Endonyms that have intersting connotations in other langs

[zompist]

But, as mentioned, and according to Larrousse, coq d'Inde refers to the West Indies. But poule d'Inde referred to the guineafowl. (For more confusion, the latter is now called the pintade.)

[Turtlehead]

Numida meleagris and Meleagris gallopavo?

[Izambri]

Numida meleagris = Fr. pintade de Numidie; Cat. pintada or gallina de Guinea; Eng. helmeted guineafowl.
Meleagris gallopavo = Fr. dinde (poule d'Inde. Male: dindon); Cat. gall dindi, also indió, paó, pioc, titot; Eng. turkey.

[Mr. Z]

In Hebrew it's תרנגול הודו, /tarnegol hodu/, "India chicken". Sometimes it's shortened to הודו, /hodu/, "India".

[Turtlehead]

Numida meleagris = Fr. pintade de Numidie; Cat. pintada or gallina de Guinea; Eng. helmeted guineafowl.
Meleagris gallopavo = Fr. dinde (poule d'Inde. Male: dindon); Cat. gall dindi, also indió, paó, pioc, titot; Eng. turkey.

What about Gallus gallus and Pavo cristata/P. muticus? and the rest of Phasanidae?

[Izambri]

Numida meleagris = Fr. pintade de Numidie; Cat. pintada or gallina de Guinea; Eng. helmeted guineafowl.
Meleagris gallopavo = Fr. dinde (poule d'Inde. Male: dindon); Cat. gall dindi, also indió, paó, pioc, titot; Eng. turkey.

What about Gallus gallus and Pavo cristata/P. muticus? and the rest of Phasanidae?

Some good online dictionaries with the help of Wikipedia.

[Qwynegold]

'Lätt' is a common interjection meaning something like "oh, yeah", "hell yeah" (but without the swearing) or like a positive counterpart of "no way" (it literally means 'easily'). This has made 'lettiska' ('Latvian') a funny word for me and one of my friends.

Foremost it means easy. It's funny how "four small dishes" becomes "ugly little Latvians" with Chinese accent.

In Portuguese, a turkey is a peru. (I believe it's named for the country.)

And in Turkish, it's a hindi.

In Finnish the country is called Turkki, which also means fur.

One that I really hate is this joke:
-En svensk, en finne och en lapp skulle ro över en å, men det fanns bara plats för en person i båten, och det var hål i den. Vad skulle de göra?
-Svensken satte finnen på näsan och lappade båten med lappen och så rodde han över.

-A Swede, a Finn and a Lapponian were supposed to row over a river, but there was only place for one person in the boat, and it had a hole. What to do?
-The Swede put the Finn/zit on his nose and patched the boat with the Lapponian/patch and rowed over.

[Civil War Bugle]

Hmm, supposedly French coq d'inde ( dindon) refers to the West Indies. Could Turkish have calqued it on French?

More probably on the Arabic diik hindiy, which has the same meaning as the French (and is probably calqued on it, so yes, indirectly).

Hmmm, I remember being taught diik rumii by my Arabic professor. Maybe I should consult some more sources, because I was told this in an informal situation shortly before Thanksgiving one semester.

[Left]

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[Skomakar'n]

'Lätt' is a common interjection meaning something like "oh, yeah", "hell yeah" (but without the swearing) or like a positive counterpart of "no way" (it literally means 'easily'). This has made 'lettiska' ('Latvian') a funny word for me and one of my friends.

Foremost it means easy. It's funny how "four small dishes" becomes "ugly little Latvians" with Chinese accent.

Huh? Wouldn't a Chinese accent give [z`] for the /r/?

In Portuguese, a turkey is a peru. (I believe it's named for the country.)

And in Turkish, it's a hindi.

In Finnish the country is called Turkki, which also means fur.

One that I really hate is this joke:
-En svensk, en finne och en lapp skulle ro över en å, men det fanns bara plats för en person i båten, och det var hål i den. Vad skulle de göra?
-Svensken satte finnen på näsan och lappade båten med lappen och så rodde han över.

-A Swede, a Finn and a Lapponian were supposed to row over a river, but there was only place for one person in the boat, and it had a hole. What to do?
-The Swede put the Finn/zit on his nose and patched the boat with the Lapponian/patch and rowed over.

Hahaha. Why do you hate it?

[Shrdlu]

... and Ankara means difficult in Finnish. Somewhere in Russia there's this place called Chuvasia when translated into Swedish(Tjuvasien) is homophone with "thief-asia".

And there's a whole people called Fula in Africa. "Fula" menas "(the) ugly", in Swedish, and they speak "Fulaspråket", "(the) ugly language".

[Pole, the]

And in Turkish, it's a hindi.

Similarly, in Polish it's indyk / indor.

[Gojera]

There's a scene in "The Linguists" in which one of the guys makes light of how "Birhor" sounds in English.

[Chuma]

I'm from Götaland, so I'm a Goth.

In Swedish, the suffix -istan sounds like i stan, "in town". It's a pretty common pun in Disney comics - they go to some far away country, and it's called something-in-town.
Specifically, "Pakistan" sounds like "rabble in town".

[Shrdlu]

^My personal favourite is a farmstead somewhere in Sweden named "Suntakstan".

edit: "Pa(c)k" in Swedish is more like "riff-raff".

[Turtlehead]

'Ceffyl' in welsh sounds like 'careful' in English.

[Bristel]

^My personal favourite is a farmstead somewhere in Sweden named "Suntakstan".

edit: "Pa(c)k" in Swedish is more like "riff-raff".

rabble and riff-raff are nearly the same meaning, although "the rabble" are ordinary and socially inferior or uncouth. The riff-raff are disreputable or undesirable people.

While not quite what the thread is looking for, there's a town in Washington State which I used to live in called Snohomish. There was a bit of a problem when a cheerleading squad or some high school girl fans of the local teams started calling themselves the "Sno Hos".

The -mish appears in many town and river names all across the Puget Sound: Snohomish, Skykomish, Swinomish, Duwamish (the tribe which were the natives that lived around Seattle), Suquamish, etc. All are/were Lushootseed Salish-speaking tribes.

[Qwynegold]

'Lätt' is a common interjection meaning something like "oh, yeah", "hell yeah" (but without the swearing) or like a positive counterpart of "no way" (it literally means 'easily'). This has made 'lettiska' ('Latvian') a funny word for me and one of my friends.

Foremost it means easy. It's funny how "four small dishes" becomes "ugly little Latvians" with Chinese accent.

Huh? Wouldn't a Chinese accent give [z`] for the /r/?

What, no! /r/ stereotypically becomes /l/.

It's funny how "four small dishes" becomes "ugly little Latvians" with Chinese accent

Is that even possible? I can't do it even with my best Chinese accent

In Swedish that is. Fyra små rätter fula små letter. I once heard the waitress at a Chinese restaurant say that.

One that I really hate is this joke:
-En svensk, en finne och en lapp skulle ro över en å, men det fanns bara plats för en person i båten, och det var hål i den. Vad skulle de göra?
-Svensken satte finnen på näsan och lappade båten med lappen och så rodde han över.

-A Swede, a Finn and a Lapponian were supposed to row over a river, but there was only place for one person in the boat, and it had a hole. What to do?
-The Swede put the Finn/zit on his nose and patched the boat with the Lapponian/patch and rowed over.

Hahaha. Why do you hate it?

Because! And then there's also "why are Finns afraid of Clearasil?"

[Qwynegold]

... and Ankara means difficult in Finnish.

More like strict. Once when I was little I asked my mom if it was cold in Turkey, and she was like "yeah, you can hear it from the name: Ankara".

Somewhere in Russia there's this place called Chuvasia when translated into Swedish(Tjuvasien) is homophone with "thief-asia".

And also Mordvinia (Mordvinien), "Murderwinea".

[Pole, the]

In Polish, Italy is Włochy, which means also big hairs.

[Viktor77]

Along with the turkey thing we have the whole Dutch people are from Nederlands but German people are from Deutschland.

[Drydic]

Along with the turkey thing we have the whole Dutch people are from Nederlands but German people are from Deutschland.

It's singular in Dutch Vikky, Nederland.

[linguoboy]

Along with the turkey thing we have the whole Dutch people are from Nederlands but German people are from Deutschland.

It's singular in Dutch Vikky, Nederland.

Nederlands is the name of the language. The plural of Nederland is Nederlanden.

[Viktor77]

Along with the turkey thing we have the whole Dutch people are from Nederlands but German people are from Deutschland.

It's singular in Dutch Vikky, Nederland.

Nederlands is the name of the language. The plural of Nederland is Nederlanden.

Well it's not surprising I don't know this for the exact reason I just mentioned. The weird mix up of Deutsch (Germans) to Dutch for people from the Netherlands.

[linguoboy]

Well it's not surprising I don't know this for the exact reason I just mentioned. The weird mix up of Deutsch (Germans) to Dutch for people from the Netherlands.

There's nothing particularly "weird" about it. As a political entity, Germany isn't even 150 years old. When it came into being, they adopted as a gentilic a term which had been around for much longer with a wider application. Basically, everyone on the Continent who spoke a West Germanic language was "dutch" (bzw. deutsch/duits/diets/deitsch/tüütsch/etc. etc.). The Dutch closest to England were the Netherlanders, so it's not surprising that the meaning of the term narrowed until it applied only to them.

Compare the evolution of welsh/waals/welsch. Its original meaning was "foreigner, generally one speaking an Italic or Celtic language". In Britain, it designates the Cymry; in the Netherlands, the French-speaking Walloons; in Switzerland, the Francophone Swiss; and so forth.