Why is Germany called 'Saksa' in Finnish?

jaknginger

In Finnish, “German” is called “saksa”, which is of course derived from the Saxons (in German “Sachsen”). http://cornelia.siteware.ch/blog/wordpress/2005/11/27/the-meaning-of-deutsch and http://www.indopedia.org/German_language.html Jun 21 08, 7:30 PM

author

This is obvious. My counter question is: Why didn't they name Germany for Prussia, which was a more important state within Germany? Jun 21 08, 7:38 PM

zbeckabee

Here is some discussion on the subject: All the various names of Germany come from the tribe that was closest to that country when they finalized on the name. So you get the French name Allemagne from the tribe Allemani, BTW which translates out to "All the men/people." The Saksa were the closest tribe to the Finns, while Switzerland calls them Swabish which was part of Allemani tribe which was closest to them. http://www.travelbanter.com/archive/index.php/t-13499.html Jun 21 08, 8:24 PM