. On the day of the wedding Danaus gave each of his daughters a knife and instructed them all to kill their new husbands in their wedding beds. All but one were successful - the disobedient daughter, Hypermnestra, was put in prison by her father, but freed later on,Artemis killed the Danaids for their crime and they were sent to the underworld, punished to forever try to fill jars with holes in them. -"Aegyptus" derives from "ht-ka-ptah" cause when ancient Greeks occupied Egypt, they found difficulty in pronounce the letter "H" in the beginning & End of the word and switched the letter "K" with the letter " G", then added "os" to the end of the word (as any ancient Greek word had to be ended with)
-that explains to us How the modern European language derived "Egypt " from the ancient Greek word "aegyptus , as we say now "Egypt" in English," Aegypten" in German,' Egitto" in Italian.
-when Arabs conquest Egypt they also found it's little bit difficult to pronounce "Aegypti" which means "Egyptian Citizen ", so they switched the word to "Copti" which also means "Egyptian Citizen ",but more later they started to use this word "copti" in talking about Christian Egyptians.
*3rd Group:-
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-"Misr" is the name which Arabs have used to refer to Egypt ,it means "Country", it's also mentioned in many averse in the Quran (the Holy book of Muslims).
-but the surprise here is that "Misr" is an Arabic word derives originally from an ancient Egyptian word "Md_r" which means "fortress" or " castellated".
-a name is referring to Egypt as a land has been gifted by God with natural protective borders from invaders.
written by:
Nermin (nerm78)
homepage:
http://www.geocities.com/egyptianhome/
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*HAVE YOU ASKED YOURSELF BEFORE...WHY EGYPT IS CALLED "EGYPT- or -MISR" ???