What year did Austria get its name? NOT AUSTRALIA! Just AUSTRIA!?

Question

What year did Austria get its name? NOT AUSTRALIA! Just AUSTRIA!?

Answer 1

weird, australis means south, but the native German name "Österreich" clearly refers to Ost (East).

I guess it's beacuse names usually reflect the point of view of the person using it. For Germans, Austria lies more to the East; for the British, it was just some country somewhere to the south.

The German name "Österreich" must be very old - if you believe wikipedia, it hails in it's earliest non-Latin form from around 976.

Answer 2

Ostarrîchi, earliest documented name for Austria, mentioned in a document dated November 1, 996, issued by Emperor Otto III and presented to Bishop Gottschalk of Freising (kept in the Bavarian Main State Archives in Munich) which certifies the donation of the estate "Niuuanhova" (Neuhofen an der Ybbs), "in regione vulgari vocabulo Ostarrîchi " ("a region popularly called O."). Etymologically the word means "territory" or "land in the East" (as related to the area inhabited by the Bavarians). In 998 it is again mentioned as "Osterrîche", and later also as "Osterlant". It appears to have been the name for the territory ruled by the Babenbergs, which, in the 11th and 12th centuries, became Austria.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ostarr%C3%A...

http://aeiou.iicm.tugraz.at/aeiou.encycl...

Answer 3

Austria and Australia are two different places.  Austria is in Europe, and Australia is a country closed to south east Asia.