Understanding the way in which different countries get their names can be rather interesting, and Italy is one such example.

The name itself comes from the Italian word ‘Italia’, but that actually translates as ‘calf land’, which is only going to confuse matters even more. However, in order to understand why it has this name, we only have to look at the southern part of Italy as that is where we are going to find the answer.

Apparently, the bull was regarded as being an important symbol to tribes that were based in the south of the country. When different tribes ultimately united to create what we now know as Italy, it seems that they were the more vocal and were able to at least keep some reference to their own heritage in the creation of the new country. It also makes you wonder what the other options could have been.